The wearing of the green...seems like a good day to begin a blog...spring is truly in the air here in Charlotte, NC...the pear trees are almost in full bloom running almost the whole length of Wendover Road...and the town itself is blooming. In many ways. Okay, especially in real estate.
Charlotte used to be a sleepy Southern town. We had Mom and Pop shops, small towns as our neighbors. Cows and horses nearby. Charlotte was a peaceful town with a couple of good restaurants, a couple of movie theatres, a nearby river...and a vibrant energy.
That was in the 50's...and times have changed. I sometimes smile when I tell the folks who are relocating that everything they are coming here for...is really gone. And Charlotte is still vibrant and good and fun and growing like all get out!
And that is what I love and that is what I will be writing about...real estate from my point of view.
Charlotte, NC has been my home for well over 60 years and real estate has been my life support for almost 30 years. I specialize in Condominiums. Condo CanDo, our registered servicemark along with The Real Estate Lady, also registered back in the late 80's...both saved my neck as a new agent in a highly competitive market.
Now, I blend technology with intuition and experience with listening...observing the market for both buyers and sellers.
I have three websites built over the last 15 years. They are in the throes of being updated...the research has changed, the stats have changed, and our editor changed.
And I am one of the few remaining "Mom" shops...I open doors for folks, pour them a cup of coffee or green tea...sit on the floor and play with the children...and sometimes I give advice like, "Now is not the time to sell"... or "Wait a while".
Let the green begin...and thanks for tuning in.
The Real Estate Lady/ Condo CanDo
Lynnsy Logue
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Monday, March 3, 2014
February 3, 2014
On Becoming Charlotte
Curiouser and curiouser!' cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English); 'now I'm opening out like the largest telescope that ever was! Good-bye, feet!' (for when she looked down at her feet, they seemed to be almost out of sight, they were getting so far off). From Lewis Carroll’s Alice Adventure’s in Wonderland.
On Becoming Charlotte
Curiouser and curiouser!' cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English); 'now I'm opening out like the largest telescope that ever was! Good-bye, feet!' (for when she looked down at her feet, they seemed to be almost out of sight, they were getting so far off). From Lewis Carroll’s Alice Adventure’s in Wonderland.
Well there
it is. An apt description of how I feel/think this morning reading the paper as
I do while I crunch on my bowl filled with cereal and berries.
“Why is that?”, you might ask.
Being visual, the shapes and sizes and relationships of words and paragraphs tell their stories as well as the words and paragraphs. Here is an example:
Three headlines for three columns stacked on one page in The Charlotte Observer and a side bar. In a nutshell:
1.The first, “Landlord lender moves into area. Blackstone Group subsidiary sees upside in Charlotte market by Andrew Dunn.
The company provides loans to landlords and rental-home owners looking to buy between five and 1,000 more houses to rent out. It’s Blackstone’s latest bet on the single –family home rental market. Another subsidiary, Invitation Homes, buys homes to rent out for itself.
Some real estate experts have said investment firms artificially drive up home prices, forcing mom-and-pop buyers out of the market. Experts also worry what will happen to the local real estate market when the firms look to sell these homes.
2.More luxury en route to Park Road by Eric Frazier
The Stratford Apartments across Park Road from the Park Selwyn Terrace Shopping Center are about to be bull-dozed to make way for a 273-unit luxury apartment complex.
What struck me on this project as residents were given a 30 day notice is this complex has been home to a number of Seniors who could walk to shopping.
You see, I wonder where the Seniors will go.
3.The last story, Yellen says Fed monitoring data for signs of weakening economy by Martin Crutsinger
The quotes from Yellen strike a cord with me. She refers to the job market and interest rates.
For me as well, they go hand in hand. Employment is a key watch for me.
Finally, the side bar. In the last few days in The Charlotte Observer, there are stories about “the paper”.
“Why is that?”, you might ask.
Being visual, the shapes and sizes and relationships of words and paragraphs tell their stories as well as the words and paragraphs. Here is an example:
Three headlines for three columns stacked on one page in The Charlotte Observer and a side bar. In a nutshell:
1.The first, “Landlord lender moves into area. Blackstone Group subsidiary sees upside in Charlotte market by Andrew Dunn.
The company provides loans to landlords and rental-home owners looking to buy between five and 1,000 more houses to rent out. It’s Blackstone’s latest bet on the single –family home rental market. Another subsidiary, Invitation Homes, buys homes to rent out for itself.
Some real estate experts have said investment firms artificially drive up home prices, forcing mom-and-pop buyers out of the market. Experts also worry what will happen to the local real estate market when the firms look to sell these homes.
2.More luxury en route to Park Road by Eric Frazier
The Stratford Apartments across Park Road from the Park Selwyn Terrace Shopping Center are about to be bull-dozed to make way for a 273-unit luxury apartment complex.
What struck me on this project as residents were given a 30 day notice is this complex has been home to a number of Seniors who could walk to shopping.
You see, I wonder where the Seniors will go.
3.The last story, Yellen says Fed monitoring data for signs of weakening economy by Martin Crutsinger
The quotes from Yellen strike a cord with me. She refers to the job market and interest rates.
For me as well, they go hand in hand. Employment is a key watch for me.
Finally, the side bar. In the last few days in The Charlotte Observer, there are stories about “the paper”.
For well
over a decade, I worked at “the paper”. The place and the people were a
cornerstone of who I grew to be. I worked for both The Charlotte News and The
Charlotte Observer. The heading on the side bar on this page today reads: Do-it-yourself classified ads. The Classified
Ad department back then had one of the largest staffs including the phone room
where operators took ads.
What we pay
attention to changes as it should. But this morning, I saw the whole department
still at work, familiar faces and voices as I leave to make my rounds.
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
February 25, 2014
The Crucible of Real Estate
It is early, the shadow time between dawn and morning light. Most of the night and early morning I worked on my new project, repackaging myself after a long and tedious illness. My business is real estate for almost thirty years. Taking a modified break meant I read almost all of my regular periodicals.
I kept up without digging deep. These days, I wear my miner’s cap. I am looking for answers, for logic, for ways to say to my people, “Let’s have a plan, be careful with decisions, and do the math”.
The Great Recession brought many to their knees. There was the massive debt, the tidal waves of disappearing assets, fingers pointed, shadows in the back room and then our new understanding of foreclosure and short sale. Classes were taught about foreclosure and short sales. Agents and brokers scrambled in a play of musical chairs. Lives were broken. A new generation began the climb, rung by rung, with debt strapped to their backs as though it were a fad. We grew used to the language of The Great Recession. But it is over. We move on.
There is a new awareness. The government knows the climb out of the recession is by the boots of real estate, construction of homes and commercial buildings. The trappings continue with mortgages and the swift talk of more stringent requirements for the buyer and on the other hand, the confessions of financial institutions that they made mistakes and they pay a fine to the government. The small hands of those who wound up on the streets are empty.
The jargon expands. We are roiled up in Big Data. We are dancing the dance with numbers and stats and charts and words we are just hearing for the first time. The play unfolds. It is mesmerizing because the set and the stage itself is all digital. The dialogue, the discussion, the reporting, the way forward is an unrelenting cacophony, the smoke screen to the past.
How do I guide and advise, be a strong advocate, a patient shepherd to my folks who are buying and selling a home? Hopefully, by listening.
The Crucible of Real Estate
It is early, the shadow time between dawn and morning light. Most of the night and early morning I worked on my new project, repackaging myself after a long and tedious illness. My business is real estate for almost thirty years. Taking a modified break meant I read almost all of my regular periodicals.
I kept up without digging deep. These days, I wear my miner’s cap. I am looking for answers, for logic, for ways to say to my people, “Let’s have a plan, be careful with decisions, and do the math”.
The Great Recession brought many to their knees. There was the massive debt, the tidal waves of disappearing assets, fingers pointed, shadows in the back room and then our new understanding of foreclosure and short sale. Classes were taught about foreclosure and short sales. Agents and brokers scrambled in a play of musical chairs. Lives were broken. A new generation began the climb, rung by rung, with debt strapped to their backs as though it were a fad. We grew used to the language of The Great Recession. But it is over. We move on.
There is a new awareness. The government knows the climb out of the recession is by the boots of real estate, construction of homes and commercial buildings. The trappings continue with mortgages and the swift talk of more stringent requirements for the buyer and on the other hand, the confessions of financial institutions that they made mistakes and they pay a fine to the government. The small hands of those who wound up on the streets are empty.
The jargon expands. We are roiled up in Big Data. We are dancing the dance with numbers and stats and charts and words we are just hearing for the first time. The play unfolds. It is mesmerizing because the set and the stage itself is all digital. The dialogue, the discussion, the reporting, the way forward is an unrelenting cacophony, the smoke screen to the past.
How do I guide and advise, be a strong advocate, a patient shepherd to my folks who are buying and selling a home? Hopefully, by listening.
Monday, February 17, 2014
February 17, 2014 Can spring be far?
February 17, 2014 6:55 a.m.Can spring be far?Soon it will be the time for the wearing of the green...seems like a good day to begin a blog...spring is truly in the air here in Charlotte, NC...the pear trees are almost in full bloom running almost the whole length of Wendover Road...and the town itself is blooming. In many ways. Okay, especially in real estate. Charlotte used to be a sleepy Southern town. We had Mom and Pop shops, small towns as our neighbors. Cows and horses nearby. Charlotte was a peaceful town with a couple of good restaurants, a couple of movie theatres, a nearby river...and a vibrant energy. That was in the 50's...and times have changed. I sometimes smile when I tell the folks who are relocating that everything they are coming here for...is really gone. And Charlotte is still vibrant and good and fun and growing like all get out! And that is what I love and that is what I will be writing about...real estate from my point of view. Charlotte, NC has been my home for well over 50 years and real estate has been my life support for almost 30 years. I specialize in Condominiums. Condo CanDo, our registered servicemark along with The Real Estate Lady, also registered back in the late 80's...both saved my neck as a new agent in a highly competitive market. Now, I blend technology with intuition and experience with listening...observing the market for both buyers and sellers. I have three websites built over the last seventeen years. They are in the throes of being updated...the research has changed, the stats have changed, and our editor will change as we migrate to a new one. And I am one of the few remaining "Mom" shops...I open doors for folks, pour them a cup of coffee or green tea...sit on the floor and play with the children...and sometimes I give advice like, "Now is not the time to sell"... or "Wait a while". Let the green begin...and thanks for tuning in. The Real Estate Lady/ CondoCanDo. Welcome Home! Lynnsy Logue
Thursday, January 2, 2014
There is an old saying,"Beginnings are difficult"...
