The Good News Report

[A2.]

In my opinion, North Carolina is definitely the best state East of the Mississippi for many reasons (and quite frankly, one of the best in the entire country). The natural beauty of this state is why I love it. From the highest peaks in Eastern North America to the Outer Banks, our state is one to envy. You can literally take a day trip to go snow skiing a couple of hours up the road in the mountains, or hit the coast for some great surf just a few short hours drive to the East and still be back at home in Charlotte for dinner.  Couple that with the powerhouse cities in commerce with Charlotte, The Triad, and The Triangle, and you’ve got a place that is hard to beat. All that with a very reasonable cost of living. I say let the state fly under the radar. To me it’s alright to be the best kept secret for a while longer (at least in the Mountains and coastal areas). As for our cities, let them grow like kudzu. And let them defy the other sunbelt areas in sprawl. Let’s build em’ dense and keep the quality of life high (as well as the skyline).  

 No offense to ATL, but I lived there for many years and still am there once a month for work, and I dislike it immensely. Don’t get me wrong they have some world class amenities, but at the cost of their sprawl and traffic, they don’t hold a candle to Charlotte as for quality of life. 

The same can be said for Houston and Dallas. 

Rank em’ how you see em ‘,  but in my mind I’ll always be coming home to Carolina. 

ps—-one thing that does need to get right and fast is this violence streak. What in the heck!?  Charlotte was generally a very low crime area, especially with respect to Homicides. But lately, it’s like the place has gone nuts.

A2

Edited July 10, 2019 by A2.

[ertley]

1 hour ago, A2. said:

 No offense to ATL, but I lived there for many years and still am there once a month for work, and I dislike it immensely. Don’t get me wrong they have some world class amenities, but at the cost of their sprawl and traffic, they don’t hold a candle to Charlotte as for quality of life. 

The same can be said for Houston and Dallas. 

As a native (but no longer resident) of Charlotte, I've always harbored an antipathy to Atlanta--please, no arguments! It's just how I've felt since childhood, like a sports rivalry!  But I genuinely do think Charlotte is going to eclipse Atlanta, and most  other prominent Sunbelt cities, sooner than people think, precisely because Charlotte's development came later.  Charlotte has benefited from being a generation behind, when we've made so many improvements in how we engineer urban environments--and in no small part from looking at what cities like Atlanta and even Houston and L.A. did wrong.  So, when Charlotte hits its next epoch, which it seems like is happening now, it's doing so--as A2. said--by "build[ing] em’ dense and keep the quality of life high (as well as the skyline)."

When Atlanta was at this stage, probably in the early '80s, civil rights were--well--nearly 40 years less advanced (regardless of how much you think they've actually advanced), and climate change wasn't seriously regarded by anyone outside of scientific circles, so it just grew and grew and grew outward--and mainly in one direction, northward, because the South was still highly prone to segregation (not that it's still not, but not nearly so now in cities at least). Atlanta's amoeba-like sprawl north and northeast and northwest is directly tied to the racial makeup of the city's west and south sides in the '70s, '80s and '90s. Charlotte wasn't any different--that's why it was historically so pear-shaped--but because it was a generation behind, it didn't totally alter the DNA of the city. But who in their right minds would even want to walk from lower downtown Atlanta to Midtown--and then to Buckhead, which is farcical--today? Atlanta stretched endlessly towards whiter and whiter suburbs, making it the unmanageable behemoth it is today.

Charlotte's lucky to come later, because it's solidifying its (formerly vibrant, then hollowed out, like most cities) core before building out--at least compared to its predecessors. But even Charlotte's incredible stretch southward now down the Blue Line is nearly (and will definitely be soon) a contiguous experience, that you can conceivably walk block after block and not encounter long dead zones. More importantly, because of the racial progress we have made, to whatever extent, Charlotte is now re-developing in *every* direction from uptown. (And I totally get all the arguments about gentrification, which isn't applicable to the South End but is west and north; but I would argue, even with its real issues, it's better than the former/alternative.) In 10 years people are going to have to debate which way they want to go, for dinner or drinks or whatever: north, east, south or west. Even if Atlanta rectifies some of what it's done wrong, it's just too sprawling to become a cohesive experience.   

