On this Halloween we have a spooky start to BizWorthy, our weekly look at some of the latest Charlotte-area business news. One of the scariest things imaginable is — if you’re me anyways — is being shamed in public. If you fly American Airlines, take heed. The Ledger’s Tony Mecia joins me now for more on that, and other business stories.
Marshall Terry: Ok, Tony. So American [Airlines], which is Charlotte’s largest carrier, is testing technology that will shame you for jumping the line at boarding time. Are we talking a “Game of Thrones”-style “shame, shame, shame” chant for line jumpers?
Tony Mecia: Yes, Marshall, that’s exactly what we’re talking about — minus the gratuitous nudity and violence. They’re testing this technology in three airports — in Tucson, Albuquerque and Washington National. So it hasn’t come to Charlotte yet. But a lot of people seemingly want to kind of jump the line — say they’re boarding Zone 3 and the people are actually Zone 5. They’ll maybe try to board [and] this technology sets off an audible alert, which lets the gate agents say, ‘Hey, it’s not your time to board step back.’
Terry: So why are they doing this?
Mecia: They say it’s going to bring a little more order to the boarding process. Some people, they have credit cards or tickets that get them earlier boarding. And it’s not really fair to those folks if the masses are trying to board earlier. So, they just want to make sure it’s orderly and that people are actually following the rules.
Terry: OK. Over now to what you report is a rare apartment-complex sale in Charlotte. It’s the Museum Tower uptown. Who bought it, and what’s the plan?
Mecia: Yes. Northwood Investors bought the 42-story Museum Tower next to the Mint Museum Uptown. It’s several years old. This is just looks like an investment. They’re not really, I don’t think, going to do anything with that tower. It’s $153.5 million. There’ve been fewer of these sales because interest rates are high, financing is tough, rents are falling a little bit. So, it’s not a great time to maybe be an investor in commercial real estate at the moment. But this is the second-largest apartment sale in Charlotte this last year.
Terry: And your Commercial Real Estate Whispers section in The Ledger this week has information about office tower vacancies in Charlotte, including one that is 100% vacant. Really? 100%. What’s going on there?
Mecia: Yes, completely vacant. The Charlotte Business Journal reported this week using data from real estate from CoStar, looked at all large office towers in uptown and South End. The new office tower 110 East, which is near the corner of East Boulevard and South Boulevard is 100% vacant. They have not announced any tenants, although they’ve been open for the last few months, and they’re working on that. They say there’s plans to get office tenants in there. It’s just taking a little while given the current market.
Most of the other ones are older office towers. And I know you and I have talked about that before, Marshall, that with hybrid work and work-from-home arrangements, a lot of companies don’t want to take on new space, especially in older office hours. One Wells Fargo, 66% vacant; 400 South Tryon, 62% vacant. There are several others uptown that are really struggling with these office vacancies.
Terry: Well, keeping with the theme of today — things that are scary. I mean, I don’t know, vacant office buildings are kind of scary to me. I don’t know if you’ve ever wandered around one before.
Mecia: It sounds like the setting for a horror movie or something.
Terry: It does — that’s what I’m thinking of. All right. Well, onto Pineville now, where the Toys ‘R’ Us — which closed in 2018 when the company went bankrupt — is now serving a new purpose as a movie set. Which movie?
Mecia: The movie called “Roofman.” It’s a Channing Tatum movie, which they’re filming at various sites around Charlotte. The movie is based on a true story about a robber who would enter fast-food restaurants through the roof. And in 2004, he actually was hiding out in the Circuit City on Independence, which was right next to a Toys ‘R’ Us. [He] would go into the Toys ‘R’ Us at night and get some things for his bedding or steal some baby food. And so, apparently, it has to do with that. We also understand there is a fake McDonald’s in Waxhaw that is also a filming site. This movie is being filmed all over the Charlotte region.
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