There is an old saying,"Beginnings are difficult"...
January 2, 2014 at 10:26pm
We begin a new year with a new promise and a new hope. The last year is behind us with all the numbers of foreclosures and short sales, with an endless stream of unemployment and the miracle of the ups and downs of Wall St.. We begin to build anew promising ourselves we will remember how devastating the last several years have been. How many lives were ruined by greed or folly or sheer mistake by our own hands or the squeeze game played by the shadows we know skirt from office to tower, from bank to holding company. And we hope we have learned, we pray that we remember as the economy starts to churn, the hammers start to build, the land is swallowed up by bigger houses on smaller lots and no one is watching.The business of real estate is changing so fast that the image of real people doing the business of buying and selling will fade. The relationships will change because the economists, the giants of business know full well the government and the economy churns on the smell of earth turning, homes rising, apartments squandering our horizon, the lure of a home, a picket fence, a dog and a swingset make us feel comfortable-again. Meanwhile the banks are paying fines for their back room bargaining. But wait, there is more to be seen. It is not just the land and the hammers and the roofs and the pocket parks, it is the real estate listings themselves. Those who glean the coins from the eyes of the dying, make that the homeless, have seized upon the opportunities to gobble up the listings and tout the details only "big data" can generate so we all think that we all know everything we need to know.
It is what we do not know, as before, it is what we do not see, it is the short memory and the glaze of gold that will allow a repeat performance.I am back at my post. Reading everything I can get my hands on. Wanting to write and just write out loud what I see, what I hear, what I think might be coming. I hesitate because I am caught in the revolving door. I want to be right. Wait. I wanted to be right before but I was wrong. The sky was falling. I want to be clairyvoyant, I want to protect you because you do not know. This is not your business. This is smoke and mirrors.
So I decided that I will try. If I am wrong, I am wrong and it does not matter that it is right or not. What matters is that I do as I feel, that I speak up, that I discuss, that I care enough not to police my tongue.
Let the ego fly.
I will speak.
Lynnsy Logue,
The Real Estate Lady. SM
It is what we do not know, as before, it is what we do not see, it is the short memory and the glaze of gold that will allow a repeat performance.I am back at my post. Reading everything I can get my hands on. Wanting to write and just write out loud what I see, what I hear, what I think might be coming. I hesitate because I am caught in the revolving door. I want to be right. Wait. I wanted to be right before but I was wrong. The sky was falling. I want to be clairyvoyant, I want to protect you because you do not know. This is not your business. This is smoke and mirrors.
So I decided that I will try. If I am wrong, I am wrong and it does not matter that it is right or not. What matters is that I do as I feel, that I speak up, that I discuss, that I care enough not to police my tongue.
Let the ego fly.
I will speak.
Lynnsy Logue,
The Real Estate Lady. SM
Friday, June 22, 2012
Getting To Know Chuck Graham
 |
| Charles 'Chuck' G. Graham LEED Green Associate,AIA, Fellow MIM |
drew houses constantly,
Notre Dame, drafting talents,
worked summers for largest
architectural firm in the world, restoring Frank Lloyd Wrights's Robie House,
business degree Harvard, research for consulting,
residential building, Chief Marketing Officer
When Chuck Graham takes the stage at a real estate conference, there is standing room only. Each year his research is impeccable as he explains where we have been and where we are heading as a real estate market. In 2007 his prognosis of what was coming was bleak. I heard him clearly and began to save for the drop to come.
Now as I begin my own recovery and start writing about the future of real estate, what we might expect especially for attached housing, condos, I wanted to talk to Chuck first.
He spoke of investment in real estate, the building of buildings. The old addage,"It takes money to make money" still applies.
Then he spoke of the people. He continued on about the generations, defining them with the market and what each brings.I asked if he would visit our venues and bring his perspective to both Blog and Podcast.
Be sure to catch his podcast: Chuck Graham with The Real Estate Lady
Here is Chuck's Demographic Overview
DEMOGRAPHIC OVERVIEW
There are four key generations currently active in the U.S. Economy.
Millennials (Gen Y): Born Between 1982 and 2003
Today they are between 9 and 30 years of age.
William Strauss and Neil Howe in their book Generations describe this as a “Civic” generation which grows up with protective parents, faces a secular crisis (The Great Recession) and unites into an heroic and achieving cadre of rising adults.
Historically speaking more 26 year olds rent their first apartment than any other age group.
Thirteeners (Gen X): Born 1961 – 1981
Today they are between 31 and 51 years of age.
Strauss and Howe describe this as a “Reactive” generation, which grew up unprotected and criticized during a spiritual awakening (Boomer Awakening) and matures into risk-taking alienated adults.
Historically more 33 year olds buy their first house than any other age group.
Historically more 43 year olds move-up in their housing.
Boomers: Born 1943 – 1960
Today they are between 52 and 69 years of age.
Strauss and Howe describe this as an “idealist” generation, growing up as indulged youth after a secular crisis (Cold War), comes of age inspiring a spiritual awakening (Boomer Awakening)), and fragments into narcissistic rising adults (Economic Expansion) and cultivates principle as moralistic midlifers.
Historically speaking more 52 year olds buy vacation homes.
Silents: Born 1925 – 1942
Today they are between 70 and 87 years of age.
Strauss and Howe describe this as an “Adaptive” generation, growing up overprotected during a secular crisis (depression), maturing into risk-averse, conforming adults (Superpower America), producing indecisive midlifers during a spiritual awakening (Boomer Awakening), and maintaining influence (but less respect) as sensitive elders.
Historically speaking more 70 year olds buy retirement homes.
Historically speaking more 80 year olds consider assisted living housing alternatives.
Unfortunately, due to the Great Recession all of these historical “life-stage” decisions are now delayed and presenting challenges to economic growth which will not be easily mitigated without jobs, and debt reduction.
REAL ESTATE EFFECTS
Each generation is delaying their life-stage movement.
Millennials
Millennials have remained at home or have doubled, tripled or even quadruplied up in apartments.
Very few jobs and very high educational debt has caused these reactions.
The apartment building boom will be the next “bubble” particularly the focus on the luxury side of the market when what continues to be needed are affordable and mid-market product.
Although the Millennials have not reached the peak of first home buying they are delaying this decision as well. This delay is accommodated further with delayed marriages and delayed parenthood.
The “Civic” nature of this generation will embrace “Green” building and move the market substantially forward in this area.
Thirteeners
As noted with the Millennials, Thirteeners are delaying first home buying decisions, marriage and parenthood. There will be a noticeable change of mix between high density, smaller urban and lower density smaller suburban solutions to this product. As the generation faces economic reality.
They are employed but with few income increases in comparison to those received by the Boomers during the economic recession.
Middle management is a threatened job position going forward presenting additional challenges for move-up decisions. There will be more serious consideration of higher density, smaller urban family solutions, but most will prefer the well located suburban solutions.
Exurban solutions will be challenged as commuting costs continue to rise.
Boomer’s attempting to move from their McMansions will provide some opportunity for Thirteeners to acquire more house than they might have expected. In fact the obsolescence of these houses will provide a substantial drag on the existing home market.
The education of their children will provide additional economic challenges.
Boomers
Many fewer Boomers will be considering second or vacation homes due to their household economic challenges. More likely they will consider “right-sizing” of their primary residence even if it requires selling their current residence below their expectations. Living costs will “require” such decisions in some cases.
Some boomers will return the favor to their Millennial children by creating the other side of multi-generational housing.
Silents
“Right-Sizing” is just the precursor or “retirement” housing which will face similar challenges.
In many cases “assisted” living options will prove too economically challenging requiring Silent-Thirteener multi-generational households.
Life-stage changes cause large increases in consumer spending. All life-stage changes are now in hiatus and will be delayed for as many as five – six years continue to challenge the needed increases in GDP.
Thank you to Chuck Graham for helping me to understand about the people side of the real estate equation. These are the buyers and sellers. They are the market.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
May 31, 2012
 |
Just When Charlotte Needs
A Super Hero! Condo CanDo! |
How To Define Zoning
My blogs and podcasts, my web and Twitter reflect my day, that makes sense. I am face to face with zoning everyday but not in a way that is immediately recognizable. In my life as a real estate broker I have rarely looked at a building or house or driveway and remarked about a violation. Experience is the teacher we learn and after recent months of a laborious zoning discrepancy, I look at everything with a new eye. And then, of course, I theorize, I try to define “Zoning” in a way that gives it life or soul or fancy or…well, you get my drift.
Zoning gives a voice to reason. Planning the details is writing the symphony for a city or town or village. Being careful and precise and sometimes even bold as a city grows and matures falls in the realm of zoning and rezoning. I think of Paris and how the height of buildings is people-scape. Paris seems friendly. New York for example seems monolithic. Back when I worked out West for a while and in and out of Houston, well, Houston then, in the early eighties, had no zoning. For me, it was unordered, random, untamed. It was, after all, the West.
