This Northwood Ravin project is continuing the massive boom along Stonewall

Their project will be situated directly east from Crescent Stonewall Station — where the new Whole Foods is going — and they have set themselves up to enjoy the future of Charlotte.

Here’s the quick background

In a few years Stonewall Street will be the place to be in Charlotte. Starting at Bank of America Stadium and heading east towards I-277, we will have the Lincoln Harris/Observer development, Tryon Place, Westin/615 S College, Crescent Stonewall Station, this Northwood Project, Brooklyn Village and the Presley apartments. With the exception of the Presley, all these projects are going to be transformative and will help Charlotte to continue to be a truly urbanized area.

As for Northwood Ravin’s project, here are a few high level details:

• 400+ apartments
• 12,000+ square feet of office
• 8,000+ square feet of retail
• Rooftop wine bar
• Open air plaza
• 20-story (approx. 250’) high rise

Here’s my take on the design

Upon first glance at these renderings, I was blown away by the design. Clean, modern and unlike most things we see in Charlotte. Even the design of the mid-rise apartments was better than 90% of the complexes we have seen built in this city.

However, as I dug closer with colleagues I grew concerned. There was a giant blank wall facing pedestrians as the sidewalk sloped down toward the garage. The parking entrance is right in the middle of the project, hurting the curb appeal for pedestrians. The plaza was way too big and did not complement the sidewalk. I feared with only 8,000 square feet of retail (essentially only enough for one signature restaurant) the plaza would be dead space that no one would use.

But many of these issues will be resolved in the final design

David Ravin, president of Northwood Ravin, said there is more to the streetscape plans than the rendering led me to believe. Here are a couple things he had to say.

The garage entrance has to be there on Stonewall Street. Without diving into the details, the placement of the entrance/exit here is really the only place the city and state transportation departments would approve it.

The wall leading to the garage won’t be blank. Ravin said “treatment of the wall will be key.  It will not be a black concrete wall.” I am personally hoping for a “green wall” filled with ivy and wood. I would also love to see the columns along the garage to be covered in art.

There will be a dedicated left turn lane to get into the garage from Stonewall. Also exiting cars from the garage will only be able to take a right on Stonewall. This should help make it a bit more pedestrian friendly as cars won’t be flying in to get on and off Stonewall. Also, there will be more street parking shown in the rendering so this should help drivers stop treating Stonewall like a highway and slow down.

There will be more retail than originally reported. As for the plaza, I thought it was way too big. I had a vision of the future and the future looked to me like this plaza hardly being used by anyone other than office workers due to a lack of reasons for people to be in the plaza in the first place. Ravin said there will be more retail than the initial numbers reported, the retail will be closer to the street and there will be a fantastic interior plaza/garden area. He said there will be components in the final design that will make this a destination rather than a stop.

Please note the rooftop wine bar

I must mention that there are plans for a rooftop wine bar, so that’s amazing. Nothing else to be said there, huge win.

Also, they are using the same streetscape materials as Crescent is using in their Stonewall Station project. This will really help Stonewall feel cohesive as pedestrians will be able to go from one project to another and feel like it’s all been planned to work together.

Construction could start this fall

The project has an approximately two-year construction timeline. So while this project is very far out, it is important to keep an eye on all the Stonewall projects as they represent the next generation of Charlotte development.

I will continue to monitor this project and I hope to see some updates on the improvements to the streetscape, urban plaza and pedestrian focus.

Cover image courtesy of  Northwood Ravin