Scaleybark Station Area Projects

[Prodev]

Northwood Ravin will start in Q1 '22 on the first phase of Crosland Green finally too. ~440 surface parked apartments on the north half of the site on Hollis Rd. 

[RANYC]

6 hours ago, go_vertical said:

I'm just glad to finally see development on that side of South.  The only improvements on the east side of the street south of The Waterman has been Carvana and it has looked so unbalanced for a while.  Now we have phase two of Sedgefield, this replacing the arcade, and hopefully the Zack's apartments gets going soon. 

What about Lidl?  When’s that happening?

[deleted account]

5 hours ago, RANYC said:

The only improvements on the east side of the street south of The Waterman has been Carvana a

Just my opinion but I wouldn't characterize Carvana as an improvement...

[go_vertical]

Yeah, improvements isn't the best word choice there.  I should have said recent construction. 

I have no clue why Lidl's feet never warmed up to that location.  I would think opening up shop there would be a hit for the area.  They bought the land right?  I feel like I vaguely remember there being a soil remediation issue, but I may be wrong about that. 

Edited December 25, 2021 by go_vertical

[deleted account]

28 minutes ago, go_vertical said:

Yeah, improvements isn't the best word choice there.  I should have said recent construction. 

I have no clue why Lidl's feet never warmed up to that location.  I would think opening up shop there would be a hit for the area.  They bought the land right?  I feel like I vaguely remember there being a soil remediation issue, but I may be wrong about that. 

Soil contamination was indeed the issue. I'd bet that construction starts in 2022 though. It looks slightly different there now and the location would kill. I suspect we will see this start in the near future but I'm NOT in the know. They certainly could make a ton on the land if they decided to flip it though...

Edited December 25, 2021 by JBS

[videtur quam contuor]

On the back side of that Lidl property is a high landscape stone wall the full width of it, I think. Done during the Lidl ownership regime to make a sloping lot level to the fullest extent.

[JRCLT]

I wonder if the design would be up towards the street

[stang_esq]

Don't forget the renovated building that looks to be a future restaurant space just to the left (north) of Ski Country Sports.  Sorry for bad pic.  I can't bend far enough over my balcony to get a shot from home office and don't feel like walking down there at the moment.  So I found an old pic with the building sorta in view.

 

Regarding the big lot at Loso Station, my buddy who works at Beacon says the big building dropped from the conversation.  Nothing is currently underway on that project.  Plus, there is an Edifice construction trailer sitting within the fenced area of that lot, and Edifice is the contractor building Loso Station Buildings 3 & 4, which are currently underway.  Both will be 5 story office buildings with something like 25k sqft of retail on bottom floor.  

Based on  a rough calculation, the immediate area surrounding the Scaleybark station will have the following *new* retail square footage:

Loso Station 1:  5,000 sqft (Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee)

Loso Station 3 & 4:  25,000 sqft

Loso Village:  50,000 sqft (https://beacondevelopment.com/properties/business-park/4816/loso-village)

(Not sure if Loso Village includes the Urban Mvmt building, but I don't think so.)

Weathered Souls Brewing (currently Urban Mvmt):  10,000 sqft

South & Hollis:  9,000 sqft 

The Restaurant Building in photo:  Guessing around 5-7,000 sqft

Northwood Ravin:  No idea

That's roughly 100,000 sqft of *new* retail not including Northwood Ravin.  I'm thinking that will make Loso more of a retail/restaurant node than the New Bern Station area of Southend.

[sclark]

24 minutes ago, stang_esq said:

Don't forget the renovated building that looks to be a future restaurant space just to the left (north) of Ski Country Sports.  Sorry for bad pic.  I can't bend far enough over my balcony to get a shot from home office and don't feel like walking down there at the moment.  So I found an old pic with the building sorta in view.

 

Regarding the big lot at Loso Station, my buddy who works at Beacon says the big building dropped from the conversation.  Nothing is currently underway on that project.  Plus, there is an Edifice construction trailer sitting within the fenced area of that lot, and Edifice is the contractor building Loso Station Buildings 3 & 4, which are currently underway.  Both will be 5 story office buildings with something like 25k sqft of retail on bottom floor.  

Based on  a rough calculation, the immediate area surrounding the Scaleybark station will have the following *new* retail square footage:

Loso Station 1:  5,000 sqft (Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee)

Loso Station 3 & 4:  25,000 sqft

Loso Village:  50,000 sqft (https://beacondevelopment.com/properties/business-park/4816/loso-village)

(Not sure if Loso Village includes the Urban Mvmt building, but I don't think so.)

