A lift for North Tryon

Today is Wednesday, April 29, 2026. You’re reading The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with local business-y news and insights for Charlotte, N.C. This post is sent to paying subscribers only.

Good morning! It’s Tony. I regularly tell our team that reporting what happened yesterday is easy, but anticipating what’s happening tomorrow is tough – and we want to tell you where Charlotte is going, not just where it has been. This morning, Ashley Fahey takes a close look at previously undisclosed plans for the future of North Tryon Street uptown, where Charlotte Ballet is raising tens of millions of dollars for the novel idea of an arts hub that includes affordable housing for dancers and other artists. Plus Lindsey Banks tells us of upcoming plans for a “Braille Trail” near NoDa, I examine hotel guests’ complaints about street noise … and a lot more!

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Today’s Charlotte Ledger is sponsored by T.R. Lawing Realty:

by Ashley Fahey

Eleven years ago, Charlotte Ballet leadership predicted that within five years, it would be out of space for its growing Charlotte Ballet Academy. Conversations about how to grow its North Tryon center in uptown began to warm up in the wings.

Then 2020 happened, which put ambitious projects across Charlotte and the world on pause. Now, six years later, the Ballet has raised more than a third of what it needs for an $80M project that will not only add long-needed space for its programs but also provide affordable housing to dancers and other artists.

It’s a carefully choreographed plan that, ballet leaders and investors hope, will set the stage for North Tryon’s next act.

The Charlotte Ballet’s campaign, launched in March 2024, will go toward building a new, 35,500 sq. ft. addition to its current building at 701 N. Tryon St., which was built in 2010. Additionally, 78 affordable housing units for artists will be built by Laurel Street Residential on the back side of the block, at 10th and Church streets. Both projects will be built where a parking lot is today.

The Ballet’s expansion — which it has not previously detailed publicly — will include new, larger studios for its company and academy, a renovated black box theater (which will be made available for more arts groups to use), and new multipurpose and relocated office space.

“This is really about activating the city and trying to revitalize North Tryon and bring attention down here,” said Doug Singleton, the Ballet’s executive director, in a recent interview with The Ledger.

The project is ambitious, not only for the Ballet and for uptown affordable housing, but for North Tryon Street, a corridor that has long fallen out of step with its southern counterpart. Backers hope an artistic hub anchored by the Ballet, in concert with the nearby VAPA Center and McColl Center, could be the leap North Tryon needs.

Lynn Good, the former CEO of Duke Energy who is working with the Ballet on its campaign, said it should be remembered that the establishment of an arts hub — the Levine Center for the Arts complex — was important to spur what has since happened on South Tryon.

“It’s drawn business, it’s drawn retail, it’s drawn a variety of things that made that side of town special,” Good said. “I look at all of that as ingredients to revitalize downtown, to make it active all of the time — rehearsals, performances, people living there.”

The Charlotte Ballet has already raised over $20M for the project, headlined by a $10M donation from the Knight Foundation in 2024. Half of that will help fund the housing component of the project, while $5M will support the Ballet’s expansion. Other significant commitments for the project have come from the C.D. Spangler Foundation, The Leon Levine Foundation and Bank of America.

Charles Thomas, Charlotte program director for Knight Foundation, said the foundation invested in the project because it presented an opportunity to continue to catalyze development in the North Tryon district in an inclusive way. Thomas sat on the North Tryon Vision Plan committee for several years, and Knight has also invested in the new Main Library and Carolina Theatre along the corridor.

“Artists are similar to teachers, firefighters, police officers,” Thomas said. “The ability to be able to access affordable housing is a challenge in such a rapidly growing city.”

➡️ Learn more about the project 🩰 , including details on how Charlotte’s first artist-focused affordable housing plan will take center stage. PLUS: additional renderings

The general manager of the upscale Grand Bohemian Hotel uptown says the city needs to do a better job of putting a lid on excessive noise in the center city.

Hugh Templeman said that guest complaints about noise are recurring themes in online reviews of the hotel and are hurting its business — and caused it to spend $140,000 to install a third pane of windows on rooms facing the streets to protect visitors’ peace and quiet.

