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"We have to take the stairs, the elevators are in repair,” Realtor Shane McDevitt says. Not what you’d expect from a place billed as Charlotte’s foremost in luxury boutique living. Nonetheless, I tighten the belt around my coat, shift the purse on my shoulder, and prepare to trudge up sixteen flights of stairs in four-inch heels to check out the rooftop of an old bank building less than a block from the corner of Trade and Tryon. The building I am about to tour will be some of the most expensive real estate Uptown has to offer. But to understand its future, you have to know its past.
The Home Federal Savings and Loan building was built in 1967. Some say it was one of the first signs of Charlotte’s growing presence on the world financial scene. Home Federal enjoyed decades of success. In the late 1990’s, First Charter Bank of Charlotte purchased Home Federal and the bank’s offices were relocated. In 2000 Charlotte real estate developer Byron, LLC purchased the former Home Federal building. The developer wanted to figure out how to turn the building into office space, but parking issues prevented anything from moving forward. The old bank building sat for years.
Enter Jim Donnelly. Donnelly says he fell in love with the place as soon as he walked in, and he made an offer 30 minutes later. “Some things in life are obvious,” he says. He doesn’t describe himself as a developer, but he does own another building in town. He owns Emerson Joseph, the men’s grooming salon, and the building in which it is located, with his wife. Before they moved to Charlotte, Donnelly already had a couple of successful startups under his belt: a golf-ball company and an Internet travel company. He says his new project is not one from which he’s looking to make his millions. He simply wants to make something to be proud of.
Donnelly has renamed the building ‘The Trust.’ He mulled over about 40 names, including “The Vault” (I tell him jokingly that “Vault” reminds me of a soft drink…would the walls have been painted neon green?). “The name ‘The Trust’ honors the building's past,” Donnelly says. He’s marketing the building with an edgy–and, he admits, somewhat conceited–catchphrase: “Are you Trust-worthy?”
“It’s not for everyone. It’s very exclusive. And if that’s what you’re looking for, then this will be the most special project in town.”
Back on the building tour, McDevitt and I step from the hustle and bustle of Tryon Street into the first floor of The Trust. This is the future location of The Trust’s very own restaurant. Owner Donnelly has been looking for inspiration in Miami…Switzerland.... Vietnam.... Right now it’s just an empty shell: lots of concrete, lots of exposed wiring. But I am promised it will rise from the ashes and become an Uptown hotspot. McDevitt graciously shows me around, but I can tell he is anxious to move on, to show me what this old building really has in store.
We head to the next floor (and the first of sixteen flights of stairs). A spiral staircase leads us to the mezzanine level, and McDevitt tells me that this will be the location of a swanky lounge. There’s not much to see right now. Details for the lounge are still being ironed out. Donnelly is still traveling, looking for inspiration, waiting for the building to come to life. The Realtor is anxious to move on. He wants to keep climbing.
After another flight of stairs, we stop on the first residential level of The Trust, the third floor. McDevitt steps back to soak in the enormity of the empty space in front of him. Right now, it’s about 7,000 square feet of wide-open concrete. It’ll soon be divided into two condos and customized to the owners' specifications.
But there’s something immediately impressive about the space: the windows. The entire story is lined with nearly floor-to-ceiling windows. Even more impressive: the windows don’t just open, they rotate 360 degrees, providing a nearly unobstructed view of the city.
Here’s the nitty-gritty of the condos that will be housed in The Trust: to put it bluntly, you’ll get a lot of bang for your buck. Besides sitting pretty at one of the hottest addresses is town, you also get a custom-built condo. Owners will get 35 hours with an architect and unlimited access to a design team. Imported granite countertops and hardwood floors. CAT-5 wiring for your computer, TV, stereo and security system. Viking Designer Series appliances. But if you want Sub-Zero or any other make, no problem. The condos will be built to your specifications. Want the bedroom by the windows? Done. Want the kitchen by the home office? Done. Want lots of exposed pipes for the ultra-trendy, contemporary industrial feel? Done. Prefer the gracious style of old southern architecture? Done. Whatever you want, it’s yours at The Trust. Donnelly puts it best: “Whatever it takes to delight people, that’s what we will do.”
The third, fourth, and fifth floors will be split in half: six condos in all, each offered at 1.3 million dollars. The sixth and seventh floors will be kept intact, each sold as an entire floor. That’s nearly 7,000 square feet of luxury real estate. The price tag for these full-floor condos tips the scales at 3.4 million dollars.
“What will be standard here at the Trust would be considered an upgrade anywhere else in town,” says McDevitt. Still, as excited as this young Realtor is to show me these amazing spaces, there is another feature of The Trust that he is even more anxious to showcase: the rooftop.
Ten minutes later, out of breath, a little warm and joking that I’m glad I skipped the gym earlier, we step over an old piece of decaying machinery, through the doorway, and into the afternoon sun. The pièce de résistance: the future rooftop terrace of The Trust.
Now McDevitt’s face lights up like a kid on Christmas morning. He walks toward one end of the roof, yelling back “Hope your heels can handle the gravel!” He points out some landmarks in the distance and, like a proud papa, tells me about the awesome skyline view owners will have. He strides excitedly across the roof to the side that overlooks Tryon Street and points to nearby buildings.
“There are architectural details on the buildings you can see up here that you can’t see from street level,” he says.
But trust me, anyone who spends time up here won’t be looking at other buildings. They’ll have plenty right in front of them. The rooftop terrace will include an outdoor kitchen, a Jacuzzi, a fire pit and water walls.
It was going to include a putting green, but after a lukewarm reaction from buyers, that idea was scrapped and designs now call for a South Beach-style pool. Never heard of one? Neither had I. It’s a wall of water that feeds into pool area shallow enough that lounge chairs will sit in the water. Imagine: you’ll get the best tan of your life lying there on the rooftop of The Trust. No getting up and down and readjusting your bathing suit for dips in the water. You’re already in it. Perhaps the most luxurious feature of this rooftop terrace will be its exclusivity: only you and your neighbors will have access. And you’ll only have seven neighbors if you buy a condo at The Trust.
We hang out on the rooftop a little longer than we need to, checking out the city traffic, talking about how cool it’ll be for owners when they can watch parades or Fourth of July fireworks from here. Then I tighten the belt around my jacket, shift the purse on my shoulder, and we begin the trek back down those sixteen flights of stairs.
On the walk down to street level, McDevitt runs the rest of the details by me: parking is designated behind the building in a secure, covered lot. Each condo will get at least two spots. Each condo owner and their family will get full memberships to Core Fitness, also located right behind the building. Then, after you’ve bronzed yourself on the rooftop in the South Beach-style pool, worked out in the gym, and admired the view from your 360-degree rotating windows, you can head to Emerson Joseph for a shave, haircut, massage, or any of their other pampering services. Owners at The Trust (the men, anyway) also get a membership to the very cool, very casual, men’s grooming salon.
Right now, half of the units in The Trust are sold. Donnelly considers his project and says, “The thing that I am least concerned about is selling the units. This is something I’ll have my name on. 20, 30, 40 years from now, it’ll still be the most special building in Charlotte.”
The first owner will move in by the end of November. It’s going to be gorgeous. Grandiose. Luxurious. And when that first owner arrives, it’ll even have working elevators.
~ Morgan Fogarty
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