When I read about other comparable cities (just incidentally) I'll sometimes look in on their downtowns via Google Street View, and Charlotte's already got a much better, more integrated and contiguous, downtown experience than many of its peers, although it's not as big. And that's the point: By solidifying its core first, Charlotte is developing a downtown that's going to put its peers to shame. (As I wrote in a forum earlier this year) North Tryon isn't as sickly as people think: It's really the library redevelopment that it's waiting on, and when the hotel and Carolina Theatre are done, and The Ellis a block back is complete, you're going to be able to walk a full mile--from 9th all the way south to Tremont--and experience complete, decent blocks along the entire way, with something worthwhile therein. As people keep talking about, there's now going to be a locus of activity at Stonewall and Tryon, in addition to The Square, and I think Camden and Tryon, and/or Tryon and Bland, are going to do the same; and possibly even Tryon and 6th. And even though Tryon is Charlotte's main street, it's only one: Several others will soon give it a run for its money. 

I'll close by saying something Super Controversial. I know the hate for Daniel Levine on here knows no limits, but I'm going to stick up for him, if just to play devil's advocate. Even if completely inadvertently, by keeping those blocks in First Ward undeveloped all these years, it's (at least in part) forced some of this more intensive development along Tryon and thereabouts I'm talking about. If he had gone ahead with whatever plans that would've been drawn up in the '80s, '90s and aughts, there'd be blocks of tired, passe buildings there, and/or some of the stuff we're all salivating about near Tryon might be being located in First Ward instead, with parking lots remaining on Tryon, etc., and parking lots separating them all--like so many of Charlotte's peer cities. And I think--maybe, even if totally by dumb luck on his part--that it could be a good thing to have most of those other spaces filled before First Ward is re-done. (Just something to think about!)

Anyway, I think we all agree, Charlotte is an amazing place to be a part of (or watch) today!    

Edited July 10, 2019 by ertley

[Guest]

21 minutes ago, ertley said:

As a native (but no longer resident) of Charlotte, I've always harbored an antipathy to Atlanta--please, no arguments! It's just how I've felt since childhood, like a sports rivalry!  But I genuinely do think Charlotte is going to eclipse Atlanta, and most  other prominent Sunbelt cities, sooner than people think, precisely because Charlotte's development came later.  Charlotte has benefited from being a generation behind, when we've made so many improvements in how we engineer urban environments--and in no small part from looking at what cities like Atlanta and even Houston and L.A. did wrong.  So, when Charlotte hits its next epoch, which it seems like is happening now, it's doing so--as A2. said--by "build[ing] em’ dense and keep the quality of life high (as well as the skyline)."

When Atlanta was at this stage, probably in the early '80s, civil rights were--well--nearly 40 years less advanced (regardless of how much you think they've actually advanced), and climate change wasn't seriously regarded by anyone outside of scientific circles, so it just grew and grew and grew outward--and mainly in one direction, northward, because the South was still highly prone to segregation (not that it's still not, but not nearly so now in cities at least). Atlanta's amoeba-like sprawl north and northeast and northwest is directly tied to the racial makeup of the city's west and south sides in the '70s, '80s and '90s. Charlotte wasn't any different--that's why it was historically so pear-shaped--but because it was a generation behind, it didn't totally alter the DNA of the city. But who in their right minds would even want to walk from lower downtown Atlanta to Midtown--and then to Buckhead, which is farcical--today? Atlanta stretched endlessly towards whiter and whiter suburbs, making it the unmanageable behemoth it is today.

Charlotte's lucky to come later, because it's solidifying its (formerly vibrant, then hollowed out, like most cities) core before building out--at least compared to its predecessors. But even Charlotte's incredible stretch southward now down the Blue Line is nearly (and will definitely be soon) a contiguous experience, that you can conceivably walk block after block and not encounter long dead zones. More importantly, because of the racial progress we have made, to whatever extent, Charlotte is now re-developing in *every* direction from uptown. (And I totally get all the arguments about gentrification, which isn't applicable to the South End but is west and north; but I would argue, even with its real issues, it's better than the former/alternative.) In 10 years people are going to have to debate which way they want to go, for dinner or drinks or whatever: north, east, south or west. Even if Atlanta rectifies some of what it's done wrong, it's just too sprawling to become a cohesive experience.   