“It's the challenge of groups of people making large noise and creating an environment that feels unsafe,” he told The Ledger in an interview. He said much of the problem is from “kids on motorbikes doing burnouts, donuts.”

Templeman and several uptown residents raised their concerns in public comments to the Charlotte City Council on Monday night. Some residents said that while they understand they live in a city, the amount of noise is excessive and would not be tolerated in other parts of town.

The concerns follow the emergence of several social media videos in recent months showing “street takeovers,” in which vehicles do donuts as crowds watch. Residents say the incidents typically appear and disappear before police arrive, making it tough to crack down on the practice. 

The involvement of hotels in objecting to the practice could put new pressure on the city to find a solution. Templeman suggested installing cameras to catch offenders.

“We’re losing business as a city. I’m losing business as a hotel,” Templeman told the council.

He compiled complaints on review sites for several uptown hotels, in which visitors said they are unable to sleep because of revving engines, stereos, partying, traffic and emergency-vehicle sirens. In some cases, the complaints say the hotels should do a better job of soundproofing their rooms or not put guests in rooms facing the street.

The complaints included:

Templeman said he and other hotel representatives have been meeting with city officials, including Mayor Pro Tem James “Smuggie” Mitchell and City Manager Marcus Jones, to try to find answers. —Tony Mecia

🎥 WATCH the Grand Bohemian Hotel’s general manager speak to the Charlotte City Council about uptown street noise

In north Charlotte, a stretch of sidewalk is redefining what public art can be — and who it’s for. 

The “Braille Trail,” a one-mile interactive art installation spearheaded by Lions Services, is set along the Cross Charlotte Trail near North Tryon Street and Sugar Creek Station. (It’s also near the Independent Picture House and Soul Gastrolounge outside of NoDa.) Lions Services is a local nonprofit that helps those who are visually impaired and blind find employment. 

The project will debut its first four installations on May 21, blending art, technology and accessibility to create an immersive experience for both sighted visitors and those who are blind or visually impaired.

The idea began a few years ago, when Dana Draa, director of outreach and blind services at Lions Services, wanted to rename a street after a blind individual in the community and noticed a gap in how Charlotte honored residents with disabilities. 

“We hadn’t done a great job of documenting that,” Draa said. “If we don’t have it, then we will build it.”

Now, after two years of planning and raising money, the first phase of the Braille Trail will feature a “360” sculpture next to what organizers believe to be the world’s largest long cane. Nearby, tactile paving — which is still rare in most American cities — will guide blind visitors along the sidewalk. The yellow, textured blocks can be felt with a cane, signaling when to stop or go:

The first phase will also feature a mural and two internally lit towers that will serve as a gateway to a future installation. Visitors will be able to download an app to hear recorded messages tied to each piece, creating a multi-sensory experience.

Further down the line, Lions Services hopes to expand the trail with additional installations along the one-mile stretch, including a sensory garden and more interactive sculptures. Draa said the timeline for expansion will depend on funding.

She added that the Braille Trail is part of a broader vision for the surrounding area, known as the Trailhead Arts District: building one of the most accessible neighborhoods in the country. Lions Services is working with the Independent Picture House to offer closed captioning and descriptive audio, and Soul Gastrolounge to offer accessible point-of-sale devices. The neighborhood already has access to light rail, but Draa hopes other microtransit options will soon be available, too.

“How can we make a neighborhood where it's for everyone?” Draa said. “Right now, we like to think our neighborhoods are for everyone, but they're just not.” —Lindsey Banks

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Hospital Authority board has scheduled a special meeting for today with four hours set aside for a closed session, an unusually long stretch of private discussion for a public body.

The authority, which does business as Atrium Health, said in a public notice that the purpose of the meeting is to discuss “competitively sensitive health care information.”

North Carolina’s open meetings law requires public bodies to conduct as much of their business as possible in public view, said Amanda Martin, supervising attorney at the Duke University School of Law First Amendment Clinic. While the law allows closed sessions for limited reasons — including for competitively sensitive health care information — those exceptions are meant to be narrow, she said.

