WSTB

Zalo and BornNBread both have really good posts.



This, I've heard the deal was contingent on it being a Charlotte Bank. A Bank from Atlanta wasn't going to merge and go to Winston.

Charlotte also is a finance center with a significant amount of PE, HF, and Fintechs in the area so I understand the shift there, so from a business and hypothetical recruiting (better talent pool) perspective I get it as well.

Now, will Truist actually be able to compete for talent in the market is an ENTIRELY different question, and I'm thinking they're going to find it a hell of a lot harder than they originally thought.

In another sign of the strange times ahead, Nascar Productions plans to move its operations and 170 employees from Uptown Charlotte to Concord.

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/n ... ation.html

This quote is from around 18 months ago. My how times have changed as Uptown Charlotte is becoming a ghost town:

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/n ... south.html

“In recent years, we’ve seen increasing interest from companies that want to be located within this burgeoning corridor of uptown Charlotte,” said Mark Holoman, Cousins' managing director. “With direct connectivity to Charlotte’s South End, and as employers and employees focus on area amenities for their teams, the timing has never been better for firms to establish a presence in this building."

The area’s revitalization around 550 South has seen new hotels pop up as well as office, multifamily and retail development.

There is direct access to the LYNX Blue Line, connecting users from UNC Charlotte through uptown and South End. And for rail-trail users, a new bridge will be coming to connect the gap over Interstate 277 by 2025.

Tenants at 550 South are less than a mile to all three uptown sports centers — Bank of America Stadium, Spectrum Center and Truist Field. Several new food options around the corridor continue to open, including Salata and Jinya Ramen Bar.

This puts NASCAR closer to the Charlotte Motor Speedway, which makes sense. And "...as Uptown Charlotte is becoming a ghost town..." (???)

I think Uptown Charlotte's vacancy rate is around 14-15%? South End is starting to pull some of the office tenants looking for space away from Uptown, but Uptown isn't struggling. South End has a lot of the qualities younger office workers are looking for.

I was in Uptown Charlotte several weeks ago, and the vibe is very strange. Office workers seem to be at around 25% of pre-pandemic highs. Homeless population seems to have doubled. The Epicenter, years after being "the" attraction in Uptown, is closed, and there seems to be very little else that is drawing people to Uptown. Even the Wake Forest School of Business Charlotte campus is moving from Uptown to Midtown.

Make no mistake, South End is thriving, NoDa is thriving, but Uptown? Beautiful skyline, very little "life" inside of it.

From what numbers I've seen, it appears as if office usage is at 38% nationally. Vacancy in Uptown is roughly two-to-three times higher than usual, so this also brings down the numbers. Thanks to Charlotte, Winston-Salem had to learn how to deal with reduced office workers in its downtown well before COVID-19 started. The work-from-home changes could actually help Winston-Salem, by allowing office workers to work for Charlotte companies and live in Winston-Salem. I really wish the BB&T / SunTrust merger could've held-off another year, until work-from-home allowed those employees to stay. This is a first for Uptown, though.

Epicenter ran into problems long ago and is now being sold-off. They had issues before COVID-19. I think even the roof was leaking? From what I've heard, expect to see a developer demolish it for another high-rise. Its days are numbered.