First Ward Urban Village / North Tryon Vision Plan

[RiverwoodCLT]

Building permit for the Quad @ the Quarterside development.

So we can put this project under construction

312 N. Myers St., The Quad @ Quarterside, Boulevard Centro, Carocon Corp., $7,056,300.

[graydog]

Levine is scheduled to speak at the First Ward Neighborhood Association meeting in January. Anybody know if he has some progress to announce? Is this related to Novare cancelling the foundation permit?

This Tuesday is the day we hear from Dan Levine. Any bets on what he wants to speak to the First Ward NA about? Anyone going?

[swh1972]

Not going, but interested in what he has to say. To say that Levine has a big say in the future of First Ward is an understatement.

[graydog]

Just got an email from the FWNA. Quote: Daniel Levine will be our quest and he will give us an update on the Levine Properties plans for First Ward.

Brings to mind an old Carly Simon song...

[cinco]

Just got an email from the FWNA. Quote: Daniel Levine will be our quest and he will give us an update on the Levine Properties plans for First Ward.

Brings to mind an old Carly Simon song...

"you're so vain"

i figured it was "anticipation" - but both just might work.

[atlrvr]

I was guessing "nobody does it better"

[cinco]

I was guessing "nobody does it better"

i hope you are right... cause we "haven't got time for the pain".

sorry, i just had to kick that dead horse.

of all the landholders in uptown... i have little to no confidence in levine's plan. maybe, i will soon have to eat those words... i hope so.

[rockhilljames]

Levine: "I'm excited to announce that we've commissioned another 10 year study to determine the best land use possible. I'll report back in 10 years!"

[Mobuchu]

And after 10 years: "We've determined that gravel parking lots surrounded by barbed wire and decaying buildings is desperately needed to support our growing center city..."

[monsoon]

A follow up on the cancellation of the buyers contracts at the Renwick.

Channel 9 did a story this evening on Colonial Properties canceling the contracts of 65 people who initially bought into the Renwick. The deposits were returned without any interest even though they held the money for 2 years and the contract said interest would be refunded in such an event. Colonial Properties' only response was that they would be announcing a new pricing schedule in time for the opening in 2007.

The guy in the article, (if you are a member here, speak up) was pissed off in that he has lost out on 2 years of property appreciation in the downtown condo market. Presumably he could have bought something else 2 years ago.

[charlotte49ersuptown]

I also watched the report. I would be pissed as well. Not only are the owners not going to be able to live Uptown, they didn't even get their interest back. I would sue on the basis of just that. The Park also tried to pull something like this. A member of my family had a contract with The Park and they still raised the price of his unit after the contract ran out. It was still below market conditions but still wrong nonetheless. Colonial Property Trust needs to be held accountable for this wrongdoing.

[uptownliving]

Did their Consumer Reporter Don Griffen do the story?

[cinco]

^ no, don did not do the report... this was a whistle blower 9 report. the report did just that - called out the renwick and colonial for their lack of ethics and possible illegal actions. the story did not have a resolution, but insinuated that the canceled buyers were working up a lawsuit.

in any event - i hope these jerks with the colonial/renwick project lose out in the end. if the lawsuit fails, hopefully there will be enough negative press to hurt "new" sales of this project.

[monsoon]

My guess without seeing what they signed up for, the only thing in contention is the interest on the deposits. It's always been my understanding that deposits are held in non-interest paying escrow accounts so even this claim by the buyers would seem to be in doubt.

While it was unethical for the builder to have done this in my book, they probably have not done anything illegal. These buyers will probably be better off just to move on rather than to drag a bunch of lawyers in it. If I had been waiting for a place for two years, I don't know that I would want to face more years of fighting a builder in court for resolution.

[Charlotte_native]

The worst that the developer might run into would be if the contracts have similar language to many others that state that the contracts can be voided by the seller/developer if they don't build the project. It appears they are building the project, so simply cancelling contracts to get higher prices might not be covered by that kind of language.

Most contracts side with the developer should the project not come to fruition, but that is typically the only reason to void a valid contract executed by both parties (buyer and seller). Again, maybe they have some slick language in there, and they obviously seem to think they can do this, but it will be interesting to see how it all pans out. Perhaps they will be able to manuever this due to change of entities building the project, effectively nulling the original seller and making this a "new" project for the new developer.

At any rate it doen't make the development community look very good. I'm glad the news got ahold of this story.

These buyers will probably be better off just to move on rather than to drag a bunch of lawyers in it. If I had been waiting for a place for two years, I don't know that I would want to face more years of fighting a builder in court for resolution.

Definitely. What is the saying? "The only people who win in lawsuits like this are the lawyers". I hope they do pursue some type of preliminary legal action at least to get some interest on their funds that were held for so long but a full blown lawsuit would likely be a big mess for everyone.

[SmellyCat]

Anyone know the time and place of the FWNA meeting tomorrow night? I'd like to see what Levine really has to say.

