Big changes could be in the works for part of uptown Charlotte. The new owner of a block along South Tryon laid out redevelopment plans in an interview with The Charlotte Ledger Business Newsletter. And The Ledger’s Tony Mecia joined WFAE’s Marshall Terry to talk about them for our segment BizWorthy.
Marshall Terry: Where along South Tryon are we talking exactly?
Tony Mecia: The old Two Wells Fargo Center complex. There's a plaza out front. It's in front of Mimosa Grill, across the street from Latta Arcade. A company called Riverside Investment & Development and Singerman Real Estate bought it.
They would like to convert the 31-story office tower into a mix of residential units and a hotel. Then there's also a smaller office building that they say they want to renovate. It's a good sign for that area. I think it also bodes well for the office market in Charlotte. We've seen some signs that it's maybe coming back to life a little bit.
There's a lot of empty office space. The fact that you have someone like Riverside coming in announcing these plans, and it's somebody that is actually doing some things and building some things — the Queensbridge Collective project in South End, they're building two towers — I think it bodes well for the future of office space in Charlotte.
Terry: Staying in uptown for a moment, the general manager of the Grand Bohemian Hotel says his guests are complaining about excessive street noise. I mean, it is uptown, right? What are they saying?
Mecia: The general manager of the Grand Bohemian says that guests are complaining about excessive noise, about cars with loud mufflers, cars doing doughnuts, bar noises, emergency vehicles, and that it's really excessive.
It's causing a problem, it’s hurting his business, it’s hurting tourism to the city, and he'd like something to be done about it. He was also joined by some residents of uptown who said they're seeing the same things. We've seen some of these street takeovers in the Uptown area. They said they're working with the city to try to figure something out. The general manager of the hotel suggested maybe they could put in more cameras, maybe step up some enforcement, but they'd like to see it maybe not as loud in the middle of the night.
Terry: On to some news in our industry, media. The Charlotte Observer is looking for someone to lead the paper and it appears the role combines the responsibilities of two top editors who just left. What’s the job description for this new position, and what does it say about how the local media industry is changing?
Mecia: McClatchy, which is the parent company of the Charlotte Observer, posted a job last week for the role of Charlotte Editor, which it says is “an audience-obsessed leader who can dramatically accelerate the newsroom's transformation.” This comes as a couple of the top editors, Rana Cash, who is the executive editor, and Taylor Batten, who's been with the Observer for more than 30 years, and was the managing editor, they are leaving.
This new role sounds like it's combining those two. I think this is part of an ongoing consolidation that you're seeing in media, trying to cut back on expenses. McClatchy has also been moving pretty heavily into artificial intelligence, using that to help out production. They say in this new role of the Charlotte Editor, they want someone who has an “enthusiasm for AI and emerging technologies.” I think it's just a sign of the times, consolidation and cost-cutting.
Terry: Charlotte tech company StreetFair is shutting down its app and becoming a part of a San Francisco-based company. What did StreetFair do and why make this move?
Mecia: StreetFair is a small company in Charlotte that uses technology to connect neighbors with home repair services like fixing your garage door, putting in drywall, or gardening, those sorts of things. They said they're closing down their app and website on May 15 as they're merging with a San Francisco-based company called Thumbtack.
They say look for them later this year, they’re going to start a new service called Thumbtack Neighbors, which sounds like it's similar to what StreetFair did. This is sort of the normal evolution of technology companies that sort of build and grow and then sell. It sounds like it's a good outcome for StreetFair.
Support for BizWorthy comes from the law office of Robertson & Associates.
