Holding Steady in Charlotte, NC

June 21, 2008
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady® and Condo CanDo® in Charlotte, NC
Holding Steady in Charlotte…
Our city is much like a teenager, or at least that is my definition. There is rapid growth here. Some projects going well. Some not so well. I think that is pretty normal. You know, the old saying, “take things with a grain of salt’? Well, I think that might apply here at the moment.For example, two of our condo towers are facing rocky roads. One is The Park where the bank is foreclosing on the stalled condominium project as the developer defaults on 30.7 million loan. A receiver has been assigned to secure the building until its future is settled in court.The other, with the description of condo/hotel, is 210 Trade . The battle is heading to court and the contractors are stuck with unpaid bills.The details on these two projects are layered and deep. And the causes perhaps myriad. I think perhaps the problems are unrelated to our current credit crunch.On the other side of growth, there are many good projects moving ahead. And here is a thumbnail of each:
New Uptown Office Tower Signs First Tenant
The developers of a 15-story office tower planned on South Church Street in uptown Charlotte have signed their first major tenant.
In Kannapolis, home could be 1.5 million
The old Kannapolis Country Club and a course designed by Davis Love III are part of David Murdock's Irish Creek project.
There's no doubt the $1.5 billion North Carolina Research Campus that Castle & Cooke is building in Kannapolis will be a Next Big Thing for the city and the region.
Uptown condo tower begins sales this week
The developer hopes buzz about the tower will pay off
The Catalyst condo tower – which last week reached its ultimate height of 27 stories – seems to have sprung up almost overnight on South Church Street.
More upscale homes to rise on Park South
Ardsley Court condo project has dual lure of SouthPark and convenient commute.
Over the past five years, half a dozen residential infill projects have sprung up on Park South Drive, a roughly mile-long street connecting Fairview Road with Park Road in south Charlotte
Microsoft buys offices off Arrowood
Microsoft has purchased two buildings it has leased for more than seven years in ArrowPoint Office Park off Arrowood Road in southwest Charlotte.
Pricey penthouses will cater to pricey passions
This unusual uptown development targets residents eager to showcase their enthusiasm for art, cooking, wine, technology and entertaining.
The developer of uptown's 20-story Encore condo tower wants to create five of the most unusual and most expensive penthouses Charlotte has seen.
Development tied to town vision
The town of Cramerton expects its population of 3,200 to double in about 10 years if the proposed 143-acre Village at South Fork is developed along the South Fork River as planned.
Wachovia doesn't plan to slow condo tower
The company will open a sales center in the fall. Waiting gives the bank flexibility, experts say.
Wachovia Corp.'s $880 million, 48-story office tower is still climbing skyward in uptown Charlotte.
Fat City facade will live again in NoDa
Neighbors invited to help decide on graffiti for wall of new lofts
A NoDa landmark disappeared a year ago when high winds blew down the graffiti-splashed facade of Fat City Deli.

All in all,We will both suffer and celebrate these times and ultimately be the wiser for them.

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

Condo CanDo's Weekly Wrap by the Numbers

April 26, 2008

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

Our Weekly Wrap by the Numbers

This has been a lovely spring…rain by showers and rain by thunderstorms and early morning fog and rain. We measure the rain by inches, last year and this year, the lowest and the highest, the longest and the shortest. We count.

And the other numbers we look at are where we are in the country. As real estate goes we are in the top markets and the only one with a small percentage of appreciation. And yes, the Charlotte market is off but still perking. One problem we have is folks coming from other parts of the country can’t sell what they have to buy here.

And what about those coming to Charlotte?The Mecklenburg Times, our Business and Court Newspaper have a great article about where Charlotte has been and where Charlotte is going according to snapshots from the Census.

Where we have been:
2000 CensusMecklenburg County Population 695,454
Charlotte Population 540,824
National Rank 26th
Metro-area Population: 1.33 Million
National rank: 37th
Rate of growth for metro area in the 90’s:29%
Where we are going:
Projections for 2010 from recent Census Bureau estimates:
Mecklenburg County Population: 940,614
Charlotte Population 668,900
National rank: Top 20
Metro-area population:1.79 million
National Rank: Top 33
Rate of growth for metro area in the 2000’s: 34%

Tony Crumbley, vice president of research for the Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Office thinks a lot of businesses move here for similar reasons, one of the biggest being their desire to build a workforce based on Charlotte’s pool of available labor. He thinks this market is growth-oriented, young and diverse. Further, he says Charlotte has the second highest migration (nationally) of young, educated people between 25 and 30 with a college degree. He adds, “I’d put us in the category of a flower about to bloom-we’ve seen nothing yet, but we’re just now budding and the growth potential here is phenomenal. We’ve just been discovered.”

And while that is the good news by the numbers, the downside is residents are frustrated about crime. For the first three months of 2008, violent crime rose 15.3 percent and property crime rose 11.9 percent compared with the same three months in 2007. And residents from neighborhoods across the city are coming together within Neighbors for a Safer Charlotte. For more information about the grassroots organization, go to http://www.neighborsforasafercharlotte.orgsafercharlotte.org/.

Thanks for joining us. This is

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