CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Despite a still sluggish real estate market, The Vue Charlotte is now set to open Sept. 1.
The building is about 50 percent sold, but the developer says he is not lowering the prices.
Dan Mclean is optimistic the real estate market is recovering in the Queen City, so for now, he's keeping the prices where they are. The current range is $400,000 to $2 million.
"It's a high-end luxury building and it looks like it's going to be the only one built in a long time," Mclean said from the project's uptown sales center.
He believes it'll be three to five years before another residential high-rise is even started in uptown Charlotte.
"We really have the only product for the next, probably, three years," he said.
Mclean's MCL Companies bought the project two years ago after the original developers failed to get financing to start construction.
"I think it's safe to say that almost all investors in real estate are nervous," he said.
In September 2009, Mclean had his own difficulty. Work at The Vue stopped after the contractor claimed it hadn't been paid in months. Mclean was candid in explaining what happened.
"It was kind of a bump in the road when it was changing from one funding group to the next funding group," he said. "There are a lot of financing partners involved in this transaction and most of them are offshore European investors."
It's a bump in the road, but not the first for residential towers in the city. The high-rise set for the top of the Epicentre was never built. And the Park Condos on South Caldwell is still a shell after the building foreclosed. Property records show a new investment group bought it, but so far construction has not resumed.
"It's unfortunate for all of them, but it did keep Charlotte from getting what I call overbuilt," Mclean said.
Looking at real estate listings in uptown, some would say that's already happened. Even Mclean says in a good market, The Vue Charlotte would be 75 percent sold. Still, he was confident his project would beat the odds.
"I was never in doubt we'd get it finished," he said.
While The Vue will claim the title of newest high-rise in uptown, there is competition from existing buildings. We checked listings with the Carolina Multiple Listing Service and found 29 units on the market in the nearby Avenue Condominiums. Nineteen are for sale in Trademark on West Trade.
Just around the corner, another high-rise, Catalyst, has turned into a rental complex. The developer there tried, but could not get enough of the units sold.
The Vue Charlotte should be finished in August with the first closings tentatively planned for September.
"The building is topped out. The windows are all in and we've pretty much got all the balcony rails up and we have seven floors of drywall to finish," said Mclean. "I think Charlotte is better off than most places around the country."
