So, last week at this time we looked at how that massive worldwide tech outage affected flights out of Charlotte. We’re turning our attention again to Charlotte Douglas International, which this week unveiled two new skybridges and gave an update on the ongoing construction project that’s causing headaches for travelers.
Joining me now to talk more about it and other business stories is Tony Mecia of the Charlotte Ledger Business Newsletter for our segment BizWorthy.
Marshall Terry: So, airport officials have said they're seeing a record number of fliers this summer. Will these new skybridges alleviate some of the congestion?
Tony Mecia: I think, Marshall, it has the potential to do that a little bit. You know, there's a lot going on at the airport. There are a lot of people flying out of the airport, and it feels crowded at times. These skybridges go above the departures level and they provide another way for people coming from the hourly deck or the rental cars to get to the lobby without having to cross in front of all that traffic outside of baggage claim. So it could help the traffic. It's not going to help the larger issue of all of these people traveling with construction going on in the lobby, but this could help with the traffic.
Terry: Now these bridges are one part of a much bigger overall construction project at the airport. And when the bridges were unveiled on Monday airport officials gave an update on when the construction is expected to end. What did they say? And remind us what all the construction involves.
Mecia: Sure, airport officials have previously said construction at the airport is never really going to end. There will always be something going on and something in the future, and that's a characteristic of a growing airport.
But the main project, which is the lobby terminal expansion, that should be going for about another year and a half. They keep hitting milestones and keep finishing portions of it. But there's still a lot more to do over the next year and a half or so; things that include, you know, finishing the ticket counters for American Airlines, improvements to baggage claim and new baggage claim areas, TSA Checkpoint 2 — and this is separate from the expansion of the A Concourse, in which they're adding 10 gates off of the existing A Gates. So there is a lot going on at the airport, to be sure.
Terry: Now I want to ask you about a story in The Charlotte Observer this week, and that is office vacancies are still a big problem with empty buildings post-COVID. But according to a report, there are signs that could be turning around. What are you hearing on that?
Mecia: That's sort of the optimistic view. I know by a lot of brokers who always have been saying that there is a lot of activity and a lot of interest in a lot of these buildings. I'm not really quite seeing that yet.
We still have a lot of empty uptown office towers, some of the older office towers, and even newer office towers are still empty. You have 110 East — brand-new office building that's been open for a few months that has no announced tenants. And it's very hard to build new offices now.
Down the road, could all of this lack of building new office space be a silver lining, in the sense that without that capacity, these offices are going to fill it? Potentially, but it doesn't seem like there are many concrete signs that companies are now flocking to the office in a way that they want before.
Terry: Finally, another longtime Charlotte restaurant has announced it’s closing. It’s the Showmars location at the government center uptown. Tony, this place has been a bit of an institution in that part of uptown for more than two decades, feeding not only workers but also reporters covering local government. Why is it closing now?
Mecia: So it sounds as though the Showmars at the government center is closing because it doesn't quite have the level of business that it would need to stay open. It's been there for about 20 years or so.
I mean, I can remember passing through there having lunch. You would see, you know, other journalists, you would see City Council members. But I think the problem is that the general public wasn't really eating there. You have to go through security to get into the government center. It's not exactly in a hotspot of activity. The City Council had tried to work with Showmars. They had cut the rent a few years ago to try to make it a little more sustainable, but apparently that didn’t work.