Let’s face it; foreclosures in Ohio didn’t cause this international development and architecture firm to pull this product from the market. Their spokespeople can sing the economic conditions card all day long, but the reality of it is that the market spoke…loud and clear. 

While condos sell in Manhattan for $2,500+ per square foot, there is one minor detail that should be considered: Charlotte is not Manhattan! This obvious but important detail seems to have been realized a little later in the game than one might expect.

But why spend the hundreds of thousands of dollars opening a first-class sales center and kicking off a national advertising campaign? Did it seem that plausible? It must have seemed like a good idea to someone sitting in their snarky office overlooking Central Park. One can only wonder what charts and statistics they looked at when planning this building.

The most expensive home ever sold in the greater Charlotte area is in excess of $6M. The estate, which was about the size of the average subdivision, featured every imaginable amenity. In the Uptown there were only seven condos sold in 2007 over $1M—including the most expensive condo ever sold Uptown at $2.5M. Where, I wonder, were the people supposed to come from to purchase 99 condos at One Charlotte? They hoped to attract buyers who follow John Portman nationally. That’s not how real estate works though. People don’t normally buy condos and build a life around it. To think that people will chase after your project because of the name on the side of it is rather—well, arrogant. 

What’s really going on though is much more important to notice. The tide is changing. It seems that reality is setting in. The times of “put anything out there and it will get eaten” are winding down. Supply and demand and the free market respond. Sometimes slowly, but they respond. Consider The Citadin and The Garrison—two stalled developments with little chance of getting going again. Even if they are able to get going again, they will likely have the same difficulty that The Enclave has experienced in trying to bring a development back to life.