Charlotte's Full Plate!

May 11, 2008

Charlotte’s Full Plate…Yummy!

Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady® and Condo CanDo® in Charlotte, NC

By now, it is no secret that Charlotte, NC is one of the cities that feels less pain than many other cities.And reading through the news and traveling in and around the city, I can report first hand…the Charlotte market is bustling and here are some of the reasons:
1. The slow real estate market has brokers from competing agencies cooperating in unprecedented ways in an effort to attract more potential buyers to tour homes on the market. Tours are built around a common theme (contemporary) or for the benefit of such non-profits as Habitat for Humanity. In Providence Plantation, two dozen homes will be on tour and in Huntersville, agents created a Multi-Million Dollar Spring Tour…hmmm. Can it be that in crisis, we will find that working together has greater rewards than just doing business?
2.Then there’s the smiley face we see at IBM’s Lender Business Process Services being set up in Charlotte to handle mortgage paperwork…the unit says it can cut mortgage origination costs by 40%. Operations are based in the University area with 65 employees and a May 15 start date. Current employment is 68 with plans to add 600 in four years.Quoting Greg Sullins of IBM, “You think we had a crystal ball because the timing could not be better.”
3. Green is good. Green is the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond choice for a new roof. The plants, a dozen varieties of succulents, will eventually cover 48,000 square feet of the new 72,000 square foot roof being installed atop the Fed building which fills a city block at Trade and Caldwell streets. The plants are being arranged across eight surface areas, including the top of an elevator shaft. The project has been nearly two years in the making. Discussion began in mid-2006 after Fed officials learned of severe deterioration in the seams of the multi-level, mid-rise building’s roof. They sought bids for both traditional and environmentally friendly replacement roofs. A regular rooftop would cost $1.54 million, roughly $330,000 less than the green approach. But the green roof was projected to last 40 years-twice as long as the traditional design. For the complete story: Charlotte Business Journal.
4. Jim Schepp expects most of his Charlotte Construction Company’s business to eventually turn green as sustainability standards are integrated into the everyday methods of building projects. How soon? "Five years," says Schepp then he adjusts his time table…"maybe two years." Nationwide, city and county governments are starting to incorporate Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards into their building codes. At first, demand for green office developments led the trend. Now Schepp isreceiving increasing numbers of requests for LEED buildings for mixed-use, multifamily and hotel projects. "Going green requires a holistic approach. To do it right, the developer, designer and builder must work together from the very start," says Michael Dodson, a certified LEED professional.
5. More on Green. Financial institutions can push for environmentally sustainability. They can investigate and thoroughly understand this new environmental emphasis because they can either make or lose money from it. They could create green consumer products, such as mutual funds whose portfolios consistent of environmentally friendly manufacturers or alternative energy producers…and to understand the risk of climate change and how it can affect an investment portfolio So writes J. Patrick Bechdol, guest columnist for Charlotte Business Journal.
6. Uptown. While development in the suburbs' submarkets continues, growth will be most pronounced in 2009 within the uptown office market as several large scale projects come on line. The greatest impact will be seen when Wachovia Corp.’s 1.5 million square foot tower opens in 2009. Other significant uptown projects either slated for completion during 2009 or early 2010 include Bank of America’s 750,000 square foot office tower, the 400,000 square foot Novare Third Ward Tower and the 390,000 square foot NASCAR Plaza. More on the story by Andrew Jenkins/Karnes Report.
7. Last and not least, in Pineville a builder is offering every homebuyer a one-year pass on the Lynx light rail which has a stop in Pineville.

I have a good friend who often says, “Out of desperation comes opportunity.” Opportunity, folks, is alive and well in Charlotte, NC.

Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady® and Condo CanDo® in Charlotte, NC
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