Ballantyne

[KJHburg]

Ballantyne drive bys today and this area is booming.  New office tower up to 8 or so, new apartment tower rising next door, Panorama Tower at Ballantyne Village deep underground parking garage dug out.  Cranes have landed left and right in Ballantyne. 

[KJHburg]

Drive through Ballantyne and the new Hearst Tower aka Toringdon 7. Today.   So many construction workers on site I hope they can be considered essential and this should be.  And the apartment tower is officially vertical look at the columns 5th photo. 

 

[KJHburg]

On my way to Omaha Steaks in Blakeney drove by new Ballantyne office and apartment towers.  Charlotte still Rising.

http://13146.projectballantyne.com/

 

 

[go_vertical]

Here's a few snaps of the Panorama Tower progress. Slow but steady progress since KJ's pics from 3/11

 

[KJHburg]

I think the reimagined Ballantyne is going to be very successful in the post pandemic world.  #BallantyneRising a subset of #CharlotteRising.  New apartment tower with parking deck in between new 11 story office building.  Today.  Driving through this area if you live nearby this is a great "park" to walk in with wide open spaces and well landscaped of course.  The cloud reflections on the glass office buildings was just beautiful today.  Suburban mixed use developments are going to be very successful in the future.  (Look at Waverly) 

[Hushpuppy321]

I absolutely agree with @KJHburg about Ballantyne Reimagined doing well.  This area will be well served by the BlueLine Extension in the 2030’s.  River District will probably be well underway by then but this area will continue to take off due to Single Ownership of most of the Re-Developable areas of the Corporate Park.

Snapped a few pics from on high...

[KJHburg]

Panorama Tower at Ballantyne Village moves forward with construction financing secured.  The hotel and office mixed use tower will open in 2021.

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2020/04/20/ballantyne-project-moving-forward-despite-covid-19.html

[KJHburg]

from Twitter about the Ballantyne rezoning today about the timeline.

[KJHburg]

From Ashley Fahey twitter about the Ballantyne rezoning about the 3rd phase.

""An eventual third phase of development is expected to be contingent on roadway/transit improvements.""

[tozmervo]

1 hour ago, KJHburg said:

from Twitter about the Ballantyne rezoning today about the timeline.

They conveniently grayed out the grossest part of Ballantyne. 

[KJHburg]

See that spot on N Community House Road to right where they say it will be anchor grocery store that is my guess for the first Wegmans in the Charlotte market.  When they announced this Ballantyne redevelopment they did not mention a grocery store at that time as there are already several in the area including Harris Teeter, Publix etc but they suddenly they added this new large store site.  My thoughts are it is Wegmans #1 for Charlotte market especially if you look at where they placed their stores in Raleigh Cary Chapel Hill area.  

[kickazzz2000]

16 hours ago, tozmervo said:

They conveniently grayed out the grossest part of Ballantyne. 

That’s funny, it doesn’t look like the NW quadrant to me

[JRNYP2C]

20 hours ago, tozmervo said:

They conveniently grayed out the grossest part of Ballantyne. 

You got that right!  My work building is part of that mess!

[KJHburg]

2 hours ago, JRNYP2C said:

You got that right!  My work building is part of that mess!

at least you can walk to Cabo Fish Taco LOL 

[Desert Power]

3 stations?  Is that a newer thing?  Although it would be great to densify those parking lots

[Guest]

10 hours ago, Desert Power said:

3 stations?  Is that a newer thing?  Although it would be great to densify those parking lots

I am going to guess "transit station" includes buses too

[tozmervo]

11 hours ago, Desert Power said:

3 stations?  Is that a newer thing?  Although it would be great to densify those parking lots

This route and station layout was the preferred option in the Pineville/Ballantyne BL extension study last year. https://charlottenc.gov/cats/transit-planning/Pages/Pineville-Ballantyne.aspx

[Hushpuppy321]

1 hour ago, MothBeast said:

I am going to guess "transit station" includes buses too

The Transit Station is for the Blue Line Extension to Ballantyne.  Absolutely will happen - only question is will it be in our lifetime?  
Ballantyne does have a few buses - Mostly the 43 Bus which serves the Corporate Park, the 51 Bus along Pineville-Matthews Rd and then several Express Routes 61X and 62X which serves Providence Rd & Rea Rd Corridors.  If the BlueLine is Extended to the Corporate Park then only the 43 Bus would serve those stations unless CATS changes something.  I am a proponent for a “Ballantyne Circulator” Bus that would serve the Entire Area on a loop because the ‘Southern Kingdom’ is quite large and heavily populated.  Not sure what ridership it’d get though....

Edited April 22, 2020 by Hushpuppy321

[Guest]

Wait, so the plan involves having three stops for the light rail extension? That seems excessive but I'll leave it to the experts

[tozmervo]

1 hour ago, MothBeast said:

Wait, so the plan involves having three stops for the light rail extension? That seems excessive but I'll leave it to the experts

If you look at the presentation on CATS's website, you can see why they felt that was justified. The shear size of the Ballantyne area is the driver (Ballantyne border in pink, overlaid on Uptown). If they only had one stop, it would basically be a novelty used by commuters for a small chunk of the area. With three stops it can become an integral means of transportation, ala Southend. 

[Desert Power]

I wonder if a circulator bus makes with how spread out the park will be for the foreseeable future.

[Hushpuppy321]

On 4/22/2020 at 12:16 PM, MothBeast said:

Wait, so the plan involves having three stops for the light rail extension? That seems excessive but I'll leave it to the experts

The Extension will have 5 stops total.  2 for Pineville, 3 for Ballantyne.  The Ballantyne area is large and having three (3) Stops would help drive ridership as it would be more accessible and would drive heavy development as the area is ripe for denser development.  Also - Ballantyne Corporate Park is like the 2nd or 3rd largest Employment center in the City.  I think it’s Uptown, SouthPark, Ballantyne or Uptown, Ballantyne, Southpark

Edited April 23, 2020 by Hushpuppy321

[Matthew.Brendan]

Oh Pineville wants in on the game now, eh?

[Hushpuppy321]

Updated Pictures from Today:

Panorama Tower (Hotel/Office)

Ballantyne Corporate Park East (Office/Parking Deck/High Rise Apartment)

Glad to see construction rolling on despite Pandemic!

[Niner National]

On 4/23/2020 at 10:06 PM, Matthew.Brendan said:

Oh Pineville wants in on the game now, eh?

Id support building an enormous bridge to go completely over and around pineville without a stop just to spite them.