First Ward Urban Village / North Tryon Vision Plan

[Charlotte_native]

Gateway does have basic grocers on both 6th and Trade. It is much easier to feel self-sustaining there than where I live on Tryon. Harris Teeter is also just a block away.

The retail that is primarily missing from Uptown is clothing, furniture, and other non-essential food type items. Not sure what scale it will all end up coming, but it is coming. Small projects like Enclave call themselves mixed use because they have a small element of commercial in them, but nothing significant. Most of the small projects do this. It is the large ones that have the potential to really change things. 300 South Tryon supposedly is getting 2 floors of ground and second floor retail which is great. Trump will have a large retail element. The projects ringing 3rd Ward park are all supposed to have ground level retail, and Trademark does as well with at least 4 - 6 small retail slots on 3 sides in addition to the large restaurant space. There is a 3000 - 4000 SF space for lease beside the Harris Teeter in 5th & Poplar that I didn't even realize was there until I walked by it and saw the sign the other day. I think Epicentre will add a good bit of shopping as well (compared to what we have now).

Retail is on the way, but a good 3 - 5 years out for it to really make an impact on living downtown.

[swh1972]

Gateway does have basic grocers on both 6th and Trade. It is much easier to feel self-sustaining there than where I live on Tryon. Harris Teeter is also just a block away.

The retail that is primarily missing from Uptown is clothing, furniture, and other non-essential food type items. Not sure what scale it will all end up coming, but it is coming. Small projects like Enclave call themselves mixed use because they have a small element of commercial in them, but nothing significant. Most of the small projects do this. It is the large ones that have the potential to really change things. 300 South Tryon supposedly is getting 2 floors of ground and second floor retail which is great. Trump will have a large retail element. The projects ringing 3rd Ward park are all supposed to have ground level retail, and Trademark does as well with at least 4 - 6 small retail slots on 3 sides in addition to the large restaurant space. There is a 3000 - 4000 SF space for lease beside the Harris Teeter in 5th & Poplar that I didn't even realize was there until I walked by it and saw the sign the other day. I think Epicentre will add a good bit of shopping as well (compared to what we have now).

Retail is on the way, but a good 3 - 5 years out for it to really make an impact on living downtown.

I agree about the 3-5 year estimate. Enclave does not have any retail. As for Quarterside, I don't see anything significant going there unless there is a meaningful daytime workforce in First Ward. The good news is that the spaces will be there when they are ready for it.

[ScottCLT]

There's an article in the Observer today about the Hal Marshall Building. Apparently plans won't be released until second quarter '08, but it looks like there's going to be a focus on retail, which is nice. It also states that the county probably won't move to Freedom Mall for another two and half years.

http://www.charlotte.com/112/story/254925.html

[Raintree21]

The CBJ discusses it today. They are going to unveil their plans in April 2008 and it again mentions that according to the contract, the county can stay in the Hal Marshal Building for up to 2 1/2 years. Few items are concrete yet except that they plan on having a hotel, shops, homes, and offices.

[dubone]

I don't get it. If the county was going to stay there for 2.5 years, why didn't they wait to sell the land with no strings attached after the point they are ready to move? It seems they are hurting the momentum of the area to basically make the new owners sit on it for so long.

[Mobuchu]

How much of the Hal Marshal land does that building take up? I'd think they could just build in phases with that building site being last. Anyone have that aerial shot of the site we had on here a while back?

[uptownliving]

From what I understand the County will use the proceeds of the land sale to fund the renovation of Freedom Mall for their new offices. That is why they wanted to sell first and move out later.

The land is slated to be turned over to BB&D in 3 phases. The small vacant parcel near the intersection of 9th and College will be turned over to them at closing. The medical examiners building on the College St site will be turned over to BB&D 18 months after closing and then the remaining land will be turned over to BB&D in 2 1/2 years.

Here is a link to a map that shows the land and the 3 phases (on page 4)

[Raintree21]

I've been trying to post a google map with the buildings highlighted but I can't get it to work for some reason.

There are only two buildings on the land that was purchased. I'm estimating that they cover about 1/5 of the total land that was sold.

As Uptownliving mentioned, the Hal Marshal Building borders the LRT tracks and houses the Medical Examiner's office, Medic's downtown station, Code Enforcement, Solid Waste and Recycling, Water and Land Resources, Air Quality, Zoning, Health Department, GIS, Women's Commission offices. It sits on the larger of the land parcels but is the smaller of the buildings.

The other building, which fronts Tryon Street is much larger but I'm only aware of the County Fire Marshal having it's office there.

[Mobuchu]

The land is slated to be turned over to BB&D in 3 phases. The small vacant parcel near the intersection of 9th and College will be turned over to them at closing. The medical examiners building on the College St site will be turned over to BB&D 18 months after closing and then the remaining land will be turned over to BB&D in 2 1/2 years.

