We now know the name of the $750M South End project and how tall the 3 towers will be
Charlotte’s skyline is getting a new look yet again.
One of the three towers that is part of a $750 million development will soar 42 stories into the sky, Anthony Scacco, the CEO of Riverside Investment and Development, told the Observer during an unveiling held Wednesday at the site.
The project is on the northern edge of South End leading into uptown, and is displacing the popular Midnight Diner.
In all, the complex will include a 42-story, 750,000 square foot office building, a 38-story apartment building with 350 units and a second 300-unit apartment tower standing at 30 stories, Scacco said.
The project also got a new name: Queensbridge Collective. It’s a nod to Riverside’s aim to better bridge and connect uptown and South End.
“We’re very bullish on Charlotte,” Scacco said. Construction on the 3-acre site is expected to at the end of this year.
The project will come in phases
The towers will be built in two phases.
The first phase covers the 38-story apartment tower and the office building, with the residential tower being finished by spring 2025 and the office tower completed later that year. The second phase, for the other residential tower, will be finished by mid-2026, Scacco said.
The development will include 2,000 parking spaces, both above and below ground.
Plans for a hotel are not yet clear. Scacco has floated the possibility before but said Wednesday any decision on whether to include one has been deferred to the second phase.
The office is speculative, meaning it was developed without a committed tenant or company in mind.
But Scacco said the team has given more than 20 leasing presentations to a variety of companies, from the financial sector to legal and technology. CBRE is handling leasing for the office tower.
Location, location, location
Riverside is working with Goettsch Partners of Chicago on the project. The firm has designed a number of office towers around Chicago, Nashville, Tennessee, and San Francisco. This would be its first in Charlotte.
The buildings were designed with the location in mind.
The office tower was designed to look more like the newer, shinier office buildings found in uptown while the residential towers were designed with materials and colors more similar to what’s seen in South End, Scacco said.
The project will include ground-floor retail and an outdoor plaza in between the buildings.
The office building will have 10 large balconies. The tenants on the top few floors will have access to a 7,000 square foot outdoor pavilion, Scacco said. He expects the office tower to have between 25 and 30 tenants.
The lower level outdoor plaza will have a restaurant serving it, as well.
New home for a diner?
The project would go up around East Morehead Street, Morehead Square Drive, South Tryon Street and East Carson Boulevard. Most will know it as the location of the popular Midnight Diner.
Brian Dominick was at Wednesday’s unveiling. He has owned the property since 1995, and said in November he planned to relocate the diner to make way for the development.
In January, the Observer reported it was going to a nearly 1-acre site at 420 E. Trade St. in uptown, near the Spectrum Center.
On Wednesday, Dominick told the Observer he plans to open a second diner in the University Area by the Tom Hunter light rail station.
Road improvements
Riverside has been working with Charlotte’s transportation and planning departments for the past nine to 12 months to study reimagining the surrounding traffic network. That includes widening Morehead Square Drive, South Tryon and East Morehead streets and East Carson Boulevard.
Riverside also looked into replacing the College Street connector.
Additionally, Morehead Square Drive would be realigned to keep northbound moving traffic headed to College Street, north of Morehead Street. And there would be new bike lanes and pedestrian crossings in the area, along with a pedestrian connection to the Carson Boulevard light rail stop, according to Riverside.
Other tower news
South End is getting plenty of attention when it comes to new tower development.
The submarket was just one of two in the country to double inventory of top-tier office space in the past five years, according to research firm CoStar Group. The only other neighborhood to do so was Fulton Market, just outside of downtown Chicago.
There’s been a flurry of recent announcements around other office and residential towers going up in the neighborhood.
Some of those projects include 110 East, a 23-story office tower planned for 2024 and a 30-story luxury apartment tower at the site of the iconic Price’s Chicken Coop, which closed last year.
This story was originally published March 9, 2022 at 6:44 PM.
