Skye (Charlotte) facts for kids

Skye, once called The Park, is a tall 22-story building in Charlotte, North Carolina. It has a 172-room Hyatt Place hotel that opened on October 15, 2013. The building also includes 67 condominium homes.

The Skye building is a great example of how big construction projects can change over time. It started with one idea and became something different, showing how cities grow and adapt.

Building a Dream: The Early Days

In 1985, a builder named Pete Verna started the project. He built the Charlotte National Building and a parking garage. These first parts were four stories tall. The Charlotte National Building even used the front part, called the facade, from an old First Citizens Bank building. This old bank building was taken down to make space for a new plaza. An expert named Jack Boyte said the rebuilt facade looked like a "classical Greek temple."

Plans for The Park Condos

In 2000, there were plans for a new luxury condo building in downtown Charlotte. It was going to be called The Park. However, the project was delayed because of money worries after the September 11 attacks.

Originally, The Park was planned to be Charlotte's second-tallest residential building with 126 homes. Later, the number of homes changed to 105 so they could be larger. The homes were planned to be between 504 to 1,859 square feet (46.8 to 172.7 m²). The site already had four levels of parking, and five more levels were added for parking. Construction was supposed to start in June 2004 and finish in Fall 2005. The building was even going to have a park and swimming pool on the roof, inspired by the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco.

Challenges and Changes

In January 2006, after many delays, construction was finally ready to begin on the $46 million project. Pete Verna's company was in charge. Many of the 107 homes were already sold. The Park was expected to be finished by December 2007.

But in March 2008, work on the building slowed down and then stopped. The builder, Pete Verna, said the project was 80 percent finished. On August 7, a bank bought The Park for $17.9 million. This happened because the original builders had financial problems and couldn't finish the project. Pete Verna later had to deal with serious money issues. The building project was put on hold. In 2009, a different company bought the building for $4.5 million.

A New Vision: Skye and the Hotel

The new owners decided to add more hotel rooms to the building. This was because many people needed places to stay, especially since Charlotte was hosting the 2012 Democratic National Convention. Even though the convention was coming soon, the owners could only promise that the outside of the building would look finished by then. The full building was set to be completed in 2013.

The ground floor of the building has 2,600 square feet (240 m²) of space for shops. The main lobby on the first floor has fancy stone floors and walls with wood. It also has imported marble and granite. Hotel guests use a special lobby on the tenth floor with its own elevators. This lobby has a modern style, mixing modernist and art deco designs.

The company Perkins Eastman was the architect for the project. Cleveland Construction helped finish building it.

The building was named Skye because of the amazing views from the planned rooftop restaurant, Fahrenheit. This restaurant opened in January 2014. The Hyatt Place hotel opened on October 15, 2013, and more than half of the condominium homes were already sold.

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