When I read about other comparable cities (just incidentally) I'll sometimes look in on their downtowns via Google Street View, and Charlotte's already got a much better, more integrated and contiguous, downtown experience than many of its peers, although it's not as big. And that's the point: By solidifying its core first, Charlotte is developing a downtown that's going to put its peers to shame. (As I wrote in a forum earlier this year) North Tryon isn't as sickly as people think: It's really the library redevelopment that it's waiting on, and when the hotel and Carolina Theatre are done, and The Ellis a block back is complete, you're going to be able to walk a full mile--from 9th all the way south to Tremont--and experience complete, decent blocks along the entire way, with something worthwhile therein. As people keep talking about, there's now going to be a locus of activity at Stonewall and Tryon, in addition to The Square, and I think Camden and Tryon, and/or Tryon and Bland, are going to do the same; and possibly even Tryon and 6th. And even though Tryon is Charlotte's main street, it's only one: Several others will soon give it a run for its money. 

I'll close by saying something Super Controversial. I know the hate for Daniel Levine on here knows no limits, but I'm going to stick up for him, if just to play devil's advocate. Even if completely inadvertently, by keeping those blocks in First Ward undeveloped all these years, it's (at least in part) forced some of this more intensive development along Tryon and thereabouts I'm talking about. If he had gone ahead with whatever plans that would've been drawn up in the '80s, '90s and aughts, there'd be blocks of tired, passe buildings there, and/or some of the stuff we're all salivating about near Tryon might be being located in First Ward instead, with parking lots remaining on Tryon, etc., and parking lots separating them all--like so many of Charlotte's peer cities. And I think--maybe, even if totally by dumb luck on his part--that it could be a good thing to have most of those other spaces filled before First Ward is re-done. (Just something to think about!)

Anyway, I think we all agree, Charlotte is an amazing place to be a part of (or watch) today!    

Fantastic post, thank you for all the effort you put into making it so succinct. 

[A2.]

Indeed^ 

 

You truly summed it all up so well! And I will second the part on Levine’s land. It could be the best thing to have ever happened (by dumb luck, or whatever you would like to attribute it to).

One has to assume that upon the next cycle that part of Uptown will naturally have to become quite dense when finally developed as it’s one of the last large contiguous parcels of undeveloped land inside of  I-277. 

Pair that with the eventual redevelopment of Brooklyn Village and BAM, you’ve got one heck of an Urban landscape. 

If Charlotte can grow as much as it has in the last ten years, the next decade can be equally as impressive.

(my Mom used to say Patience is a virtue, but dang does it ever stink to have to wait on what the end results will be  )

 

[videtur quam contuor]

Patience is a virtue seldom found in women and never found in men. (farmer almanac + me)

[King of the Queen City]

3 hours ago, ertley said:

the '80s, '90s and aughts

Great post, except I can’t get on board with calling the 2000s the “aughts.” Now that we are almost done with the “teens” we can only hope for a roaring ‘20s in Charlotte!

[KJHburg]

Sounds like AvidXchange is announcing a new building to house it previously announced 1200 plus new jobs from Business NC morning email

""Charlotte's most highly touted tech company is holding a press conference at 10 a.m. today detailing "the expansion and development of the AvidXchange headquarters in Charlotte as part of the company’s sustained growth and continued investment in the city," according to a press release.

It's only been eight months since the company said it would hire 1,229 people over the next five years and invest $41 million in exchange for about $25 million in state and local incentives. At the time, AvidXchange said it had 1,200 employees in the city.

AvidXchange helps businesses automate their payments processing, a technology that has attracted money from investors including Mastercard, Temasek Holdings and PayPal founder Peter Thiel. The company has a private market value of a couple billion dollars and is a likely IPO candidate over the next couple years, an AvidXchange executive told a Charlotte business group last year. It recently made Business North Carolina's list of biggest job-creating projects in the last year.""