My blogs and podcasts, my web and Twitter reflect my day, that makes sense. I am face to face with zoning everyday but not in a way that is immediately recognizable. In my life as a real estate broker I have rarely looked at a building or house or driveway and remarked about a violation. Experience is the teacher we learn and after recent months of a laborious zoning discrepancy, I look at everything with a new eye. And then, of course, I theorize, I try to define “Zoning” in a way that gives it life or soul or fancy or…well, you get my drift.
Zoning gives a voice to reason. Planning the details is writing the symphony for a city or town or village. Being careful and precise and sometimes even bold as a city grows and matures falls in the realm of zoning and rezoning. I think of Paris and how the height of buildings is people-scape. Paris seems friendly. New York for example seems monolithic. Back when I worked out West for a while and in and out of Houston, well, Houston then, in the early eighties, had no zoning. For me, it was unordered, random, untamed. It was, after all, the West.
In Charlotte, I get a sense of planning. Maybe it began when
the trading paths of the Natives crossed at 77 and 85 or when the Square became
the center point of our city, Trade and Tryon. Planning created our parks and
our neighborhoods, planning conceived and built the Queens Road loops, the
wider than usual Elizabeth Ave. and Clement, planning made the bold sweeps and
zoning brought the details. One of the latest good strokes was the capping the
height of buildings across the city. This decision came out of a rezoning
request in Myers Park. As Charlotte grows, as our density increases and
urbanism becomes a watchword, the folks in planning and zoning are ever
attentive, they listen to all the voices.
My awareness of zoning has grown. So I took myself off to visit with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Manager, Tammie Keplinger. Her focus is on Rezoning. We had a great chat about her background and rezoning. Check out our podcast at http://therealestatelady.libsyn.com/
My awareness of zoning has grown. So I took myself off to visit with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Manager, Tammie Keplinger. Her focus is on Rezoning. We had a great chat about her background and rezoning. Check out our podcast at http://therealestatelady.libsyn.com/
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Skybridge Condos: Up and Running
August 20, 2008
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
West Morehead is on the rise
Skybridge Terrace is up and running …
Project size: 144 condos in three buildings off the 1200 block of West Morehead Street.
Prices: Units range from 500 to 1,078 square feet and sell from the $120,000s to $280,000s.
Timeline: First of three buildings completed. Two others to be started as the market dictates.
Features: Elevators in each building secure parking and controlled access, private balconies on most units, 10-foot smooth ceilings, double-bowl stainless-steel sinks, granite bar tops in kitchens and hardwood flooring in living areas.
West Morehead Street has emerged over the past decade as a commercial revitalization district as aging warehouses have been converted to modern offices.
Now, residential revitalization is poised to be The Next Big Thing in development there.
The first building in Skybridge Terrace, a planned 144-unit condo project, has been completed on West Morehead at Calvert Street near Interstate 77, and the initial owners have begun to move into their units.
The $22 million project occupies 2.2 acres with a greenway connection that provides pedestrian access to uptown via Third Ward and the Bank of America Stadium area.
Farther out Morehead at the Wilkinson Boulevard intersection, American Investment Exchange plans a 40,000-square-foot office building on a 1.6-acre parcel that once housed the Plantation Grill.
Ogunrinde, a principal in Neighboring concepts with Darrel Williams and Luis Tochiki, said the firm has been active on West Morehead since it bought the triangle-shaped Carolina Moving and Storage warehouse in 1998 and converted it to office condos.
The commercial development under way in the corridor is setting the stage for future retail and residential development, he believes.
The increased density has the potential to attract shops and restaurants to serve office workers and residents.
And the area also could appeal to office tenants and condo owners seeking to enjoy center city amenities without paying center city prices.
The remaining Skybridge Terrace condos – 500 to 1,060 square feet – are priced, for example, from the $120,000s to the $280,000s.
Prices fall in the $250-a-square-foot range compared with $350 a square foot or more inside I-277.
The project eventually will have three buildings – 48,000 square feet each – connected by sky bridges to give owners uptown skyline and Wesley Heights tree canopy views.
Ogunrinde said the skyline side, with the largest and most expensive units, has been the most popular so far.
Buyers put contracts on all the units, he said, but some are struggling to arrange financing and close in the uncertain lending market.
Purchasers have been a mix of older professionals, young professionals and people seeking a second dwelling.
For more information on the West Morehead Stretch, refer to our podcast on Bryant Park and on the Charlotte Law School. And also remember that the city-county offices at the Hal Marshall Center on North Tryon are being re-located to Freedom Drive.
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
West Morehead is on the rise
Skybridge Terrace is up and running …
Project size: 144 condos in three buildings off the 1200 block of West Morehead Street.
Prices: Units range from 500 to 1,078 square feet and sell from the $120,000s to $280,000s.
Timeline: First of three buildings completed. Two others to be started as the market dictates.
Features: Elevators in each building secure parking and controlled access, private balconies on most units, 10-foot smooth ceilings, double-bowl stainless-steel sinks, granite bar tops in kitchens and hardwood flooring in living areas.
West Morehead Street has emerged over the past decade as a commercial revitalization district as aging warehouses have been converted to modern offices.
Now, residential revitalization is poised to be The Next Big Thing in development there.
The first building in Skybridge Terrace, a planned 144-unit condo project, has been completed on West Morehead at Calvert Street near Interstate 77, and the initial owners have begun to move into their units.
The $22 million project occupies 2.2 acres with a greenway connection that provides pedestrian access to uptown via Third Ward and the Bank of America Stadium area.
Farther out Morehead at the Wilkinson Boulevard intersection, American Investment Exchange plans a 40,000-square-foot office building on a 1.6-acre parcel that once housed the Plantation Grill.
Ogunrinde, a principal in Neighboring concepts with Darrel Williams and Luis Tochiki, said the firm has been active on West Morehead since it bought the triangle-shaped Carolina Moving and Storage warehouse in 1998 and converted it to office condos.
The commercial development under way in the corridor is setting the stage for future retail and residential development, he believes.
The increased density has the potential to attract shops and restaurants to serve office workers and residents.
And the area also could appeal to office tenants and condo owners seeking to enjoy center city amenities without paying center city prices.
The remaining Skybridge Terrace condos – 500 to 1,060 square feet – are priced, for example, from the $120,000s to the $280,000s.
Prices fall in the $250-a-square-foot range compared with $350 a square foot or more inside I-277.
The project eventually will have three buildings – 48,000 square feet each – connected by sky bridges to give owners uptown skyline and Wesley Heights tree canopy views.
Ogunrinde said the skyline side, with the largest and most expensive units, has been the most popular so far.
Buyers put contracts on all the units, he said, but some are struggling to arrange financing and close in the uncertain lending market.
Purchasers have been a mix of older professionals, young professionals and people seeking a second dwelling.
For more information on the West Morehead Stretch, refer to our podcast on Bryant Park and on the Charlotte Law School. And also remember that the city-county offices at the Hal Marshall Center on North Tryon are being re-located to Freedom Drive.
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Yes,Conservation Is Habit Forming...
August 19, 2008
Conservation is Habit Forming
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Ali, Ali In Free…The game was fun. We played after inner…dusk. We would play kick the can and then Ali,Ali in free. We got to come on in…no penalty. We played. We were tired. We came home.Conservation. We adapt. We change our habits, our thinking, our perspective. We return home better. Saved for another day of energetic play.I replanned my days as gas prices peaked upward.. Figured my stops more carefully. Sectioned out the city. Did not use air-conditioning. Checked tire pressure. Foot off the pedal going down hills, coasting to stops. Eating more at home. Finding more time at my home office to do more. More time with my companion dogs. Hung more laundry out to dry, checked all the light bulbs and changed where necessary. Programmed the thermostat to a higher temperature…used ceiling fans and vertical fans more than ever before. Used my electric lawn mower and electric weed eater. Changed the temperature on the water heater.I like it. It feels good to be proactive. Now I am on it. Check weather stripping, doors and locks. Security. Efficiency. Yes. We can do this.As summer vacation season kicked in, Americans got out of heir cars, driving 12.2 billion fewer miles in June than the same month a year earlier. The 4.7 percent decline which came while gas prices were peaking, was the biggest monthly driving drop in a downward trend that began in November according to the Federal Highway Administration. Overall Americans drove 53.2 billion fewer miles November through June than they did over the same eight month period a year earlier.I recall the town in Texas all set to build another coal burning plant. But they decided first to see how much they could conserve in a year. How much could they save by being prudent. A year goes by…what do you think? They proved to themselves they can conserve, they can act pro actively together…they do not need the coal burning plant. They are fine.
We can do so much if we believe we can. Hard times bring challenges.
Yes, we can!
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Conservation is Habit Forming
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Ali, Ali In Free…The game was fun. We played after inner…dusk. We would play kick the can and then Ali,Ali in free. We got to come on in…no penalty. We played. We were tired. We came home.Conservation. We adapt. We change our habits, our thinking, our perspective. We return home better. Saved for another day of energetic play.I replanned my days as gas prices peaked upward.. Figured my stops more carefully. Sectioned out the city. Did not use air-conditioning. Checked tire pressure. Foot off the pedal going down hills, coasting to stops. Eating more at home. Finding more time at my home office to do more. More time with my companion dogs. Hung more laundry out to dry, checked all the light bulbs and changed where necessary. Programmed the thermostat to a higher temperature…used ceiling fans and vertical fans more than ever before. Used my electric lawn mower and electric weed eater. Changed the temperature on the water heater.I like it. It feels good to be proactive. Now I am on it. Check weather stripping, doors and locks. Security. Efficiency. Yes. We can do this.As summer vacation season kicked in, Americans got out of heir cars, driving 12.2 billion fewer miles in June than the same month a year earlier. The 4.7 percent decline which came while gas prices were peaking, was the biggest monthly driving drop in a downward trend that began in November according to the Federal Highway Administration. Overall Americans drove 53.2 billion fewer miles November through June than they did over the same eight month period a year earlier.I recall the town in Texas all set to build another coal burning plant. But they decided first to see how much they could conserve in a year. How much could they save by being prudent. A year goes by…what do you think? They proved to themselves they can conserve, they can act pro actively together…they do not need the coal burning plant. They are fine.
