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The project as a whole was the brainchild of First Union (now Wachovia) Bank, with Childress Klein as overall developer and Dennis Richter and Clay Grubb as the developers for the housing component. Everybody involved deserves a lot of credit.
* Richter and Grubb also collaborated on my third example, Latta Pavilion on East Boulevard in Dilworth. On a three-acre site between Scott and Kenilworth, and rising to five floors fronting East Boulevard and Fillmore Street, FMK Architects (again) have neatly fitted in 20,000 square feet of street level retail, 13,000 square feet of second level office space, 162 apartments, and 101 condominiums. All this accommodation is served by 450 parking spaces in a mid-block deck. There is no other compact, integrated development to match it in Charlotte.
Like both the previous projects, Latta Pavilion is a classic example of infill development being inserted into an existing urban context, and lifting the surrounding area to a new level of sophistication. It brings a pedestrian focus to a busy street, and is likely to stimulate other new developments along East Boulevard. The architects, as they did so successfully at the Ratcliffe, have articulated the street facades into a series of projecting and recessive planes that reduce the apparent scale of the buildings. The presence on the street is reminiscent of the boulevards in great European centers, or fine American cities like Boston or San Francisco.
Despite the enthusiastic endorsement of the Dilworth Community Development Association, and the support of city planning staff who prepared new street design standards to promote this kind of innovative project, the development has been so difficult to bring to fruition that Richter says he would think twice before embarking again on a similar project. His partner Clay Grubb reluctantly agrees. The problems distill to two major obstacles: money and parking.
Infill developments like this one are finely balanced in terms of development risk. Nestled in mature neighborhoods, they're a safer marketing bet than building in the suburbs, where cutthroat competition is the norm, but they're more costly and complicated to produce. The average turn-around time from inception to the construction start of a suburban project is typically six months to a year; for infill like Latta Pavilion, this extends anywhere from 2-6 years, with consequent financing costs.
One of the major expenses for infill projects is parking. A typical surface parking space costs about $1,000. For that same space in a deck, the price jumps to $16,000, and if the deck is underground, to $25,000 per space. These parking prices make infill developments -- unless they're served by transit, which reduces the need for parking -- very hard to pull off. Richter and Grubb have produced a minor miracle.
Gateway Village and The Ratcliffe happened because major developers, the big banks, were willing to cover the parking costs themselves and accept a more modest return on their investment in the short term, offset by the longer term advantages of a good, lively urban environment that attracts and supports an energetic workforce. The unforgiving economics of development that constrain most developers were bent to accommodate the desires of giant financial institutions, with the result that high quality, creative urban development became possible.
Most of the time, harsh economic realities push developers into easy, repetitive formulas of strip malls and office parks, products with proven track records of economic success. The fact that these types of development promote the environmental and social problems of suburban sprawl doesn't seem to matter to the lending institutions.
It's very significant that Richter and Grubb couldn't find a single bank in Charlotte to fund their innovative Dilworth project. They had to go to a lender in Alabama! Bank of America under McColl's leadership talked a good game about financing "smart growth," and McColl's personal commitment to uptown spurred a plethora of good development. First Union/Wachovia have followed that lead. But the rank and file managers in the lending departments have failed to get the message. They would rather finance the kind of sprawling development that drags this city down. It's time for a wake-up call to echo in the elevator shafts of uptown's towers. The time for rhetoric is over. It's time for action, for progressive lending policies, and not just on the banks' own pet projects.
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So Long And Thanks For All The Fish
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Repairer of the Breach
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Dilworth Drama Redux
May 11, 2005 - More »
Calendar
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Juneteenth: Queen City Comedy Jam @ Blush CLT
- Fri., June 20, 8-10 p.m.
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Juneteenth: Queen City Adult Prom @ Blush CLT
- Fri., June 20, 10 p.m.-2 a.m.
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Queen Charlotte Fair @ Route 29 Pavilion
- Mondays-Sundays. Continues through July 5
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Coveted Luxury Watches
- Mondays-Fridays, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Continues through Dec. 30
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AllMachines
- Through Dec. 30, 12-9 p.m.
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Diary of a CATS rider 10
The true tale of a commuter who ditched her car to ride public transportation for five days — and lived to talk about it
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Fall Books
NC Lit Talent On ParadeCL Carolina Writers Night brings McCorkle, Gurganus and more
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Inside the Secret World of White Supremacy 4
A visit to Laurens, S.C.