[QClifer]

Not sure where to put this but if we get a MLS team, they already have their main sponsor for the jersey. Its a bank here in town at 10mil a season.  Not BofA,   This coming from a person very very very close to the CEO

[navigator319]

4 minutes ago, QClifer said:

Not sure where to put this but if we get a MLS team, they already have their main sponsor for the jersey. Its a bank here in town at 10mil a season.  Not BofA,   This coming from a person very very very close to the CEO

I'd bet Ally or 5/3.  Outside chance of Chase or US Bank trying to break into the region.

[Scribe]

2 minutes ago, navigator319 said:

I'd bet Ally or 5/3.  Outside chance of Chase or US Bank trying to break into the region.

Uhm... you have a new huge bank... that will occupy a signature tower in the heart of Uptown... Truist!

[navigator319]

1 minute ago, Scribe said:

Uhm... you have a new huge bank... that will occupy a signature tower in the heart of Uptown... Truist!

Sure was trying to hope against them as the name has not grown on me and don't want to see on jerseys.  Also they cheap.  My hope is Ally they good people, as good as any corp could be.

[videtur quam contuor]

This sounds like you know the hairdresser for the wife of the CEO

45 minutes ago, QClifer said:

Not sure where to put this but if we get a MLS team, they already have their main sponsor for the jersey. Its a bank here in town at 10mil a season.  Not BofA,   This coming from a person very very very close to the CEO

 

[KJHburg]

14 hours ago, KJHburg said:

Sounds like AvidXchange is announcing a new building to house it previously announced 1200 plus new jobs from Business NC morning email

""Charlotte's most highly touted tech company is holding a press conference at 10 a.m. today detailing "the expansion and development of the AvidXchange headquarters in Charlotte as part of the company’s sustained growth and continued investment in the city," according to a press release.

It's only been eight months since the company said it would hire 1,229 people over the next five years and invest $41 million in exchange for about $25 million in state and local incentives. At the time, AvidXchange said it had 1,200 employees in the city.

AvidXchange helps businesses automate their payments processing, a technology that has attracted money from investors including Mastercard, Temasek Holdings and PayPal founder Peter Thiel. The company has a private market value of a couple billion dollars and is a likely IPO candidate over the next couple years, an AvidXchange executive told a Charlotte business group last year. It recently made Business North Carolina's list of biggest job-creating projects in the last year.""

I have heard through sources this will be announced next week sounds like somebody read the press release wrong LOL 

[J-Rob]

Good news for Charlotte.  Cathy Bessant lives here, and one would have to imagine she would keep her office in Charlotte with Wells Fargo's largest workforce.  I believe Cathy was also involved in the North Tryon Vision Plan, which could bode well for her continued involvement in shaping the city.

Wells in talks with Cathy Bessant to be CEO?  We shall see.

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2019/07/12/bofas-cathy-bessant-reportedly-in-talks-with-wells.html?iana=hpmvp_clt_news_headline

[KJHburg]

Charlotte ranked as one of the top 15 cities for business startups with Nashville and Raleigh also on the list from Business Insider. 

https://www.businessinsider.com/the-best-cities-for-startups-2019-7#14-charlotte-concord-gastonia-area-north-carolina-and-south-carolina-2

[Crucial_Infra]

15 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

Charlotte ranked as one of the top 15 cities for business startups with Nashville and Raleigh also on the list from Business Insider. 

https://www.businessinsider.com/the-best-cities-for-startups-2019-7#14-charlotte-concord-gastonia-area-north-carolina-and-south-carolina-2

I love seeing these rankings but I also can’t help but chuckle  at them too because “duh” Charlotte and Raleigh and Nashville and Austin have been on all these lists since I was a little kid in the 80s.  They’re gonna be on these lists for many years to come. The sunbelt boom is never gonna stop. Not in our lifetimes. It would take something extraordinary to not be on these lists in the foreseeable future. The future is bright. 

[kermit]

3 hours ago, Crucial_Infra said:

The sunbelt boom is never gonna stop. Not in our lifetimes. It would take something extraordinary to not be on these lists in the foreseeable future. The future is bright. 

You do know that in the 1950s millions of people said exactly this same thing about Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, Youngstown, Erie, Syracuse, Flint, etc.

Right?

 

Edited July 16, 2019 by kermit

[Cadi40]

I mean the sunbelt boom will stop eventually but I doubt anytime within the next 10-30 years. 

