Shovels Will Be Turning

Long anticipated, dirt will soon be turning in the northern part of downtown Charlotte. The first announcement was the UNCC Classroom Building on the corner of East Ninth and Brevard Streets. This development will bring an Iconic structure into the city, not just another building. The design is intended to look like a pile of books, and will be 12 stories, including professors offices, classrooms, lecture halls, as well as some ground floor amenities.
The construction of this building will essentially put it on the future LYNX northern extension, which will run directly into the main UNCC campus. You would think someone was actually planning this!
The overall scope of this project will be connected to an underground parking deck covered by a 4.5 acre park between East Seventh and East Eighth Streets. This park is ideally located across from ImaginOn, and cattycornered from Reid’s. It will also become a convenient lounging space for the UNCC students.
The size of the Classroom Building will allow for thousands of students to be integrated into the downtown area.
The second announcement, coming as somewhat of a surprise, was the announcement of the North Carolina Dance Theatre Headquarters and Studio space. The street level studios will have expansive glass frontage on North Tryon Street creating great pedestrian activity similar to the cooking classes at the Johnson and Wales Main Classroom building on West Trade Street.
These two projects will begin almost immediately, and mark rebirth of the North Tryon corridor. These projects will have the effect of bringing more people into this area, which will spur additional development of retail designed to service them. The value of properties located nearby will increase in value as the ability for people to walk to their jobs is highly sought after, especially for the “creative class”.