We can do so much if we believe we can. Hard times bring challenges.
Yes, we can!
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Monday, August 18, 2008
We Knew...We Knew: June 2006 Report
August 18, 2008
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
We Knew…June 29, 2006
That Hissing Sound
Robert Reich, pointing to leaks in the housing bubble, gives the Fed some advice:
Market Meltdown: Say goodbye to the housing bubble, by Robert B. Reich, American Prospect: ...America’s housing bubble has not exactly burst. It’s just sprung a leak the size of your average mortgage banker. What’s clear is the boom is over. All across America, backlogs of unsold homes are long. Price increases are slowing. In some markets, home prices are actually dropping...
It’s better that bubbles leak than burst. Gradual declines are always easier to manage than explosions. But the housing boom has been so large and important to the American economy over the past five years that even this slow leak will cause severe headaches.
One will be experienced by millions of households that had turned their growing home values into piggy banks to finance their continued consumption. That easy route to cash is just about gone. The inevitable result will be less consumption, which will mean fewer jobs.
A more immediate problem will arise for all the people making, financing, and selling houses. Here we’re talking about a vast army of carpenters, plasterers, roofers, plumbers, electricians, mortgage bankers, home inspectors, real estate agents, architects, structural engineers and many more. According to Moddy’s Economy.com, housing-related employment has accounted for almost a quarter of the five million jobs that have appeared since 2003.
These jobs pay well even though most of them don’t require a college degree. That’s because they don’t have to compete in global commerce. Workers in Beijing or Calcutta can’t easily build houses in Phoenix or San Diego. ... But now with the housing boom over, many of these good jobs are over, too.
In other words, without the housing bubble, the American economy will lose a lot of its fizz. I don’t like bubbles, but from a jobs standpoint this recovery has needed all the fizz it can get. Median wages have gone nowhere. The ranks of the long-term unemployed have been unusually high. The percent of the labor force with jobs is lower than in 2000. Housing has been one of the few bright spots in the economy.
All of which brings us to Ben Bernanke and his gang at the Federal Reserve Board Open Market Committee. They’re determined to raise interest rates because they think the economy is too fizzy and still prone to inflation. I hope they listen carefully: The hissing sound they hear is air escaping the housing bubble. There’s less fizz in the economy than they think. Raise interest rates, and the Fed raises the likelihood the economy will deflate.
We'll know more soon when the Fed announces its rate hike decision from today's meeting.
That was in June 2006. We Knew.
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
We Knew…June 29, 2006
That Hissing Sound
Robert Reich, pointing to leaks in the housing bubble, gives the Fed some advice:
Market Meltdown: Say goodbye to the housing bubble, by Robert B. Reich, American Prospect: ...America’s housing bubble has not exactly burst. It’s just sprung a leak the size of your average mortgage banker. What’s clear is the boom is over. All across America, backlogs of unsold homes are long. Price increases are slowing. In some markets, home prices are actually dropping...
It’s better that bubbles leak than burst. Gradual declines are always easier to manage than explosions. But the housing boom has been so large and important to the American economy over the past five years that even this slow leak will cause severe headaches.
One will be experienced by millions of households that had turned their growing home values into piggy banks to finance their continued consumption. That easy route to cash is just about gone. The inevitable result will be less consumption, which will mean fewer jobs.
A more immediate problem will arise for all the people making, financing, and selling houses. Here we’re talking about a vast army of carpenters, plasterers, roofers, plumbers, electricians, mortgage bankers, home inspectors, real estate agents, architects, structural engineers and many more. According to Moddy’s Economy.com, housing-related employment has accounted for almost a quarter of the five million jobs that have appeared since 2003.
These jobs pay well even though most of them don’t require a college degree. That’s because they don’t have to compete in global commerce. Workers in Beijing or Calcutta can’t easily build houses in Phoenix or San Diego. ... But now with the housing boom over, many of these good jobs are over, too.
In other words, without the housing bubble, the American economy will lose a lot of its fizz. I don’t like bubbles, but from a jobs standpoint this recovery has needed all the fizz it can get. Median wages have gone nowhere. The ranks of the long-term unemployed have been unusually high. The percent of the labor force with jobs is lower than in 2000. Housing has been one of the few bright spots in the economy.
All of which brings us to Ben Bernanke and his gang at the Federal Reserve Board Open Market Committee. They’re determined to raise interest rates because they think the economy is too fizzy and still prone to inflation. I hope they listen carefully: The hissing sound they hear is air escaping the housing bubble. There’s less fizz in the economy than they think. Raise interest rates, and the Fed raises the likelihood the economy will deflate.
We'll know more soon when the Fed announces its rate hike decision from today's meeting.
That was in June 2006. We Knew.
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Friday, August 15, 2008
Just Another Day...
August 15, 2008
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Just an Ordinary Day…
There are many unseen actions during the day as a real estate broker. They are the ones you don’t know about…the ones we don’t talk about. And maybe we don’t talk about them because they are too personal. I sometimes think the perception the general public has about real estate professionals is something about shiny cars, gold jewelry, big paychecks, fish fries and golf tournaments. Maybe so. Maybe not.
I began this morning as I always do on Fridays when it is not raining: walking with the neighbors at 5 a.m. for several miles as we talk about our plans for the weekend. So this morning began a little before I met them. The second item was a note that the truck was coming this morning to load up my neighbors. They are moving to Alaska. A young couple and their five year old daughter. They became friends the very first day they moved across the street and it deepened. Then they became clients as members of their family entered my world. And then they asked me to find a buyer for their house. And I did.Now they are going and I will miss them. So I have spent time thinking of them this morning. Missing them already.
And then as the movers were packing, a client called to brainstorm about “what if’s”, and think about Plan B…and on with another as we talked about what appliances stay and what really goes and how important it is to be patient…and another about a showing tomorrow as I reminded them about opening blinds and draperies…and the info sheet box that I will place in front of their home tomorrow during the Neighborhood Walk Around…And meeting our I.T. person for lunch. We share our excitement about Charlotte and the Market, how she has enjoyed experiencing the Lynx,our lite rail, how she has enjoyed arriving early uptown and can hear the birds uptown in the early morning…and walk along he tree-lined streets before everyone else starts arriving.
And on to show property as the prospective buyer brings his whole family and the family dog and the girl friend…and I give them the special folder I prepared with every bit of information I have on the property and adjoining properties. And told them to go home and talk about it, think about it. I am available.
And I come back to my home office, check email and find a thank you from a client who wanted direction and I sent him my decorator friend who is great with listening and they got along famously and I can hear the calm in his message.
I look out the window across the street. The truck is gone.
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Just an Ordinary Day…
There are many unseen actions during the day as a real estate broker. They are the ones you don’t know about…the ones we don’t talk about. And maybe we don’t talk about them because they are too personal. I sometimes think the perception the general public has about real estate professionals is something about shiny cars, gold jewelry, big paychecks, fish fries and golf tournaments. Maybe so. Maybe not.
I began this morning as I always do on Fridays when it is not raining: walking with the neighbors at 5 a.m. for several miles as we talk about our plans for the weekend. So this morning began a little before I met them. The second item was a note that the truck was coming this morning to load up my neighbors. They are moving to Alaska. A young couple and their five year old daughter. They became friends the very first day they moved across the street and it deepened. Then they became clients as members of their family entered my world. And then they asked me to find a buyer for their house. And I did.Now they are going and I will miss them. So I have spent time thinking of them this morning. Missing them already.
And then as the movers were packing, a client called to brainstorm about “what if’s”, and think about Plan B…and on with another as we talked about what appliances stay and what really goes and how important it is to be patient…and another about a showing tomorrow as I reminded them about opening blinds and draperies…and the info sheet box that I will place in front of their home tomorrow during the Neighborhood Walk Around…And meeting our I.T. person for lunch. We share our excitement about Charlotte and the Market, how she has enjoyed experiencing the Lynx,our lite rail, how she has enjoyed arriving early uptown and can hear the birds uptown in the early morning…and walk along he tree-lined streets before everyone else starts arriving.
And on to show property as the prospective buyer brings his whole family and the family dog and the girl friend…and I give them the special folder I prepared with every bit of information I have on the property and adjoining properties. And told them to go home and talk about it, think about it. I am available.
And I come back to my home office, check email and find a thank you from a client who wanted direction and I sent him my decorator friend who is great with listening and they got along famously and I can hear the calm in his message.
I look out the window across the street. The truck is gone.
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Here's Letter To Realtors and Link:New Tax Credit
August 14, 2008
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Straight from the Horses's Mouth Almost:
Dear Lynnsy Logue,
Dear Brokers-In-Charge,
President Bush signed the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, immediate measures that will help homeowners facing foreclosure find ways to refinance and will help strengthen mortgage markets. The package also includes a very substantial tax credit available to first-time home buyers.
In this email, you will find a series of links that provide comprehensive details of the legislation package. We hope you will share this good news with your agents.
To summarize, the legislation package includes Federal Housing Administration Modernization that will simplify and make FHA-backed mortgages more available while helping thousands of families refinance existing mortgages and keep their homes. Other important components of the bill are reform of the government-sponsored enterprises (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac), permanent increases to both GSE and FHA loan limits, a first-time home buyer tax credit and a program to expand FHA that would allow more homeowners to refinance their mortgages.
“Realtors® are in the business of building communities, and our 1.2 million members understand that this legislation will go a long way in helping people buy and keep their homes,” says Dick Gaylord, NAR’s2008 president.
Wendell Bullard, 2008 president of the NC Association of REALTORS®, agrees. “This is good news for our more than 43,000 members and even better news for our clients,” Helpful links:
Tax Credit Chart
Seller DAP
Reform Chart
Refinance Chart
Q and A
These are charts and might help clarify the program. Enjoy!