[Crucial_Infra]

Honestly to think this southern/southwestern migration pattern would just stop or even reverse anytime soon is frankly absurd. Plenty of decades of boom remaining. Even sunbelt cities that aren’t as hot anymore are still exploding in growth. 

Edited July 15, 2019 by Crucial_Infra

[Cadi40]

Charlotte’s growth projections show steady growth well into 2040, I know these are just forecasts but I believe the metro is predicted to be home to around 4 million Charlotteans around then.

[nuthinberger]

It looks like Tepper presented today.

[KJHburg]

Charlotte's office market first half of 2019 is EN FUEGO.  Attention local media we are the BEST performing office market in the southeast.  All figures are from JLL's 2Q 2019 market reports.  Charlotte absorbed 3% of its total office market size.  Basically we are absorbing office space 5 TIMES faster than Atlanta given our market size, 3X faster than Nashville and our only competitor is in state rivals Raleigh and Durham.  In fact NC's 2 biggest office markets are #1 and #2 best performing office markets in the southeast.    In terms of just total square footage office space absorbed both Charlotte and Raleigh Durham had bigger totals than Atlanta which is market three times the size of the NC metros.  download your reports from here  https://www.us.jll.com/en/locations/southeast      What is happening here in Charlotte in terms of office space construction and absorption is extraordinary!  

 

METRO NAMES>>>>>>	CHARLOTTE	NASHVILLE	RALEIGH DURHAM	ATLANTA	MIAMI
VACANCY PERCENTAGE	13.30	10.90	10.40	18.00	14.50
YTD ABSORPTION SQ FT	1583000	400589	1013472	930272	433000
MKT SIZE  SQ FT	53200000	37900000	49660000	149318000	38200000
% ABSORPTION TO SIZE	3%	1.10%	2%	0.60%	1.10%
AVG PRICE PER SQ FT	29.86	32.01	26.87	29.65	41.03
UNDER CONST. MILLIONS SQ FT	2835000	3655000	1716000	4200000	1000000
CBD UPTOWN DOWNTOWN SIZE	19500000	9500000	****	**	*
VACANCY OF CBD UP/DOWN	14.4	8.8
YTD COMPLETIONS 1000S SQ FT	2142000	161000	806000
**** Both downtown Raleigh and downtown Durham are approx. 4 million sq ft each
**  JLL counts downtown Atlanta, Midtown and Buckhead as the urban market figures not used
* downtown Miami and Brickell markets forgot to write down It would be great to get some quotes from JLL people about how great our office market is compared to our southeastern peers.  I am too buy running 3 businesses to that now LOL.

Edited July 20, 2019 by KJHburg

[urbanlover568]

RNC 2020 to bring 200 million dollars to Charlotte!! Would be great to energize the city! 

 

https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/politics/committee-chair-2020-rnc-could-bring-200-million-to-charlotte/275-f6e3b884-ca0c-4e60-9995-a57fe4f45975

[urbanlover568]

Millennials are flocking to these US cities, study shows
 

1. Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, Ore.-Wash..

2. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Wash.

3. Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, Colo.

4. San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, Calif.

5. Austin-Round Rock, Texas

6. Raleigh, N.C.

7. Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, Nev.

8. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif.

9. Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, N.C.-S.C.

10. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Fla.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/features/millennials-flocking-to-these-us-cities.amp

[KJHburg]

If you think it is just the office market on fire, the industrial market the warehouse flex space market is BOOMING as well. the highest level of construction of warehouses ever for the Charlotte area.     Read the Industrial area market report from Cushman and Wakefield from 2nd Qtr of 2019.   http://www.cushmanwakefield.com/en/research-and-insight/unitedstates/charlotte-industrial-snapshot/    6,5000,000 sq ft under construction highest ever for region. 

Here is a link to their office market report as well and concurs with JLL report I mentioned above.  the Charlotte office market is BOOMING!  

http://www.cushmanwakefield.com/en/research-and-insight/unitedstates/charlotte-office-snapshot/

from their office report bold emphasis mine   Quote  "With a growing tech workforce, a
booming financial industry and a strong millennial growth rate,
Charlotte is poised to be a forerunner of economic expansion not
only in the Southeast but in the United States.""