Here is a link to a map that shows the land and the 3 phases (on page 4)

Aahhh, thanks UL. Levine will be running out of excuses after this gets developed.

[Miesian Corners]

Sort of off topic, but I drove past Freedom Mall yesterday. The facade rehab for county offices is coming along nicely. It looks like a pretty progressive and modern design.

[Raintree21]

Well, until I can figure out the maps feature, here's a link to show you the buildings in question:

Google map.

Edited September 5, 2007 by Raintree21

[rooster8]

Any chance that 10th Street will be reestablished through this area?

[dubone]

Yes. That is the plan by CDOT, to extend 10th through these blocks. It is a bit of a shame, as historically, 10th didn't go through there, and Phifer had very nice mansions on it (you can see the photos at the library). But given that they are all landfill at the moment, then it isn't much more of a lot to establish the regular grid through there. I would hope that the county wasn't so dumb as to sell to right of way with the rest of it, but it wouldn't surprise me.

Really, the county should have retained the small parcel between 9th and Phifer for a pocket park in the area. It isn't a very big parcel, so its value can't be much of the total value of what was sold. But it has large mature trees on as you can see in the google aerial. We are going to be very quickly lacking in open space. While it is hard to imagine that problem, it is very real and needs some foresight.

[Raintree21]

Well, that would promote connectivity and give another option to avoid the messes you encounter as you get closer to Trade and Tryon. Would they continue it down to where it starts up again at Davidson St.? That would involve building a bridge over the LRT line that is behind the Hal Marshall site. Also, what about connecting it to the 10th street section that turns into Central? While it cuts through those townhouse neighborhoods, it would be nice to have another option to get to Central from 1st Ward.

I agree with you about those trees. Mature trees are becoming scarce downtown and it would be nice if they can save them.

Edited September 5, 2007 by Raintree21

[pazzo83]

Well, that would promote connectivity and give another option to avoid the messes you encounter as you get closer to Trade and Tryon. Would they continue it down to where it starts up again at Davidson St.? That would involve building a bridge over the LRT line that is behind the Hal Marshall site. Also, what about connecting it to the 10th street section that turns into Central? While it cuts through those townhouse neighborhoods, it would be nice to have another option to get to Central from 1st Ward.

I agree with you about those trees. Mature trees are becoming scarce downtown and it would be nice if they can save them.

They just tore one down literally right in front of the balcony of my condo on the corner of 11th and Church. It was a pretty decent sized tree, too.

[QC-NC]

Here is my $0.02:

Basic Sim City 2000 economics -> Industrial job force (charlotte's downtown employers) drives Residential (uptown townhomes and condominiumns) which eventually and naturally yield the need for Commercial conviences such as grocery stores and retail everyone is talking about.

sounds simple but its so true in our situation and 3-5 years is definitely a reasonable expectation

[krazeeboi]

These pics are from the Sunday before last; I'm just getting around to uploading them:

[Andyc545]

Very nice pictures. I like the little terraces coming out over the windows.

[world44]

Krazeeboi,

Great angles of the Renwick/Enclave. Quarterside is caddy corner from this project. The third building, since I inquired, is almost completely sold out and the prices are not that attractive. There's obviously a definite pro plus in this mix project.

[krazeeboi]

Thanks! I really dig this development. It's a great use for the land on which it sits.

[UrbanFuture]

Caracon, the general contractor for Quarterside has pulled the building permit for the office building component of the Quarterside development. This is separate from the 12,000 sq ft of retail in the first floor of the 2 bigger condo buildings. It was for $1,424,341 in the form of a 18,026 sq ft commercial building.

Edited September 25, 2007 by QCkid

[krazeeboi]

Interesting. Wonder what the reasons were behind that?

[rooster8]

In permitting lingo, "pulled" means they applied for the permit.

[joshuacc]

In permitting lingo, "pulled" means they applied for the permit.

I haven't seen the Row listed on the BLVD Centro site. Had no idea they were selling them

[world44]

Blvd Centro have long lists of customers waiting to be called for that opportunity to buy at preconstruction prices. Their answer to my inquiry was the selling of another buidling was keeping them very busy.

I have noticed with Court 6, the courtyard is mainly composed of condo terraces with a fountain as the pivotal point. There is no room for privacy nor the ability for other residents to enjoy a stroll. The Ledge and the Quad have courtyards also....wonder if these have the same configurations. One absolute attractive point is the underground parking for unit residents.

It looks as if the schematic on the Blvd Centro website illustrates a fourth building in the background. May this be the office/retail condo? I was told of a grandious fountain being surrounded by the Quad, the Ledge, the Row. This sounds awesome!