Construction underway on luxury Stonewall Street apartments uptown

Construction is under way on Fountains Uptown, a luxury apartment complex at East Stonewall and McDowell streets.
Work on the the six-story, 230-unit complex began in early January, after Charlotte-based Proffitt Dixon Partners bought the 2-acre site from the city of Charlotte for $3.8 million last year. It will feature a two-level clubhouse, an elevated saltwater pool and a rooftop patio with skyline views. The project’s first units will be completed by mid- to late-summer with full completion in 2015, said Wyatt Dixon.

The project comes amidst an apartment complex building boom, with 14 projects under construction in uptown and South End, according to Center City Partners.


“We certainly see a lot of competition out there over the next 18 to 36 months,” Dixon said. “While we don’t have plans to begin pursuing other infill opportunities right now, we believe that quality urban living in Charlotte is here to stay. This will bode well for Charlotte’s long-term prospects. It will certainly be more challenging in the short term, however.”

Mayor convenes job fair with 62 employers on hand

Mayor Patrick Cannon announced Monday that job-seekers will have a chance to interview with more than 60 employers at The Mayor’s Job Fair, to be held later this month. The city said that as of Monday, 62 employers had signed on for the event, to be held Feb. 22, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Sheraton Charlotte Hotel, 555 S. McDowell St.

“Although unemployment rates have fallen, we must not take that downturn in unemployment for granted,” Cannon said. “There are people in Charlotte who are skilled workers, but are still looking for a position. My goal is to connect people who need jobs with local companies that have jobs available right now.”
Cannon, who has been working with the Charlotte Chamber, the Hospitality and Tourism Association and other groups, said employers in the job fair will have entry-level and supervisory openings to fill.

The employer registration deadline is Wednesday.  The event is free for job-seekers but they must also register. To do so, go to www.charmeck.org, click on “Charlotte Mayor,” then “News.”

The 19 hottest hiring sectors in Charlotte

The latest unemployment numbers out last week showed that the Charlotte area's post-recession recovery is still gaining strength.  But many people are still out there looking for work. If you want to understand which sectors are doing the most hiring, this analysis by Economic Model Specialists Inc., an arm of the Careerbuilder job search firm, breaks down which industries are adding jobs the fastest. One noteworthy nugget: the much-discussed resurgence of Charlotte's (high-tech) manufacturing sector shows up on this list, with the Queen City ranking 9th out of the 50 biggest metropolitan areas nationally in percent growth in manufacturing since 2010.

Council member: Forget the streetcar, build east-west light rail line

After reading my recent story about the cautionary note Atlanta's recent snowstorm mess sounds for Charlotte's future growth, City Council member Claire Fallon called to say she's more determined than ever to push for an east-west light rail line. She says she can't see redevelopment coming to east Charlotte without it.

"I'd take it from Sunset (Road in northwest Charlotte) to Monroe (Road in southeast Charlotte) with a spur to the airport," she told me. "I don't think it's practical to even consider not doing it. This is getting to be a big city with a lot of people coming to it. You're going to have to find" ways to move them.

What about the much-debated east-west streetcar line, the first leg of which is already under construction? Not the long-term answer, Fallon says. She believes it's going to take light rail to reshape development patterns on the east and west sides. She supported the City Council's recent move to spend $12 million for engineering work on the 2.5-mile streetcar section running through the center city, but she's not sounding like she's on board with the long-term plan to extend the line from Beatties Ford Road in the west to the old Eastland Mall in the east. She says if she could have her way, she'd tie the current streetcar plan into an east-west light rail system.

To call it a longshot would be putting it mildly. Such a project would be eye-poppingly costly. And the city's already struggling to find money for the much less-expensive streetcar project. But she's scheduled meetings with CATS officials to talk about how to make an east-west light rail line happen. "I think they think I'm nuts," she adds, chuckling. "At least let's start the dialogue. I figure there's a 30-year build-out. I figure the first ten will be people talking and saying, 'This is ridiculous, we can't do it.'"

"But we're going to have to do something. We can't stay the way we are and move people."

Knowing the passions the streetcar alone has aroused, all I could think of to say in response was, "Well, good luck..."

What do you think of her idea?

Chinese TV report: Charlotte is new corporate mecca

Charlotte's apparently making a name for itself in Chinese business circles. We received fairly dramatic evidence of that recently when a Chinese yarn manufacturer announced plans to open a big factory in Lancaster County and employ 500 people.

Now comes this TV news report from China Central Television, a state TV broadcasting company in mainland China, that digs into the growing trend of Chinese firms setting up shop in Charlotte, and in the Carolinas more generally. The folks at the Charlotte Regional Partnership posted it on their site with good reason. It's virtually an ad for the business-friendly reception firms can get in Charlotte and the Carolinas.

With Chinese labor costs rising and American power costs sinking, experts say we can expect to see more Chinese firms setting up shop in the near future.

Three questions Atlanta's 'Snowmageddon' raise for Charlotte

Several of my Facebook friends have posted this article from Politico, which takes a long hard look at the urban planning and development missteps that helped set the stage for the 'Snowmageddon' that hit Atlanta Tuesday. Basically, the writer, a longtime observer of Atlanta's history and development, concludes that the lack of a coherent regional mass transit system and fractured local government have left the Atlanta metro area vulnerable to gridlock in a fast-developing civic emergency. Judging from our story today, our local elected officials deserve a tip of the hat for correctly zigging where the Atlanta officials zagged.

Still, the whole thing left me with a couple of questions about Charlotte's growth and development:

Question No. 1: Will our mass transit and roads system keep up? The Charlotte-Mecklenburg region is growing. We're beginning to build the next leg of the LYNX light rail system. But it's just the beginning of our planned regional mass transit network, and at the moment, there's no money to pay for the rest of the Charlotte Area Transit System's 2030 plan.

Question No. 2: Is our regional cooperation strong enough? The region has a history of counties and cities coming together around broader civic goals like transportation and economic development. But the recent fight over Charlotte-Douglas International Airport exposed some serious cracks in our regional armor. And folks in fast-growing Ballantyne have been making noises for years about pulling out of the city of Charlotte and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.

Question No. 3: Is the changing nature of how people live, work and play reducing the chances that the next few stages of Charlotte's development will mirror Atlanta's descent toward the dark side of the suburban sprawl equation? I've attended a number of local and regional conferences recently in which major Charlotte developers (most recently SouthPark builder Johnny Harris) have stressed that many in the younger generation of workers/consumers simply aren't as attracted as their parents were to the idea of living in far-flung suburbs. They want to live near the urban core, with walkable neighborhoods, street-level retail and mass transit at the ready. The South End makes the obvious case in point.

Maybe what happened in Atlanta was just the product of bureaucratic bungling, and nothing more. But as Charlotte's population growth propels it inexorably toward the upper ranks of America's cities, these sure seem like questions we should all be asking.

Coming to Charlotte: 50 high-paying manufacturing jobs

Canadian manufacturing firm Eclipse Automation Inc. is expanding its operations to Mecklenburg County, bringing 50 new jobs in the next three years, Gov. Pat McCrory's office said Monday.  Eclipse supplies custom automated manufacturing equipment to help companies build efficient assembly and testing operations. The firm's new facility will be located in Whitehall Technology Park in southwest Charlotte.

The company, based in Ontario, Canada, will be offering salaries averaging more than $75,000, officials said. Openings for several engineering posts to be stationed in the Charlotte office are already being advertised on the company's website.

"I'd like to thank Eclipse for creating valuable manufacturing jobs here in North Carolina," McCrory said. "Manufacturing has been a big part of our state's past and will continue to be a large part of our state's future."