“Closed sessions should be the exception, not the rule,” she said.

Martin said sometimes it’s possible for a public body to justify spending several hours behind closed doors. A detailed discussion of personnel, for example, could take a while. 

But a planned four-hour session could invite skepticism, she said.

“They can only justify going in when they really have to,” Martin said. “That could call into question whether, out of a four-hour meeting, absolutely all of it had to be in a closed session. Really — none of that could have been in an open session? Maybe. It’s a little hard to believe.”

Atrium did not respond to specific questions about what types of competitively sensitive health care information would be discussed or whether more of the agenda could be considered for public discussion.

“The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Hospital Authority Board conducts meetings in compliance with North Carolina law, and any closed session is limited to matters permitted under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 143‑318.11,” the hospital said in an email. 

Kristina Wilson, an assistant professor at the UNC Chapel Hill School of Government who studies and writes about the state’s open meetings law, said the duration of a closed session alone is not enough to raise concerns. 

“The main compliance concern would be whether they announced a proper closed session purpose when they moved to enter closed session, and whether they stuck to that purpose within the closed session,” she said.

It’s not the first time Atrium’s board has held a lengthy closed session. In each of the past two Aprils, it announced similar special meetings with several hours behind closed doors.

In subsequent open meetings attended by a Ledger/NC Health News reporter, board members occasionally referred to prior discussions at what they described as a “retreat.”

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Hospital Authority is legally a unit of local government, a designation that comes with legal protections and tax exemptions that go beyond those of other nonprofits, but also carries requirements for transparency.

State law requires public bodies to not just vote in public, but to deliberate in public. At Atrium board meetings over the past three years, however, discussion has been rare, with most agenda items presented through PowerPoints before unanimous votes. More detailed conversations are referenced as having taken place in closed committee meetings.

Today’s board meeting is scheduled to start at 12:30 p.m. at The Pearl, Atrium’s new innovation district just outside uptown Charlotte. —Michelle Crouch

Charlotte businessman Felix Sabates — who fled Cuba at age 15 and became one of Charlotte’s most prominent entrepreneurs, with stakes in NASCAR teams and the Charlotte Hornets – speaking on PBS Charlotte’s “Unspun” on the topic of Charlotte’s present vs. its past:

Sabates was a guest on PBS Charlotte’s “Unspun,” which airs Fridays at 8 p.m. The Charlotte Ledger and “Unspun” invite you to a live taping on May 19 with former Gov. Pat McCrory – details here.

Events submitted by readers to The Ledger’s events board:

TOMORROW: “Estate Planning and Wealth Management Forum,” 7:15 a.m. to 5 p.m., at Queens University of Charlotte, 1900 Selwyn Ave. This single-day, in-person conference offers a comprehensive educational program featuring nationally recognized experts, networking opportunities, sponsor booths and continuing education credits. Join Queens University of Charlotte for the premier estate planning program of the Carolinas. $360. (Current North Carolina and South Carolina university students and faculty can contact the Queens team to receive a discount link for a $75 registration fee.)

SUNDAY: “IPH Book Club Discussion - ‘Misery,’” 2-3 p.m., at Independent Picture House, 4237 Raleigh St. “Misery” is a gripping psychological thriller by Stephen King that delves into obsession, survival and the darker sides of human nature. The book club discussion will be facilitated by Claire Lechtenberg and Nathan Rouse. A movie screening will follow the discussion. Free. 

MAY 9: “Kids Night Out: Music and Art,” 5:30-8:30 p.m., at Arts+ Community Campus, 2304 The Plaza. Come bring your kids for a fun night in while you take a break with a night off! Children will enjoy an evening of play and creation as they sing, dance and make beautiful artworks. $50.

MAY 14: “High Performance and Leadership Event,” 5-9:30 p.m., Bank of America Stadium, 800 S. Mint St. Horváth USA’s annual premier C-level leadership event continues this May in Charlotte, NC! Join us at The Anatomy of Peak Performance: What High-Stakes Leaders Do Differently. An exclusive evening designed for senior executives navigating today’s demanding environment. $60-$90.

➡️ List your event on the Ledger events board.