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The Vue


cooperdawg

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I stopped in on the Re-Vue event tonight where the head of MCL spoke. They are making significant progress and the exterior will be pretty much finished in the next few months and move ins will be between August and December. In general it was a pep talk for buyers who have stuck with the project. Realistically, those buyers who are aiming for a home for a while will definitely do well to be a buyer in a building that actually will be finished, and where the developer is comfortable with taking a few years to get to 100% sales level.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Very minimalist. I like it.

I usually don't care too much for minimalism, but something about this lobby appeals to me. It is stark, yes, but I love how it gets to the point immediately-----the point of what a lobby is. It has a quiet, subtle appeal about it. I bet the residents and their guests are going to like it a lot.

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does anyone know if any retail tenants are lined up?

i haven't checked out the part adjacent to Harris Teeter in a while to see if there is going to be retail there, but there are 3 retail spaces on the 5th street side, which IMO are looking really promising. awnings and glass were being installed last time i looked. the scale feels just right for the street, and the size of the spaces seems ideal for the more boutique-y type of retail we all wish for uptown. none of them are large enough to be cut-out for fine dining, anyway, which is actually a bit of a relief.

i think the firehouse next door is begging for a really interesting re-use as well. this could wind up being quite a nice block in a year's time.

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Very minimalist. I like it.

Minimalist, I'd say, wasn't the lobby supposed to be much bigger? I thought it stretched all the way along to 5th street - here it looks to be about a 3rd the size of what I was told.

I just came across this board and I am surprised at the lack of knowledge about this project. I live in Chicago and have heard many rumors about the developer, I am also surprised that he wasn't pulled from it already. When the project stopped apparently it was because Mr. Mclean had been using funds from the VUE's financing for other reasons - he was caught and so the project was halted. Several Million had to be a accounted for. A friend in Charlotte has told me that he changed the Sales team to a non licensed in house arrangement. I went on and checked the MLS and low and behold no listings for the VUE, for a project that is only 5 or 6 months from completion this is very surprising!! We figure the reason for changing the team was to save money on commissions when the project closes. A 3% Sellers fee against a probably 1% fee now for the unlicensed staff is whole lot of money in a building that probably is only 40% sold.

All that being said I hope it gets completed and everything works outs - it will be a great addition to the skyline.

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Wow, that is some serious information if that is the case. That is definitely not what anyone has said here. Presumably the fact that the bank has reopened the coffers means the finances have been fixed, assuming the official story was incorrect to begin with.

As for the lobby size, that seems about 1/3 of the ground floor of the tower. Perhaps the rest of that floor are amenities but I'm not sure, nor do I know what was originally promised. It seems like a perfectly reasonable size, so if they reallocated some of the other space to retail or other amenities, I would think that most buyers would be fine with that.

As for the sales staff, I think they brought back some of the key sales staff that had been selling the project under the previous developers. Those people had sold most of the units that were sold, so were clearly doing a better job than their replacements. As for the other details on licenses and commissions, I'm curious to see what people say about that.

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Wow, that is some serious information if that is the case. That is definitely not what anyone has said here. Presumably the fact that the bank has reopened the coffers means the finances have been fixed, assuming the official story was incorrect to begin with.

As for the lobby size, that seems about 1/3 of the ground floor of the tower. Perhaps the rest of that floor are amenities but I'm not sure, nor do I know what was originally promised. It seems like a perfectly reasonable size, so if they reallocated some of the other space to retail or other amenities, I would think that most buyers would be fine with that.

As for the sales staff, I think they brought back some of the key sales staff that had been selling the project under the previous developers. Those people had sold most of the units that were sold, so were clearly doing a better job than their replacements. As for the other details on licenses and commissions, I'm curious to see what people say about that.

When did this project start selling?

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As for the lobby size, that seems about 1/3 of the ground floor of the tower. Perhaps the rest of that floor are amenities but I'm not sure, nor do I know what was originally promised. It seems like a perfectly reasonable size, so if they reallocated some of the other space to retail or other amenities, I would think that most buyers would be fine with that.

Smaller is better, IMO, if it opens up more space for street retail. No offense to residents at the Ave, but I've always thought that the lobby was a little large. They could have crammed in one more small retail spot in there and still had a decent sized lobby...

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I live down the block from the Vue and don't really understand comments about the lobby being small. If you take away the parking structure for the building it doesn't have a very big footprint. The lobby is perfectly in scale with the building.

agreed. there are 3 small nice-looking retail spaces, a corner lobby, and no more space allotted to access the parking deck than necessary. they did a decent job planning this one out on street level, i think.

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Since the conceptual drawings of the lobby were posted I've been back for several more glances.......ever since the pics were posted I continue to be surprised how much I like the design. Me liking minimalism is highly unusual-lol

Today I had my partner take a look, and he said it reminded him of Microsoft's int'l headquarters offices. But then he finally was able to verbalize what I wasn't able to. He said the Vue's lobby looks warm . That must be it's essential appeal----modern and minimalist, but still achieving a remarkable warmth. I like it more every time I see it. And I don't think it looks too small either.

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August 2005 I believe.

Wow, good for those people who have stuck in there!! How many of the 40% of units do you think were sold in the first year at the height of the condo boom. I'd also be interested to know how many have been sold since middle of 06 - very few I'm sure by either sales team. I have friends who are probably some of the best sales people in the world that haven't been able sell anything in the high end market.

You will probably see some sales when the building is finished but it will be a very long process to fill this building up. MCL is going to have to be willing to give some major discounts with concessions to have any chance in Charlotte.

Apparently the lobby was going to go all the way to the corner but now it has been reduced in size to what we see in the renderings. There will now be a fourth retail spot on the corner of 5th and Pine. A much better use of space I think.

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Wow, good for those people who have stuck in there!! How many of the 40% of units do you think were sold in the first year at the height of the condo boom. I'd also be interested to know how many have been sold since middle of 06 - very few I'm sure by either sales team. I have friends who are probably some of the best sales people in the world that haven't been able sell anything in the high end market.

You will probably see some sales when the building is finished but it will be a very long process to fill this building up. MCL is going to have to be willing to give some major discounts with concessions to have any chance in Charlotte.

Apparently the lobby was going to go all the way to the corner but now it has been reduced in size to what we see in the renderings. There will now be a fourth retail spot on the corner of 5th and Pine. A much better use of space I think.

I heard as recently as a few weeks ago, through published sources (I think Biz Journals and the developer himself), that the number of units sold is closer to 60%.

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Does anyone know if the Vue's "roof level" is complete?

The cap as seen is of course different from the original drawings which included two dramatic spires. If this is the final look, then I must say it looks even worse than I had expected. There's no other way to say it: it looks cheap .

The tower itself isn't so bad, but the removal of the spires has completely compromised the architectural integrity of the entire project. Amazing how the removal of one design flourish can turn an A into a C+.

Edited by Charlotteman
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Don't mean to keep beating a dead horse, but I can distinctly remember when the drawings of the Vue were first made public. Most of us were quite impressed, and some of us were downright thrilled.

The two majestic spires were clearly the visual focus of the project. The focus that gave the tower a huge bang. What we all loved.

When you see pics of the Vue in Orlando, it is even more lackluster. I'll stop beating the dead horse-lol At least Charlotte has the gorgeous blue Avenue as a source of Uptown residential pride.:)

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