Old Convention Center Site Languishes Under Uptown Watch

CHARLOTTE-This largest of city-owned parcels of Uptown land has been the focus of numerous redevelopment proposals, some grander than others, and still the structure sits silent and vacant.

Pennslylvania-based LCOR was the latest interested developer to present a $315-million vision for the property to the Charlotte City Council. The grandiose plan, consisting of hotels, office towers, apartments and condos, retail space, a theater and a park, finally collapsed when LCOR wanted to change the terms of its original agreement with the city.

LCOR no longer wanted to buy the land in two $7.5 million payments. Instead, it wanted to buy or lease it over 20 years. The council considered setting up a payment program that would be the criteria for a new agreement, but negotiations with LCOR were still incomplete when the deadline for that agreement arrived. Arranging financing was still a factor.

In a published statement, LCOR vice president John Infantino says the council’s 9-1 vote against accepting the company’s proposal to change the terms of the agreement effectively ends talks between LCOR and the city. Infantino believes that a few more months would have given LCOR enough time to have met the council’s requirements. He thinks LCOR might bid again in the future.

The one positive vote for LCOR, Councilman Rod Autrey says is that the company had invested more than $1 million in the project and deserved more time. Before LCOR, the city had dealt with two other bidders. Spectrum Properties of Charlotte had offered $12 million and proposed a mixed-use complex for the site. the firm’s offer is still on the table.

In 1999, Michigan-based Taubman Centers Inc. withdrew its offer to build a department store on the land after Nordstrom and Saks Fifth Avenue announced they were planning stores at SouthPark Mall.