Charlotte apartments offer luxury amenities galore

Higher-end amenities come with higher rents, but developers say they help keep overall housing prices lower

The following article appeared in the December 11, 2024, edition of The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with smart and original local news for Charlotte. We offer free and paid subscription plans. More info here.

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In the fierce competition for tenants, Charlotte apartment developers are adding speakeasies, golf simulators, rock-climbing walls — and concierge cat care 😸

The Sound Lounge, a vinyl record lounge, at the new 24-story Linea apartment tower in South End is one of several upscale features designed to push the limits of luxury. It will have a record player and a large collection of vinyl records for residents to enjoy. (Rendering courtesy of NiceDay Creative)

by Tony Mecia

Just a few years ago, Charlotte’s most upscale apartment complexes were breaking new ground in luxury living by adding dog-washing stations and nice pools.

Today, those amenities of yesteryear have become standards, and the city’s top-of-the-line apartments are branching into many new first-class directions.

They’re building speakeasies and vinyl record lounges. They’re installing communal golf simulators, rock-climbing walls and pizza ovens. And next year, two high-rise apartment towers will open featuring 24/7 concierge service — attendants who can water your plants and even feed your cat while you’re out of town.

Developers say the move toward ever-higher levels of luxury stems at least in part from the impulse to one-up competing apartments. But they say it also signifies Charlotte’s evolution into a major city, as people from New York and Chicago move here and come to expect luxuries like the ones they had in those markets.

“As Charlotte is emerging from kind of like a secondary city to a primary city, these are the services that people that are moving and relocating — your high-rise renters — are looking for and are used to,” says Kory Gebhart, the general manager of Linea, a 370-unit, 24-story apartment tower that is finishing construction on Hawkins Street in South End. Developed by Portman Holdings, Linea (pronounced “LINN-ee-ya”) is located beside and attached via skybridge to The Line, the 16-story office tower with Sycamore Brewing on its ground floor.

Gebhart says that when he moved to Charlotte two years ago from Chicago, he found it “impossible” to find a building with the level of service that he was accustomed to.

“I had to settle,” he says.

But now, with the planned opening of Linea in January, full-time concierge service will be more widely available. The service, including the cat-feeding, is also expected at Oro Ballantyne, a 26-story, 356-unit tower opening next year that shares the same property management company, Bozzuto.

Don’t worry: There are perks for dog-owners, too. Linea, where residents are expected to start moving in next month, will have dog-washing stations with provided towels and “maybe some doggy perfume.” It will also have a partially covered dog park, which developers say is perfect for taking a dog to do its business even if it’s raining.