CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Between this year and next, construction was projected to be completed on eight towers across Uptown Charlotte's landscape. But the COVID19 pandemic has severely impacted pretty much all facets of daily life.

Charlotte Center City Partners spoke with Spectrum News via video conference about how the center city's construction boom is fairing.

But, in video we captured, there was no hustle and bustle of Uptown workers and relatively few passing cars. This is all due to social distancing guidelines and employees working remotely or from home.

“It's having a significant impact across all of our stakeholders across the center city, and none are spared,” said Michael Smith, CEO for Charlotte Center City Partners.

All that remains in this period of social distance in across Uptown Charlotte vast landscape: the stark, and yet promising, sound of development. “It's too early to know how long or short, how sustained this is going to be, and therefore, the impact it will have on our financial system and on our developments,” Smith added.

Center city Charlotte has been here before. Not trying to escape the grips of a pandemic, but rather caught in the grips of sudden economic slowdown right in the middle of a building boom. “We are pulling out the 2008 playbook, where we adapted our services so dramatically,” Smith said.

Towers under construction back then had to be abandoned for years due to developers struggling under economic pressure. Fast forward to our current crisis and Smith says, “..there's been limited impact to date.”

Currently, there are at least 20 cranes spanning Center City, Midtown, and Southend. As it stands, and according to press releases, three towers were scheduled to open this year, including the Grand Bohemian “luxury” hotel in April. Prior to the pandemic, 4.6 million square feet of office space and more than 3,500 apartments were under construction.

But at least one project in Uptown Charlotte has been put on pause in the wake of the pandemic. Smith spoke about a decision by the equity to put the planned project on hold. The mixed-use development, when completed, will be built on a 1.2 acre lot between 9th and 10th streets of N. Tryon St., complete with plans for a Publix grocery store on the bottom floor. The development has been billed as a key part of the “North Tryon Vision Plan" to redevelop the northern end of center city.

Yet, Smith was optimistic about the construction that has continued so far this week, until a stay-at-home order was issued by Mecklenburg County and City of Charlotte officials. “That would obviously put a pause on so much of the construction that is going on right now,” Smith said.

But he says CCP's focus will remain on driving strategies that build Uptown's economic, social, and cultural capital.

“We are at Center City Partners adapting our services and seeking ways to creatively help.” Help, he elaborated by, preparing for the recovery, whenever that comes. “[Being]...a resource to both make sure that our partners know of the business continuity services that are available, and, also trying to understand what are the challenges that they're facing,” he said.

He hopes that the explosive growth we've seen across Uptown Charlotte's landscape is only stunted for a bit and not completely cut off. “We have so much momentum going into this crisis, this disruption, but you've got debt and equity and great projects that are lines up behind it,” Smith said.