Weathered Souls Brewing (currently Urban Mvmt):  10,000 sqft

South & Hollis:  9,000 sqft 

The Restaurant Building in photo:  Guessing around 5-7,000 sqft

Northwood Ravin:  No idea

That's roughly 100,000 sqft of *new* retail not including Northwood Ravin.  I'm thinking that will make Loso more of a retail/restaurant node than the New Bern Station area of Southend.

Vanguard :-( 

[rancenc]

New rehab project discussion for the LoSo area!

 

[deleted account]

4 hours ago, rancenc said:

New rehab project discussion for the LoSo area!

 

This was great and it's exciting to think what this area will look like in 5 years. Thanks for sharing. 

[stang_esq]

Cool video.  If I understand correctly, the owner of the Protagonist building now has plans for expansion into office space for the rear portion of that building.  Is that what he meant?  Loso has a bright near-term future (2-3 years), but I hate to hear so many comments about the wealth of parking, parking to square footage ratios, etc.  Then in the next sentence he talked about the new density in Loso, which doesn't really combine well with lots of parking.  I should also point out that it's all surface parking except for the new apartment buildings.  I'm really hoping to see some of that surface parking disappear so that we can enjoy more density, more walkability, and more safety since there won't be as many cars motoring around looking for spots.  

[deleted account]

30 minutes ago, stang_esq said:

Cool video.  If I understand correctly, the owner of the Protagonist building now has plans for expansion into office space for the rear portion of that building.  Is that what he meant?  Loso has a bright near-term future (2-3 years), but I hate to hear so many comments about the wealth of parking, parking to square footage ratios, etc.  Then in the next sentence he talked about the new density in Loso, which doesn't really combine well with lots of parking.  I should also point out that it's all surface parking except for the new apartment buildings.  I'm really hoping to see some of that surface parking disappear so that we can enjoy more density, more walkability, and more safety since there won't be as many cars motoring around looking for spots.  

Just my opinion but, based on the distance to Uptown and the access to major city thoroughfares, having cars and surface parking here is not unreasonable. I think that's a big part of the appeal. I view this area as similar to West Charlotte. 

[stang_esq]

2 minutes ago, JBS said:

Just my opinion but, based on the distance to Uptown and the access to major city thoroughfares, having cars and surface parking here is not unreasonable. I think that's a big part of the appeal. I view this area as similar to West Charlotte. 

Maybe so.  It's certainly a necessary evil for the time being.  In the next 2-3 years, I see a few thousand apartment units coming online, along with a few hundred more semi-dense (townhouse) residential developments.  Then there's the Scaleybark Station and adjacent semi-dense node encompassing Loso Station, Loso Village, Platform, and eventually some stuff across South Blvd.  I envision Loso as becoming the next node down the Blue Line.  You have the primary Southend node running from the Bland Station down to Tremont.  Then New Bern is kinda a node.  But Loso will eventually become more significant.  Parking will always be there, of course.  But it has the potential to be a cool walkable neighborhood if we can avoid the temptation to provide parking for everyone, and instead encourage people to get there by other means or just live there.

[RANYC]

34 minutes ago, stang_esq said:

Maybe so.  It's certainly a necessary evil for the time being.  In the next 2-3 years, I see a few thousand apartment units coming online, along with a few hundred more semi-dense (townhouse) residential developments.  Then there's the Scaleybark Station and adjacent semi-dense node encompassing Loso Station, Loso Village, Platform, and eventually some stuff across South Blvd.  I envision Loso as becoming the next node down the Blue Line.  You have the primary Southend node running from the Bland Station down to Tremont.  Then New Bern is kinda a node.  But Loso will eventually become more significant.  Parking will always be there, of course.  But it has the potential to be a cool walkable neighborhood if we can avoid the temptation to provide parking for everyone, and instead encourage people to get there by other means or just live there.

I hope Charlotte’s density strategy doesn’t only mean acquiring small-footprint home ownership plats in center city, consolidating them, and then building mid-rise and high-rise rentals-only? 

Also:

Density + Car-Reliant Culture = Nightmare

i don’t really see Charlotte or much of America waging an effective campaign against a culture of car-reliance…

battling against that culture means changing attitudes and assumptions en masse about car dependency…

our density strategy can’t just be to densify to the point where our roads are dysfunctional and people are sort of forced onto transit, no?

