It’s been almost week now since some surprising aviation news in Charlotte was announced. United Arab Emirates airline Etihad Airways said it would begin nonstop service between Charlotte and Abu Dhabi, the first new foreign carrier in years — and Charlotte's first nonstop flight to the Middle East. According to the Charlotte Ledger Business Newsletter, that announcement wasn’t just a surprise for travelers, but also for Charlotte Douglas itself. For more on this, and other business stories, I’m joined now by the Ledger’s Tony Mecia for our segment BizWorthy.
Marshall Terry: So this announcement was made last Friday, and you report Charlotte Douglas wasn’t even aware of Etihad’s interest until just two days prior. I mean, I don’t know how the airline industry works, Tony, but that seems like impossibly short notice to me. Am I wrong?
Tony Mecia: Yeah, I mean, you would think large airlines and a large airport [that] things don't necessarily move rapidly, but here it did move very rapidly. Our reporter, Ted Reed, talked to the airport. They told him that, yeah, they got the call on Wednesday for the announcement that came on Friday.
And now, I mean, these flights don't start until May of next year, Marshall. So, I mean, they have a little bit of time to figure things out — what gate and how they incorporate it into the schedule, things like that. But it does seem like it moved awfully fast.
And as you mentioned, I mean, this is a big deal for Charlotte. And it's going to be the longest, nonstop flight in Charlotte's history — almost 14 hours there and about 15 hours coming back.
Terry: Now, this announcement came on the heels of President Trump's recent trip to the Middle East. Is that just a coincidence?
Mecia: It doesn't seem like a coincidence. The timing, as we mentioned, seemed very quick. And it did follow a recent trip last week from President Trump to the Middle East. The White House had said the airline would spend $14.5 billion to buy 28 Boeing planes. And then a day later, the airline confirmed that and announced it was flying to Charlotte. So it does seem like there's some connection there.
Terry: Let's go now to SouthPark where a developer wants to turn an office building into apartments and townhomes. Which building?
Mecia: Right. There's an office building at 5825 Carnegie Blvd. This is sort of behind the Piedmont Row. There's a lot of office buildings back there. And it's a two-story office building built in 1993. It now has a medical products company in there. Northwood Raven, which is an apartment developer, filed a rezoning petition with the city recently that calls for 360 housing units to be part of a development there.
Terry: Well, what's fueling this tear-down trend in SouthPark in particular, where it seems like there's one of these announcements every month?
Mecia: Well, this is really not just SouthPark. It's all over the city, Marshall, where we know we have a shortage of housing units. And, at the same time, we have an older stock of office buildings that really could be put to better use with apartments and townhomes. So, I mean, we're seeing that in SouthPark, certainly in a number of locations throughout the city, really. This is something that's going on [and] it's really sort of longer term forces.
Terry: Let's end on something else that appears to be a trend. No more free parking this time at The Bowl at Ballantyne. So, how much is it going to be?
Mecia: Yeah, like other hotspots, like Optimist Hall — which you might recall, Marshall, a couple of years ago announced that it was going to start charging for parking after people had been there for a certain amount of time. The Ballantyne Bowl has now said it's going to do the same thing — and that you can park there for two hours for free, but that third hour is going to cost $8. And each subsequent hour will cost $2 up to a maximum of $20 a day.
Now, I don't know if anybody's actually parking for the day in some of these lots. It's designed to be a retail area. You got the Olde Mecklenburg Brewery there. You have a number of restaurants. The idea is that they really want to have turnover in those spaces. They don't want people hogging those spaces all day. A spokeswoman for Northwood Office told us that it's designed really to ensure that parking is available for their customers.
Support for BizWorthy comes from the law office of Robertson and Associates.