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Straight from the Horses's Mouth Almost:
Dear Lynnsy Logue,
Dear Brokers-In-Charge,
President Bush signed the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, immediate measures that will help homeowners facing foreclosure find ways to refinance and will help strengthen mortgage markets. The package also includes a very substantial tax credit available to first-time home buyers.
In this email, you will find a series of links that provide comprehensive details of the legislation package. We hope you will share this good news with your agents.
To summarize, the legislation package includes Federal Housing Administration Modernization that will simplify and make FHA-backed mortgages more available while helping thousands of families refinance existing mortgages and keep their homes. Other important components of the bill are reform of the government-sponsored enterprises (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac), permanent increases to both GSE and FHA loan limits, a first-time home buyer tax credit and a program to expand FHA that would allow more homeowners to refinance their mortgages.
“Realtors® are in the business of building communities, and our 1.2 million members understand that this legislation will go a long way in helping people buy and keep their homes,” says Dick Gaylord, NAR’s2008 president.
Wendell Bullard, 2008 president of the NC Association of REALTORS®, agrees. “This is good news for our more than 43,000 members and even better news for our clients,” Helpful links:
Tax Credit Chart
Seller DAP
Reform Chart
Refinance Chart
Q and A
These are charts and might help clarify the program. Enjoy!
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Do You Ever Wonder Why I Read So Much?
August 13, 2008
Yes, I read a lot. Everyday. About the Charlotte Market, about Charlotte, about Charlotte Real Estate and what is going on in various sectors of the market. And why do you think I do that? Because I want you to know more about our market than just what's for sale. If you want to know just what is for sale go to CarolinaHOme.com and youll get our whole database of listings. The region. 17 counties. If you want some thoughtful insight, check out the writers, the thoughts, their opinions...their take on ...well, everything that pertains to the market that I think has value. So come on down...here's one from Bob Herbert of the New York Times.
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
A fast, cheap step toward energy sanity
While the presidential campaign was mired in the egregious and the trivial last week, there was a hearing in Washington that addressed what should be a critical component of the nation's energy strategy so writes Bob Herbert. He continues… It got very little attention.
Put aside for a moment all the talk about alternative fuels. They are important and the wave of the future, but the fastest, cheapest, easiest and cleanest step toward a sane energy environment is the powerful combination of efficiency and conservation.
That was the message delivered again and again at a hearing of the Joint Economic Committee that carried the title, “Efficiency: The Hidden Secret to Solving Our Energy Crisis.”
California's good example
Two political leaders who are no longer very fashionable were on to this long ago – former Gov. Jerry Brown of California and former President Jimmy Carter, who presciently said of the energy crisis in 1977: “With the exception of preventing war, this is the greatest challenge our country will face during our lifetime.”
It may be hard to believe, but largely because of far-reaching efficiency and conservation measures imposed by Brown's administration, California is now among the lowest of all the states in the per capita consumption of energy. Take automobiles out of the picture and it would have the lowest per capita consumption of any state.
Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, noted that California's extraordinary progress in this area over the past three decades was set in motion during Brown's tenure when the state established building standards that required greater efficiency with regard to heating and cooling. Utilities were required to operate more efficiently and the state, to the extent that it legally could, required appliances sold in California to be more efficient.
A national to-do list
It's not widely understood how profound a change in overall energy consumption could be realized from a big-time, coordinated efficiency and conservation effort.
In addition to the obvious need for more fuel-efficient vehicles, we should be demanding more efficiencies from utilities, we should be requiring states to revamp their commercial and building codes; and we should be trying to weatherize homes from coast to coast, including the homes of families without enough money to make such improvements themselves.
And, of course, there are the everyday good energy deeds that would help make a world of difference: car-pooling; taking public transportation when possible; using more efficient lighting; dropping the thermostat a couple of degrees; buying more efficient appliances; unplugging appliances that aren't in use, and so on.
A leadership shortage
Combining the development of alternative fuels with a real efficiency and conservation effort is the winning hand in the global energy crisis.
People in many parts of the country are already frightened, in the heat of the summer, about next winter's heating bills. Families are worried about having to choose between mortgage payments and fuel bills, or fuel bills and medicine.
The Senate considered but was unable to pass a measure that would have substantially increased financing for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. It was a bad sign. If the government can't get that done in the current atmosphere, it hardly seems likely that it could move to an even more important step: finding a way to get the homes of these cash-strapped families weatherized so they use substantially less fuel each winter.
We know what we should be doing. What we lack is the leadership, the common sense or the will to get it done.
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Yes, I read a lot. Everyday. About the Charlotte Market, about Charlotte, about Charlotte Real Estate and what is going on in various sectors of the market. And why do you think I do that? Because I want you to know more about our market than just what's for sale. If you want to know just what is for sale go to CarolinaHOme.com and youll get our whole database of listings. The region. 17 counties. If you want some thoughtful insight, check out the writers, the thoughts, their opinions...their take on ...well, everything that pertains to the market that I think has value. So come on down...here's one from Bob Herbert of the New York Times.
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
A fast, cheap step toward energy sanity
While the presidential campaign was mired in the egregious and the trivial last week, there was a hearing in Washington that addressed what should be a critical component of the nation's energy strategy so writes Bob Herbert. He continues… It got very little attention.
Put aside for a moment all the talk about alternative fuels. They are important and the wave of the future, but the fastest, cheapest, easiest and cleanest step toward a sane energy environment is the powerful combination of efficiency and conservation.
That was the message delivered again and again at a hearing of the Joint Economic Committee that carried the title, “Efficiency: The Hidden Secret to Solving Our Energy Crisis.”
California's good example
Two political leaders who are no longer very fashionable were on to this long ago – former Gov. Jerry Brown of California and former President Jimmy Carter, who presciently said of the energy crisis in 1977: “With the exception of preventing war, this is the greatest challenge our country will face during our lifetime.”
It may be hard to believe, but largely because of far-reaching efficiency and conservation measures imposed by Brown's administration, California is now among the lowest of all the states in the per capita consumption of energy. Take automobiles out of the picture and it would have the lowest per capita consumption of any state.
Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, noted that California's extraordinary progress in this area over the past three decades was set in motion during Brown's tenure when the state established building standards that required greater efficiency with regard to heating and cooling. Utilities were required to operate more efficiently and the state, to the extent that it legally could, required appliances sold in California to be more efficient.
A national to-do list
It's not widely understood how profound a change in overall energy consumption could be realized from a big-time, coordinated efficiency and conservation effort.
In addition to the obvious need for more fuel-efficient vehicles, we should be demanding more efficiencies from utilities, we should be requiring states to revamp their commercial and building codes; and we should be trying to weatherize homes from coast to coast, including the homes of families without enough money to make such improvements themselves.
And, of course, there are the everyday good energy deeds that would help make a world of difference: car-pooling; taking public transportation when possible; using more efficient lighting; dropping the thermostat a couple of degrees; buying more efficient appliances; unplugging appliances that aren't in use, and so on.
A leadership shortage
Combining the development of alternative fuels with a real efficiency and conservation effort is the winning hand in the global energy crisis.
People in many parts of the country are already frightened, in the heat of the summer, about next winter's heating bills. Families are worried about having to choose between mortgage payments and fuel bills, or fuel bills and medicine.
The Senate considered but was unable to pass a measure that would have substantially increased financing for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. It was a bad sign. If the government can't get that done in the current atmosphere, it hardly seems likely that it could move to an even more important step: finding a way to get the homes of these cash-strapped families weatherized so they use substantially less fuel each winter.
We know what we should be doing. What we lack is the leadership, the common sense or the will to get it done.
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Green and Clean Inside and Out...
August 12, 2008
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Your lush lawn
Before you stretch out on (or let your kids run barefoot through) that green grass, consider that it may be blanketed with toxic pesticides. “The commonly used insecticides are all chemical cousins of the wartime gas sarin, which was used in the 1995 Tokyo subway attack,” says Philip J. Landrigan, MD, chairman of the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine and professor of pediatrics at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.
“And the commonly used herbicides are chemical first cousins of Agent Orange, which was used in Vietnam.” So, that “healthy” lawn has the potential to increase your family’s risks of cancer or neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s disease. That’s partly because lawn-care pesticides “aren’t selective killers,” explains Jennifer Sass, PhD, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in Washington, D.C. — many can have an impact on your health.
There is good news, though: More and more towns are enacting neighbor-notification laws, requiring residents to issue warnings before spraying so people can shut their windows or even clear out with their kids and pets (the health danger lasts for days for the commonly used insecticides and weeks for the herbicides). If your town doesn’t have this law, ask neighbors to let you know when they’re spraying — and what they’re using.
On your own turf, do only integrated pest management (IPM), a gentler, environmentally sensitive way of preventing, monitoring, and controlling pests. Safer ecofriendly and organic lawn sprays and other nonchemical options — from aphid-eating ladybugs to heat (electrocution) for termites — are surprisingly effective. Caveat: You may not have the most manicured lawn on the block, but to keep your family safe you have to learn to live with a few dandelions.
Your child's toy box
The main threat here is lead-coated toys. In the past two fiscal years, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has issued 21 recalls of lead-tainted toys, including learning toys and train sets, most of which were made in China (this number doesn’t include lead-related children’s-jewelry recalls).
If you have little ones, consider lead the number-one danger in your home, Landrigan says. In very high doses, lead can cause convulsions and brain damage in young children. But if children are exposed to it in even small amounts, they can have a loss of IQ, a shortening of attention span, and behavioral problems. They’re also more likely to have dyslexia and to drop out of school.
Checking every toy in the house for lead may not help because not all home tests are accurate. Instead, make smart buys. Research toys at www.healthytoys.org before you go shopping. Other ways to protect your kids: Have them wash their hands after playing and before eating, and get them tested for lead.
