CHARLOTTE, N.C. — At 615 S. College St. in uptown is an office tower that started construction with no tenants signed in 2015. It quickly leased up, with Regions Bank and WeWork taking big blocks of space, and is today surrounded by even bigger towers rising on adjacent blocks.
At 615 N. College St., just 10 blocks and less than a mile north, is a quiet, undeveloped tract owned by Mecklenburg County and surrounded by acres of parking lots.
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Both sites are just off Tryon Street — uptown’s major thoroughfare and a favored address for major companies here — but they have remarkably different stories during an historic boom in center-city development.
That could change quickly if public-driven initiatives are put into action.
A transformation on North Tryon largely hinges on two key sites being redeveloped: the blocks bordered by East Sixth, North Tryon, East Eighth and North College streets, which includes five owners and a new uptown library as the signature project, as well as the Hal Marshall site — a county operations building on 12 acres that fronts the Blue Line Extension between Ninth and Eleventh on North Tryon and College streets.
“You don’t find opportunities like this, where you have (multiple) urban blocks that are being rethought in the heart of a very successful downtown,” said Rhett Crocker, president of LandDesign, which has worked with several groups on developing plans for North Tryon’s future.
Read CBJ's March 8 cover story for an in-depth look at the pieces falling into place for this uptown corridor.
Cox Media Group
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