[uptownliving]

7pm First Ward Rec Center on 7th St.

[RiverwoodCLT]

I though The Park was slow getting started, but this one has got it beat, The first post was at 11:01AM on October 24, 2004 by Neo. After 11 pages we are still waitng.

I hope Daniel Levine will give some firm dates on this project. Lets hope the gravel parking lots surrounded by barbed wire and decaying buildings will be history at the end of 2007.

[dubone]

This thread started 10-24-04, but that was only asking for an update. I moved to First Ward in early 2001, and the realtors were handing out copies of the articles on what was going to fill First Ward, showing both Levine's plans for his land, and the proposal by Palladium for the county's Hal Marshall land. In part due to 9-11, the ensuing recession, the expansion of SouthPark, and the general bad climate for retail uptown, it all completely stopped. It started to come back alive after the recession, in 2004 or so, when other projects started coming about.

But Levine has consistently failed to make any progress. In fact, he successfully squandored his best chance of gaining momentum, TWELVE. If he hadn't screwed it up, Novare could be building all those buildings on his land, and he could be making money.

I'm sure he'll give a load of hooey tomorrow, but it is a good sign that at least he knows how to find First Ward (although, he might just be using his nav system).

[graydog]

For newbies, here's the history of the project summarized in this quote from the Charlotte Business Journal, Sept. 23, 2005:

"Uptown boosters have pushed Levine for much of the past decade to develop the prime real estate, to no avail. Each time Levine gets close to finalizing plans, a new adjacent development occurs and the developer goes back to the drawing board."

If the past is any indication of the future, Levine may be bringing a sketch pad and pencil to the FWNA meeting.

[hinsp0]

Maybe Levine is purposefully stalling the development of his vast swath of First Ward. There is still plenty of land in uptown charlotte available for development. Albeit that land is currently being developed at a rather break-neck pace. If uptown Charlotte continues to develop at current pace for the next 15 to 20 years, then Levine, given that he still hasn't done anything with his First Ward land, will be sitting on the last large undeveloped swath of land in the center-city. He'd then be able to completely maximize the value of his land holdings and have his pick of the litter in terms of development options for First Ward.

Of course, this scenario is completely dependant upon Charlotte maintaining or even accelerating its current pace of growth. But, it's not like Levine doesn't have the personal funds to hold onto his uptown land and wait for the aforementioned theoretical scenario to play out.

We all want to see the unsighlty gravel lots of First Ward transformed into a dynamic piece or Charlotte's emerging urban fabric, but maybe Levine is thinking/gambling about long-term options...

[monsoon]

..... He'd then be able to completely maximize the value of his land holdings and have his pick of the litter in terms of development options for First Ward.

Of course, this scenario is completely dependant upon Charlotte maintaining or even accelerating its current pace of growth. But, it's not like Levine doesn't have the personal funds to hold onto his uptown land and wait for the aforementioned theoretical scenario to play out.....

This has been speculated upon some time ago in this thread. Having the last bit of developable land and that close to the square is not a bad position to be in. The value of that property goes up each time a new development comes along. Of course this is just a guess.

[cooperdawg]

For newbies, here's the history of the project summarized in this quote from the Charlotte Business Journal, Sept. 23, 2005:

"Uptown boosters have pushed Levine for much of the past decade to develop the prime real estate, to no avail. Each time Levine gets close to finalizing plans, a new adjacent development occurs and the developer goes back to the drawing board."

If the past is any indication of the future, Levine may be bringing a sketch pad and pencil to the FWNA meeting.

I believe the adjacency of the arena stimulated one of the many redevelopments of this project. Originally targeted for third ward, the move to the present location caused the latest hiccup in his proposals and, correct me if I'm wrong, this is the first we've heard of his new plans since the arena opened? We've heard snippets here and there, or has there been a full blown presentation since the Bobcats began play? Not a Levine defender, just curious.

Hasn't the Urban Land Institute been waffling w/ CCP in determining what to build on the two pork-chop pieces of land adjacent to the arena? I would have thought these two pieces of land would have been developed by now, but without a proposal for each, I'd wait to make any developments beyond into first ward given that how Levine's land is connected to the CBD is going to be an important transition worth waiting on.

Correct me if I'm wrong, hasn't there also been extensive debate on how to handle the first ward park given that Levine's orginal proposal had this park bisected by light rail, an undesirable proposal as deemed by the city? I'm sure this issue could have been resolved by now, but was wondering if that was still hanging out there?

By the way, who all is going tonight? I'm going to try and make it.

[dubone]

Given how much he has spent on plans, and the fact that he welcomed TWELVE at the time it was planned on his land, I doubt he is just holding out. Although, we all know his investment horizon is way out, but I still think he'd be happy selling or developing if something came along.

[rockhilljames]

Maybe we should all take up a collection.