Your closet
Mothballs are really dangerous chemicals, the vapors are carcinogenic and are also irritating to the nervous system. In fact, if your child swallows one, it can be fatal. Inhaling mothball vapors overnight doesn’t mean you will get cancer tomorrow, but it increases your long-term risk. So use safer moth-repelling alternatives like dried-lavender and cedar products.
And your work clothes swathed in dry-cleaning bags? They harbor perchloroethylene, the most common dry-cleaning chemical, which causes cancer in lab animals, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Heavy exposure to this substance can cause dizziness and confusion, even in adults, so it’s best to minimize your use of dry cleaning. Machine-wash whatever you can on the delicate cycle (not everything labeled “dry-clean only” needs it). Another option: Find a professional cleaner who uses less-toxic solutions, like CO2, or does wet cleaning (a combo of water, biodegradable soap, and steam in special machines).
If you have an item conventionally dry-cleaned, remove it from plastic and air it outside for several hours before hanging it in the closet. This will give the chemicals time to evaporate, reducing the health risk.
Your cat's litter box
Anyone who has changed a litter box is familiar with that cough-inducing dust cloud. It likely contains low levels of crystalline silica, a carcinogen so check the bag or box before you pour it into Fluffy’s litter box. If the warning says to go to the ER if you swallow, it’s safe to assume it’s really toxic. Replace with greener versions made from corn, wheat, alfalfa, cedar, and even pine—all of which work well. You can find natural litters at major pet stores. To give the natural variety an odor-eating boost, mix in a little baking soda. And be sure to keep boxes in ventilated spots such as a screened-in porch.
Your home office
What’s in your home office or cube? Eye and lung irritants from copy-machine toners and fax-machine ink cartridges, in addition to gases from permanent markers, vapors from pesticides, and formaldehyde fumes from particleboard furniture. In the short term, these products—particularly in tightly sealed office buildings — can cause sick-building syndrome, a real illness that’s characterized by symptoms like headache and fatigue. Sick-building syndrome is the result of inadequate ventilation, so if there are no windows in your office, ask a manager to have air exchanges and filters turned on before the workday begins. Your request might fall on deaf ears, but it could also spur change. Why bother? Some of the compounds found in offices are neurotoxic, which means they can cause tingling or numbness and permanent damage to the nervous system over the long term.
At your office, avoid printers and copiers in your immediate work space and take 10-minute walks outside during the day to get fresh air. At home, keep printers and fax machines out of the bedroom, crack windows, and add chemical-removing plants. (Listed below.)
Plants that help
These three easy-to-find houseplants act as natural air purifiers:
Areca Palm removes xylene (from permanent markers and rubber cement).
Boston fern removes formaldehyde (from fiberboard furniture, glues and adhesives, and permanent-press fabrics).
English ivy removes benzene (from oven cleaners, detergents, furniture polish, and spot removers).More green and clean…from
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Your lush lawn
Before you stretch out on (or let your kids run barefoot through) that green grass, consider that it may be blanketed with toxic pesticides. “The commonly used insecticides are all chemical cousins of the wartime gas sarin, which was used in the 1995 Tokyo subway attack,” says Philip J. Landrigan, MD, chairman of the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine and professor of pediatrics at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.
“And the commonly used herbicides are chemical first cousins of Agent Orange, which was used in Vietnam.” So, that “healthy” lawn has the potential to increase your family’s risks of cancer or neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s disease. That’s partly because lawn-care pesticides “aren’t selective killers,” explains Jennifer Sass, PhD, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in Washington, D.C. — many can have an impact on your health.
There is good news, though: More and more towns are enacting neighbor-notification laws, requiring residents to issue warnings before spraying so people can shut their windows or even clear out with their kids and pets (the health danger lasts for days for the commonly used insecticides and weeks for the herbicides). If your town doesn’t have this law, ask neighbors to let you know when they’re spraying — and what they’re using.
On your own turf, do only integrated pest management (IPM), a gentler, environmentally sensitive way of preventing, monitoring, and controlling pests. Safer ecofriendly and organic lawn sprays and other nonchemical options — from aphid-eating ladybugs to heat (electrocution) for termites — are surprisingly effective. Caveat: You may not have the most manicured lawn on the block, but to keep your family safe you have to learn to live with a few dandelions.
Your child's toy box
The main threat here is lead-coated toys. In the past two fiscal years, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has issued 21 recalls of lead-tainted toys, including learning toys and train sets, most of which were made in China (this number doesn’t include lead-related children’s-jewelry recalls).
If you have little ones, consider lead the number-one danger in your home, Landrigan says. In very high doses, lead can cause convulsions and brain damage in young children. But if children are exposed to it in even small amounts, they can have a loss of IQ, a shortening of attention span, and behavioral problems. They’re also more likely to have dyslexia and to drop out of school.
Checking every toy in the house for lead may not help because not all home tests are accurate. Instead, make smart buys. Research toys at www.healthytoys.org before you go shopping. Other ways to protect your kids: Have them wash their hands after playing and before eating, and get them tested for lead.
Your closet
Mothballs are really dangerous chemicals, the vapors are carcinogenic and are also irritating to the nervous system. In fact, if your child swallows one, it can be fatal. Inhaling mothball vapors overnight doesn’t mean you will get cancer tomorrow, but it increases your long-term risk. So use safer moth-repelling alternatives like dried-lavender and cedar products.
And your work clothes swathed in dry-cleaning bags? They harbor perchloroethylene, the most common dry-cleaning chemical, which causes cancer in lab animals, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Heavy exposure to this substance can cause dizziness and confusion, even in adults, so it’s best to minimize your use of dry cleaning. Machine-wash whatever you can on the delicate cycle (not everything labeled “dry-clean only” needs it). Another option: Find a professional cleaner who uses less-toxic solutions, like CO2, or does wet cleaning (a combo of water, biodegradable soap, and steam in special machines).
If you have an item conventionally dry-cleaned, remove it from plastic and air it outside for several hours before hanging it in the closet. This will give the chemicals time to evaporate, reducing the health risk.
Your cat's litter box
Anyone who has changed a litter box is familiar with that cough-inducing dust cloud. It likely contains low levels of crystalline silica, a carcinogen so check the bag or box before you pour it into Fluffy’s litter box. If the warning says to go to the ER if you swallow, it’s safe to assume it’s really toxic. Replace with greener versions made from corn, wheat, alfalfa, cedar, and even pine—all of which work well. You can find natural litters at major pet stores. To give the natural variety an odor-eating boost, mix in a little baking soda. And be sure to keep boxes in ventilated spots such as a screened-in porch.
Your home office
What’s in your home office or cube? Eye and lung irritants from copy-machine toners and fax-machine ink cartridges, in addition to gases from permanent markers, vapors from pesticides, and formaldehyde fumes from particleboard furniture. In the short term, these products—particularly in tightly sealed office buildings — can cause sick-building syndrome, a real illness that’s characterized by symptoms like headache and fatigue. Sick-building syndrome is the result of inadequate ventilation, so if there are no windows in your office, ask a manager to have air exchanges and filters turned on before the workday begins. Your request might fall on deaf ears, but it could also spur change. Why bother? Some of the compounds found in offices are neurotoxic, which means they can cause tingling or numbness and permanent damage to the nervous system over the long term.
At your office, avoid printers and copiers in your immediate work space and take 10-minute walks outside during the day to get fresh air. At home, keep printers and fax machines out of the bedroom, crack windows, and add chemical-removing plants. (Listed below.)
Plants that help
These three easy-to-find houseplants act as natural air purifiers:
Areca Palm removes xylene (from permanent markers and rubber cement).
Boston fern removes formaldehyde (from fiberboard furniture, glues and adhesives, and permanent-press fabrics).
English ivy removes benzene (from oven cleaners, detergents, furniture polish, and spot removers).More green and clean…from
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Monday, August 11, 2008
Charlotte Ranks No. 10 !
August 11, 2008
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Charlotte’s residents volunteer a lot – thanks, keep on!
Giving to help others keeps Charlotte vibrant.
We're No. 10. Hold on. That's good.
In a national ranking of 50 major U.S. cities on volunteerism, Charlotte comes out 10. We settle in behind, in order, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Salt Lake City, Portland, Seattle, Austin, Columbus (Ohio), Milwaukee, Birmingham (Ala.) and Kansas City (Mo.) Hanging onto the caboose of volunteer service are those capitals of excess – in the eyes of some – are New York and Las Vegas, with Miami dead last. Raleigh came in 33rd.
If there's an activity where we should welcome being in the top 10, it is in volunteer service. Volunteer work is evidence that people care about their neighbors and the health and welfare of the communities they reside in.
Charlotte has long been a community where residents commit to giving time and resources for civic service. Charlotte averaged 30.5 percent volunteerism in 2006. That percentage went up last year to 32.6 percent. The 403,000 volunteers put in 50.3 million volunteer hours, time estimated to be a $982 million economic contribution.
Now, that's puffing-out-your-chest worthy. The largest percent of Charlotte volunteers – nearly 31 percent – spent time tutoring or teaching. About 44 percent volunteer through religious groups or activities; about 23 percent do so through education.
Nationwide, nearly 61 million Americans volunteered in 2007, giving 8.1 billion hours of service, estimated to be worth $158 billion, according to the Volunteering in America report released by the Corporation for National and Community Service. Find the report at https://www.VolunteeringinAmerica.gov.
And though Charlotte saw a rise in volunteers, nationwide an estimated 22 million or one in three volunteers stopped doing so between 2006 and 2007. And it's not because they don't have the time.
Consider the amount of time volunteers and non-volunteers spend watching television. Volunteers report spending 15 hours watching TV while non-volunteers spend 23 hours doing so. That eight-hour difference adds up to more than 400 volunteer hours a year, the report said.
Volunteers make time to do this important work. They are increasingly necessary as economic difficulties push more Americans into the need category.
