The Vue

[Niner National]

What kind of busy? Do you mean the sales center at the corner of 5th and Pine or do mean there were actually residents/movers/workmen in the building?

Sales center.

I didn't notice anyone moving in.

[dubone]

Well that's good. I assume they're doing inventory and inspection of each of the units and hiring and setting up their apartment management team, but I'm surprised that they're not ready to let people move in since it is key summer moving time.

[DMann]

Well that's good. I assume they're doing inventory and inspection of each of the units and hiring and setting up their apartment management team, but I'm surprised that they're not ready to let people move in since it is key summer moving time.

They are, and have been writing leases for the past 4 weeks. Moving in usually does not happen upon signing a lease. I have a client that is signing a lease to move in after the convention.

[dubone]

I was in the Avenue last night and noticed there are considerably more lights on in the Vue, predominantly at the lower floors. I am interpretting that these units are the first to rent since they're cheaper and those people are/have moved in. So perhaps they are already in the process of adding residents and will slowly start to fill up, especially after the DNC is done.

[Niner National]

That Harris Teeter will be unbearable once the Vue is filled. Maybe Metropolitan can land a Whole Foods or Publix where the Home Depot Expo used to be.

[ah59396]

That Harris Teeter will be unbearable once the Vue is filled. Maybe Metropolitan can land a Whole Foods or Publix where the Home Depot Expo used to be.

I'm sure it'll be ok for the short-term. With more bodies comes more demand my friend!

[New Name]

That Harris Teeter is unbearable as it is. Since the Plaza Midwood Teeter closed the closest Teeter to the Northend Neighborhoods is Uptown. The past 6 times I've gone there with my wife, I had to drop her off and sit and wait in the car because there was no where to park.

[atlrvr]

Hopefully unbearable means demand for another HT express in Uptown/South End. The Uptown Caberet site, or one of the surface lots at Bland and Tryon would be perfect in my opinion.

[dubone]

You could support your local Food Lion . The new Plaza-Midwood Teeter will be back up in no time so it'll be a temporary inconvenience.

Really, I have never been to the Uptown Teet that I've waited in line for more than a minute and I go quite a bit. I'm not sure if you're hitting it at some sort of peak time, but residents as close as the Vue is are more apt to shop in smaller increments than fill a giant cart once a week. That's a more urban model for shopping anyway, but they can check out quickly and keep lines moving. That compared to being in the Dilworth Teet and being behind two people with a mountain of food, takes quite a while.

I do secretly wish that the Uptown Teet were successful enough for them to find land and build a bigger two-story grocery store, maybe on the land that is now across the street, but I agree with atlrvr that maybe just adding more of the smaller scale urban stores is what they need to do (Southend and NoDa both seem like no-brainers).

Regardless, it will be a very good thing for the restaurants and retailers in 4th Ward and uptown in general to have the Vue finally filled with paying customers, and relatively wealthy ones at that.

[Guest]

If you look at ALL the assorted gateway schematics they include a 40-50k square foot Grocery Store in the plans. I always expected HT to open a larger store there, and a smaller organic grocery store, EarthFare/Trader Joes, would move into the Teet Express (would be a great strip club name) spot.

Edited August 9, 2012 by Guest

[New Name]

Oh yeah we use the Food Lion no problem, but their meat/fish selections isn't as good as HT. And yes, I'll admit that most of the times we're going to Uptown HT is on the way home from work.

[dubone]

I've done my best to peek into the Vue rental office when I run by and while I've never seen it bustling, it has had potential customers in there each time. That's a good sign. A busy grocery store is a good problem to have, so I welcome all my new neighbors.

[ah59396]

Driving into town last night at about 9:30pm and there were probably 5-7x the lights on in the Vue that I'm accustomed to seeing. Either they are leaving lights on in rooms for no reason or they've got a significant amount of people already moving in. It literally looked like a building inhabited by humans.

[tozmervo]

Tailgating last Saturday I noticed a lot of furniture starting to occupy units and balconies. No Panthers flags yet, though

[dubone]

It's definitely that move-ins are happening and not lights on fakery, as the distribution has been starting at the lower units that can walk out to the parking deck (the units I would assume would go first). Plus, with real residents, people won't always have lights on, so the 5-7x the lights is probably 7-10x the occupied units.

I can't wait until it's mostly full and 400-600 new residents start supporting businesses like Crave, Element, Press, Al Mikes, Corner Pub, 5 Church, Basil Thai, Dillingers, Dandelion, ..... The more successful those are, the more likely we'll see something open up in the historic firehouse, which is a perfect spot for a club or restaurant, and the retail spaces in the actual Vue.

[ah59396]

I'd murder someone to turn that firehouse into a micro-brewery.

[Guest]

I'd murder someone to turn that firehouse into a micro-brewery.

The Fire Pole Brewery, lets do this ah59396...

[SouthEndCLT811]

I was curious about a year ago as to what the company wants to lease the firehouse for and it was some ridiculous amount. The inside would need a lot of renvoation too but if someone has a big budget it can be done. I agree, since I moved here I hoped it'd turn into a neighboorhood hangout.

Edit: Found the flyer with photos. $7600 a month isn't as bad as what I had remembered.

http://www.gsrc.net/Flyers/w5th.pdf

Edited August 16, 2012 by SouthEndCLT811

[nonillogical]

I hope it becomes something more accessible and cool than a club, which it admittedly looks kind of cut out for from the interior photos. It's going to be a tricky space to rent because of the upper floors. I hope it can be split and and an external staircase added so that there is a space or two upstairs (probably offices or some kind of studio), and the bottom would then make a great restaurant or brewery as ah suggested.

[dubone]

It already has an external staircase.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=28202&hl=en&ll=35.231108,-80.84547&spn=0.00007,0.038452&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=34.724817,78.75&hnear=Charlotte,+North+Carolina+28202&t=h&z=15&layer=c&cbll=35.231225,-80.84563&panoid=Z4xDF65BJkVHD0DOSgP-Fg&cbp=12,47.23,,0,-6.3

I know that there was some filming in there for Homeland last month.

It is begging to be something like a microbrewery or bar. Especially with that driveway being a perfect front patio for al fresco tables and the garage doors being great for being open during nice weather days.

[AuLukey]

Not huge news, but a sign that the owners are at least paying some attention to this building. Tonight was the first time I've seen the crown of The Vue illuminated with multiple colors, RWB in tonight's case. While dim (a la BoA's typical colored crowns,) it's still kinda cool looking.

[Niner National]

Some updates on the Vue:

http://cltdevelopment.blogspot.com/2012/10/charlottes-vue-leases-70-units-and.html

70 units leased, 16 sold, so 86 units occupied in total.

They're turning the 50th floor into a lounge, but only for residents and guests. When I saw the headline I thought it was going to be a 50th floor bar.

[Matthew.Brendan]

So who's got a friend in the Vue? I'd love to take my kids (6 and 7) up to the 50th floor!

[dubone]

I'm surprised at how low that number is, but I guess they need to start somewhere. Pretty much they have fewer than 20% of units occupied.

I'm hoping it is a case of them starting on the higher end of pricing to test the market and then slowly add concessions once the choicest units are taken at the higher prices. I have a feeling it will be well past next spring before they are anywhere close to fully occupied.

[Prodev]

Not sure when they officially started leasing units, but call it July 1, which would be 3 months. Absorbing 23 units a month is pretty typical, and given the prices and limited renter pool for the higher prices, that's actually pretty good IMO.