Edited January 3, 2022 by RANYC

[kermit]

^ After seeing the renderings for the 110 East podium monstrosity I sorta feel like surface parking may be a better option for intown Charlotte hoods than structures. Surface parking has the virtue of easy convertability into something useful. With parking structures we are pretty much stuck with that car dependence for the life of the building. None of this changes the irony that Southend (and LoSo) are attractive places for these sorts of projects because of their walkability, developers flock to these places and do severe damage to that neighborhood character. The developers generally don't care since they rarely hold projects for long, but they certainly leave the city fuvked. 

 

1 hour ago, RANYC said:

our density strategy can’t just be to densify to the point where our roads are dysfunctional and people are sort of forced onto transit, no?

This is certainly the strategy we are perusing, and it is really the only viable reduce driving strategy we have in our current system -- its impossible to increase road capacity enough to avoid congestion and we lack any other sticks (other than making congestion worse) to force people onto transit.

Edited January 3, 2022 by kermit

[RANYC]

1 hour ago, kermit said:

^ After seeing the renderings for the 110 East podium monstrosity I sorta feel like surface parking may be a better option for intown Charlotte hoods than structures. Surface parking capacity can at least be easily converted into a useful space as demand requires. With parking structures we are pretty much stuck with that car dependence for the life of the building. None of this changes the irony that Southend (and LoSo) are attractive places for these sorts of projects because of their walkability, developers flock to these places and do severe damage to that neighborhood character. The developers generally don't care since they rarely hold projects for long, but they certainly leave the city fuvked. 

 

  This is certainly the strategy we are perusing. It kinda must work this way in our current system -- its impossible to increase road capacity enough to avoid congestion and we lack any other sticks (other than making congestion worse) to force people onto transit.

Imagine if South End had just densified with low-rise and mixed-use brownstones (think Beacon Hill, Boston) and similar structures.    

Walkable density shouldn't have to immediately default to mid-rises and high-rises, but it often does these days.  Perhaps this is what happens when the city waits on developers to give an area decent sidewalks and streetscape.

Edited January 3, 2022 by RANYC

[deleted account]

3 hours ago, kermit said:

its impossible to increase road capacity enough to avoid congestion and we lack any other sticks (other than making congestion worse) to force people onto transit.

Maybe use carrots instead? Free Blue Line to go with the free Gold Line? Imagine what Uptown and SE would look like if they didn't have to build massive parking decks with every project. 

[stang_esq]

Parking would be fine so long as drivers paid a reasonable price for its use.  Donald Shoup has pretty much completely solved the parking problem, and we would do well to listen to what he has been saying for decades.  

 

I'd love to say carrots are a good solution.  But we've tried it, and people didn't respond enough.  Free Lyft rides to complete first mile / last mile trips to train stations.  Free scooter rides for work commutes.  Transit is already incredibly inexpensive and essentially subsidizes the decision to leave the car at home.  And yet people still drive because it's a much more attractive option for most people, and also since it's ingrained in our culture.  

 

Sticks are the only real solution, unfortunately.  Driving needs to be much more expensive and much less convenient.  We provide the "expensive" stick by way of pricey parking, higher gas tax (this is a state level thing, of course) and congestion pricing.  We provide the less convenience stick by way of no longer adding lanes, allowing congestion to occur, utilizing bollards to force people to drive around (rather than directly through) certain neighborhoods, and using road diets and traffic deterrence measures on streets that would be good options for cyclists to use for commuting purposes.

[go_vertical]

Elevator shaft is up at the Platform. 

[KJHburg]

Beacon has gone vertical on the office buildings at LoSo  Station at the Scaleybark station and yet another apartment complex is under way behind it on  Dewitt.  Now if the high rise tower could get built.  I would think this is a fantastic office location.  On the light rail. Close to lots of young workers but close to lots of suburbs too. 

from Friday and I am enjoying this False spring! 

Beacon's LoSo Station #3 and #4 buildings 

https://beacondevelopment.com/properties/building/5865/loso-station-4

[KJHburg]

LoSo rising!  finally something taller than the misplaced Carvana tower the most transit accessible Carvana tower on planet Earth. 

And  the new entertainment building along South Blvd. the Platform.

Edited March 6, 2022 by KJHburg

[j-man]

[JRCLT]

It’s a lot more imposing in person. Didn’t realize how tall it actually was.

[VTinCV]

CMS has the old Colinswood land off of Scaleybark up for sale/lease. Does anyone know if there are any plans for this land yet?  Would hate to see something too dense especially since it’s surrounded by SFR. 
 

https://www.cms.k12.nc.us/cmsdepartments/construction/facilityplanning/Pages/PID-14909432---Scaleybark-Road-Surplus.aspx