Don't stand on the sidelines and applaud these volunteers. Join them. It is vital to the health and prosperity of communities and the nation that people commit to such service, and that public and private entities encourage and enable their efforts.
Thanks to our volunteers! Come join us in Charlotte, NC
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Charlotte’s residents volunteer a lot – thanks, keep on!
Giving to help others keeps Charlotte vibrant.
We're No. 10. Hold on. That's good.
In a national ranking of 50 major U.S. cities on volunteerism, Charlotte comes out 10. We settle in behind, in order, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Salt Lake City, Portland, Seattle, Austin, Columbus (Ohio), Milwaukee, Birmingham (Ala.) and Kansas City (Mo.) Hanging onto the caboose of volunteer service are those capitals of excess – in the eyes of some – are New York and Las Vegas, with Miami dead last. Raleigh came in 33rd.
If there's an activity where we should welcome being in the top 10, it is in volunteer service. Volunteer work is evidence that people care about their neighbors and the health and welfare of the communities they reside in.
Charlotte has long been a community where residents commit to giving time and resources for civic service. Charlotte averaged 30.5 percent volunteerism in 2006. That percentage went up last year to 32.6 percent. The 403,000 volunteers put in 50.3 million volunteer hours, time estimated to be a $982 million economic contribution.
Now, that's puffing-out-your-chest worthy. The largest percent of Charlotte volunteers – nearly 31 percent – spent time tutoring or teaching. About 44 percent volunteer through religious groups or activities; about 23 percent do so through education.
Nationwide, nearly 61 million Americans volunteered in 2007, giving 8.1 billion hours of service, estimated to be worth $158 billion, according to the Volunteering in America report released by the Corporation for National and Community Service. Find the report at https://www.VolunteeringinAmerica.gov.
And though Charlotte saw a rise in volunteers, nationwide an estimated 22 million or one in three volunteers stopped doing so between 2006 and 2007. And it's not because they don't have the time.
Consider the amount of time volunteers and non-volunteers spend watching television. Volunteers report spending 15 hours watching TV while non-volunteers spend 23 hours doing so. That eight-hour difference adds up to more than 400 volunteer hours a year, the report said.
Volunteers make time to do this important work. They are increasingly necessary as economic difficulties push more Americans into the need category.
Don't stand on the sidelines and applaud these volunteers. Join them. It is vital to the health and prosperity of communities and the nation that people commit to such service, and that public and private entities encourage and enable their efforts.
Thanks to our volunteers! Come join us in Charlotte, NC
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Still A Fixer-Upper
August 9, 2008
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Still A Fixer-UpperBased on the figures, it will take ten months for the inventory of homes on the market to be sold. That’s down from a multi-decade peak of 11.2 months in March. The glut of homes has pushed prices down, scaring away would be buyers who don’t want an asset that could lose value. The new home market is trying to stabilize writes Ned Davis Research Analysts in a note. But other housing metrics, including a broader measure of inventories, still look grim. Inventory of New Homes For Sale
Based on the current sales pace, it will take ten months to clear out the inventories of new homes.Existing HomesThe supply of existing homes for sale is near an all-time high says Global Insight economist Patrick Newport. Vacancies for new and existing homes clocked in at 2.8 percent in the 2nd quarter of 2008 according to the census bureau compared to a long term average rate of 1.7 percent. Rising foreclosures and weak home sales mean the excess could remain stubbornly high-indeed, it could go up-through the rest of this year, says Newport.PricesSince peaking in July 2006, the Standard and Poor’s Case Schiller 20 city Home Price index lost 18.4 percent through May. But the rate of decline is moderating notes Wachovia analyst Gina Martin Adams. At least a temporary bottom in housing appears to be forming she says. We’ll wait a few more months before we buy into the idea that this spring marked a true bottomMortgage RatesThough the Federal Reserve cut its funds rate 3.25 percentage points in eight months to 2 percent, the average 30 year fixed mortgage rate has barely budged. Lenders, desperate for capital amid a credit crunch are keeping rates high so they can more easily resell the loans to investors. Freddie Mac said the 30 year fixed rate climbed to 6.63 percent the week ending July 24, the highest level since the credit crisis began a year ago, though it fell back to 6.52 percent a week later. Wells Fargo economist Scott Anderson says the Fed might hike rates to 3 percent by year end. That could push the 30 year mortgage rates above 7 percent for the first time since April 2002 he says. If this doesn’t push housing demand even lower it certainly will work against a robust economy.
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
AP Shaila Dani, Kristen Girard.
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Still A Fixer-UpperBased on the figures, it will take ten months for the inventory of homes on the market to be sold. That’s down from a multi-decade peak of 11.2 months in March. The glut of homes has pushed prices down, scaring away would be buyers who don’t want an asset that could lose value. The new home market is trying to stabilize writes Ned Davis Research Analysts in a note. But other housing metrics, including a broader measure of inventories, still look grim. Inventory of New Homes For Sale
Based on the current sales pace, it will take ten months to clear out the inventories of new homes.Existing HomesThe supply of existing homes for sale is near an all-time high says Global Insight economist Patrick Newport. Vacancies for new and existing homes clocked in at 2.8 percent in the 2nd quarter of 2008 according to the census bureau compared to a long term average rate of 1.7 percent. Rising foreclosures and weak home sales mean the excess could remain stubbornly high-indeed, it could go up-through the rest of this year, says Newport.PricesSince peaking in July 2006, the Standard and Poor’s Case Schiller 20 city Home Price index lost 18.4 percent through May. But the rate of decline is moderating notes Wachovia analyst Gina Martin Adams. At least a temporary bottom in housing appears to be forming she says. We’ll wait a few more months before we buy into the idea that this spring marked a true bottomMortgage RatesThough the Federal Reserve cut its funds rate 3.25 percentage points in eight months to 2 percent, the average 30 year fixed mortgage rate has barely budged. Lenders, desperate for capital amid a credit crunch are keeping rates high so they can more easily resell the loans to investors. Freddie Mac said the 30 year fixed rate climbed to 6.63 percent the week ending July 24, the highest level since the credit crisis began a year ago, though it fell back to 6.52 percent a week later. Wells Fargo economist Scott Anderson says the Fed might hike rates to 3 percent by year end. That could push the 30 year mortgage rates above 7 percent for the first time since April 2002 he says. If this doesn’t push housing demand even lower it certainly will work against a robust economy.
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
AP Shaila Dani, Kristen Girard.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Metro Areas and Transit: Charlotte and More
August 8, 2008
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Metro Areas and Transit: Charlotte and More:
America’s major metro regions may be on the verge of transit independence. They tap federal aid when they can but increasingly find money for system expansion right at home. They’re learning to get cities and suburbs on the same page as they prepare for he post-petroleum era.While Atlanta and Detroit seem stalemated, look what’s happening elsewhere:
Houston has decided to move ahead with building an integrated five-corridor light rail system. Denver continues to construct its ambitious 119 mile 4.7 billion FasTracks system of light rail that voters decided, 58 percent to 42 percent in 2004. Charlotte is celebrating 13,000 passengers-a-day patronage, 4000 ahead of projections on the first corridor of its Lynx rail system launched last November. The Seattle region’s Sound Transit Board has just voted unanimously to put a 15 year mass transit package, including bus, commuter rail and a 53 mile regional light rail system on this November’s ballot.This December, Phoenix opens a 20 mile light rail link from its downtown to neighboring Tempe and Mesa…and so it goes across the US…check Dallas, Salt Lake City, Sacramento, Washington, Portland, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Norfolk and more. In amazing numbers, rail transit systems are either experiencing record ridership or expanding or both.And right now there is a serious impediment: fuel bills, budget shortfalls, and about a fifth have been obliged to cut back service…and another, fast-rising construction costs for new lines.But the future path of metro rail systems in America is unquestionably upward, triggered by congestion, spiraling gas prices and citizen demand.
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Metro Areas and Transit: Charlotte and More:
America’s major metro regions may be on the verge of transit independence. They tap federal aid when they can but increasingly find money for system expansion right at home. They’re learning to get cities and suburbs on the same page as they prepare for he post-petroleum era.While Atlanta and Detroit seem stalemated, look what’s happening elsewhere:
Houston has decided to move ahead with building an integrated five-corridor light rail system. Denver continues to construct its ambitious 119 mile 4.7 billion FasTracks system of light rail that voters decided, 58 percent to 42 percent in 2004. Charlotte is celebrating 13,000 passengers-a-day patronage, 4000 ahead of projections on the first corridor of its Lynx rail system launched last November. The Seattle region’s Sound Transit Board has just voted unanimously to put a 15 year mass transit package, including bus, commuter rail and a 53 mile regional light rail system on this November’s ballot.This December, Phoenix opens a 20 mile light rail link from its downtown to neighboring Tempe and Mesa…and so it goes across the US…check Dallas, Salt Lake City, Sacramento, Washington, Portland, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Norfolk and more. In amazing numbers, rail transit systems are either experiencing record ridership or expanding or both.And right now there is a serious impediment: fuel bills, budget shortfalls, and about a fifth have been obliged to cut back service…and another, fast-rising construction costs for new lines.But the future path of metro rail systems in America is unquestionably upward, triggered by congestion, spiraling gas prices and citizen demand.
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Growing Pains in SouthPark, Charlotte NC
August 7, 2008
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Traffic problems hit development
Drivers in the SouthPark area are fond of using the tiny streets in Piedmont Town Center as a shortcut.
When Piedmont Town Center opened several years ago in the South Park area, residents and business owners hoped the development would become a popular place to live and shop.
They didn't expect it to become a popular driver shortcut with high-speed traffic.
Now residents and businesses in the center find themselves conflicted about what to do. They want to slow down – even deter – traffic so pedestrians feel safe walking to and from the shops. On the other hand, the businesses need traffic to drum up interest.
“We bought these units knowing we weren't on a cul-de-sac,” said Thomas Golen, president of the Piedmont Row Residential Condo Association. “The volume of traffic is just so high, though, that we feel things could have been planned better.”
Piedmont Town Center is on Fairview Road near the intersection of Barclay Downs Drive. Throughout the day, Barclay Downs Drive bustles with drivers trying to get onto Fairview Road from South Park mall and nearby offices and neighborhoods.
Getting through the choked intersection can be slow. So during rush hour, dozens of drivers funnel onto the tiny arteries running through Piedmont Town Center: Piedmont Row Drive, Carnegie Boulevard and Bulfinch Road.
Some residents have unaffectionately dubbed the route the “Barclay Downs Bypass.”
Restaurant managers in the area say they don't mind the increased traffic because it can be used to boost business.
“Our problem isn't that we can't get people here,” said Brian Boyce, general manager of Dolcetto wine bar. “The problem is they can't get out when they do want to leave.”
Boyce said he and other business owners have thought about how they might capitalize on the situation, perhaps providing to-go services. Food, bottled wine and other products could be delivered to customers' cars while they're sitting in gridlock.
A similar idea has occurred to Paula Cocking, co-owner of The Dinner A'Fare, a meal-preparation business at Piedmont Town Center. Cocking said she just worries about the speeding drivers who have become commonplace after rush-hour traffic has died down.
The streets in Piedmont Town Center are privately-owned roads, which means the development, not police, is responsible for controlling traffic there.
Residents and business owners have considered installing speed slowing measures such as speed humps or the gentler speed “tables.”
Cocking and others said something will have to be done before someone gets hurt.
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Traffic problems hit development
Drivers in the SouthPark area are fond of using the tiny streets in Piedmont Town Center as a shortcut.
When Piedmont Town Center opened several years ago in the South Park area, residents and business owners hoped the development would become a popular place to live and shop.
They didn't expect it to become a popular driver shortcut with high-speed traffic.
Now residents and businesses in the center find themselves conflicted about what to do. They want to slow down – even deter – traffic so pedestrians feel safe walking to and from the shops. On the other hand, the businesses need traffic to drum up interest.
“We bought these units knowing we weren't on a cul-de-sac,” said Thomas Golen, president of the Piedmont Row Residential Condo Association. “The volume of traffic is just so high, though, that we feel things could have been planned better.”
Piedmont Town Center is on Fairview Road near the intersection of Barclay Downs Drive. Throughout the day, Barclay Downs Drive bustles with drivers trying to get onto Fairview Road from South Park mall and nearby offices and neighborhoods.
Getting through the choked intersection can be slow. So during rush hour, dozens of drivers funnel onto the tiny arteries running through Piedmont Town Center: Piedmont Row Drive, Carnegie Boulevard and Bulfinch Road.
Some residents have unaffectionately dubbed the route the “Barclay Downs Bypass.”
Restaurant managers in the area say they don't mind the increased traffic because it can be used to boost business.
“Our problem isn't that we can't get people here,” said Brian Boyce, general manager of Dolcetto wine bar. “The problem is they can't get out when they do want to leave.”
Boyce said he and other business owners have thought about how they might capitalize on the situation, perhaps providing to-go services. Food, bottled wine and other products could be delivered to customers' cars while they're sitting in gridlock.
A similar idea has occurred to Paula Cocking, co-owner of The Dinner A'Fare, a meal-preparation business at Piedmont Town Center. Cocking said she just worries about the speeding drivers who have become commonplace after rush-hour traffic has died down.
The streets in Piedmont Town Center are privately-owned roads, which means the development, not police, is responsible for controlling traffic there.
Residents and business owners have considered installing speed slowing measures such as speed humps or the gentler speed “tables.”
Cocking and others said something will have to be done before someone gets hurt.
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
The Latest News from Charlotte's Historic South End
August 6, 2008
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady® and Condo CanDo® in Charlotte, NC
Post Properties drops plans for South End development
Post Properties Inc. has scuttled plans to build Post Plaza South, a 300-unit apartment complex on South Boulevard at Remount Road. The Atlanta-based developer, citing difficult market conditions, says it will also terminate its contract to buy the site.
Post Properties disclosed the decision Tuesday in its second-quarter earnings report. A company spokesman was unavailable for comment. Among its holdings in the Charlotte area, Post Properties owns Post Ballantyne, a 319-unit apartment development in south Charlotte; Post Gateway, a 436-unit property on North Cedar Street; Post Park at Phillips Place, which totals 402 units; and Post Uptown Place, a 227-unit development on North Graham Street.
In its financial report, the company says it lost $27 million, or 61 cents per diluted share, in the second quarter. In the same period last year, Post Properties earned $62 million, or $1.40 per diluted share.
Post Properties (NYSE:PPS) incurred a loss on its funds from operations of $12.6 million, or 29 cents per diluted share, in the latest quarter. In the same period last year, its funds from operations totaled $22.1 million, or 49 cents per diluted share.
Funds from operations is the primary earnings measure for real estate investment trusts.
Post Properties operates in 10 markets across the country. The company owns 22,435 units in 62 developments.That’s news from South End!
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady® and Condo CanDo® in Charlotte, NC
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady® and Condo CanDo® in Charlotte, NC
Post Properties drops plans for South End development
Post Properties Inc. has scuttled plans to build Post Plaza South, a 300-unit apartment complex on South Boulevard at Remount Road. The Atlanta-based developer, citing difficult market conditions, says it will also terminate its contract to buy the site.
Post Properties disclosed the decision Tuesday in its second-quarter earnings report. A company spokesman was unavailable for comment. Among its holdings in the Charlotte area, Post Properties owns Post Ballantyne, a 319-unit apartment development in south Charlotte; Post Gateway, a 436-unit property on North Cedar Street; Post Park at Phillips Place, which totals 402 units; and Post Uptown Place, a 227-unit development on North Graham Street.
In its financial report, the company says it lost $27 million, or 61 cents per diluted share, in the second quarter. In the same period last year, Post Properties earned $62 million, or $1.40 per diluted share.
Post Properties (NYSE:PPS) incurred a loss on its funds from operations of $12.6 million, or 29 cents per diluted share, in the latest quarter. In the same period last year, its funds from operations totaled $22.1 million, or 49 cents per diluted share.
Funds from operations is the primary earnings measure for real estate investment trusts.
Post Properties operates in 10 markets across the country. The company owns 22,435 units in 62 developments.That’s news from South End!
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady® and Condo CanDo® in Charlotte, NC
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Martha Stewart Visits Our Neighbors in Kannapolis
August 5, 2008
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady® and Condo Cando® in Charlotte, NC
About Our Neighbors in Kannapolis and Their Latest Visitor to the NC Research Campus
Banners came down for Martha
She was the secret guest that caused Kannapolis officials to remove tattered Dale Earnhardt markings.Now we know the identity of the secret guest whose visit to Kannapolis caused local officials to remove the tattered banners honoring the late Dale Earnhardt in the NASCAR driver's hometown.
It was Martha Stewart.
Stewart, the lifestyle guru, was the guest of billionaire developer David Murdock on Thursday and Friday. She visited the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis and made a quick shopping trip in the Cabarrus County city Thursday afternoon. Stewart said she was in Kannapolis to take ideas from the research campus to her Center for Living at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.
Last week, city workers took down banners honoring Earnhardt after an official at Murdock's real estate company and a local tourism official said some of the banners were dirty and torn and might upset a Murdock guest, who wasn't identified.
Lynne Scott Safrit, president of Castle & Cooke, Murdock's development company, said Stewart's visit had been planned for months.It's hard to work around those schedules, she said.
Stewart had dinner with Murdock late Thursday evening and left Kannapolis on Friday.
During her visit Thursday, she toured a research laboratory with Murdock. It's scheduled to open later this year.
The banners honoring Earnhardt had been placed along Dale Earnhardt Boulevard. Kannapolis city officials helped the Cabarrus Convention and Visitors Bureau in taking down the banners, following a request from Castle & Cooke. But earlier this week, Kannapolis city officials said they would continue to honor Earnhardt's memory and would be spending $25,000 for improvements at Dale Earnhardt Tribute Park.
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady® and Condo Cando® in Charlotte, NC
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady® and Condo Cando® in Charlotte, NC
About Our Neighbors in Kannapolis and Their Latest Visitor to the NC Research Campus
Banners came down for Martha
She was the secret guest that caused Kannapolis officials to remove tattered Dale Earnhardt markings.Now we know the identity of the secret guest whose visit to Kannapolis caused local officials to remove the tattered banners honoring the late Dale Earnhardt in the NASCAR driver's hometown.
It was Martha Stewart.
Stewart, the lifestyle guru, was the guest of billionaire developer David Murdock on Thursday and Friday. She visited the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis and made a quick shopping trip in the Cabarrus County city Thursday afternoon. Stewart said she was in Kannapolis to take ideas from the research campus to her Center for Living at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.
Last week, city workers took down banners honoring Earnhardt after an official at Murdock's real estate company and a local tourism official said some of the banners were dirty and torn and might upset a Murdock guest, who wasn't identified.
Lynne Scott Safrit, president of Castle & Cooke, Murdock's development company, said Stewart's visit had been planned for months.It's hard to work around those schedules, she said.
Stewart had dinner with Murdock late Thursday evening and left Kannapolis on Friday.
During her visit Thursday, she toured a research laboratory with Murdock. It's scheduled to open later this year.
The banners honoring Earnhardt had been placed along Dale Earnhardt Boulevard. Kannapolis city officials helped the Cabarrus Convention and Visitors Bureau in taking down the banners, following a request from Castle & Cooke. But earlier this week, Kannapolis city officials said they would continue to honor Earnhardt's memory and would be spending $25,000 for improvements at Dale Earnhardt Tribute Park.
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady® and Condo Cando® in Charlotte, NC
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