If you are planning on visiting the seasonal ice skating rink in Uptown Charlotte, you only have a couple more weeks. “WBT’s Holiday On Ice” runs through January 10, 2009. It is open daily from 11 am and 10 pm.

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to visit Chima Brazilian Steakhouse (pronounced “She-ma”) located in the former Home Federal Savings and Loan Building. Chima occupies the lower two levels of this building, while The Trust luxury condos are on the floors above.

If you decide to go to Chima, you better take your appetite with you! For $40 per person, you are served food until you tell the servers to stop. Whether you are on the first or second floor, there is a centrally located salad bar on each floor that is self serve. Then your servers bring you various meats that they cut from large skewers right at your table. Some of the meats that I sampled were: beef ribs, swordfish, flank steak, baby top sirloin, filet mignon, chicken wrapped in bacon, and ribeye. The food was excellent and I would definitely suggest trying it if you are a meat lover and have a big appetite!

The picture below is of an area on the second floor adjacent to Chima’s bar area.

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, the uptown charlotte real estate landscape is really starting to improve with the additions of new buildings on College Street. Starwood Hotels is opening one of their boutique “aloft” hotels on College Street at The Epicentre. The hotel, scheduled to open November 1st, will be unlike any other in Uptown Charlotte.

They recently launched a couple of websites to help keep interested parties updated. To see what aloft is all about, you can visit the pre-opening website, blog, or main website.

With Epicentre’s scheduled opening within the next couple of months, I thought I would update you with more details on the commercial tenants. This is a list that I received from a reliable source with names, locations and expected opening time frame.

Building A (Corner of Trade & College)
1st Floor
Bank of America branch - opening end of April
Black Fin (2 Story Irish Pub) - opening end of April
Fudgery - opening end of April
Cold Stone Creamery - opening end of April

2nd Floor
Smoothie King - opening in mid April
B Gallery - (Women’s clothing store) - opening mid April
Women’s Shoe Store (name has not been decided) - opening in April

3rd Floor (top)
Roof Top Terrace (public venue for guests to rent)- opening in March

Building C (College & 4th)
1st Floor
Flemings Steakhouse - Opening in April
Nail Salon - opening in April
Hair Salon - opening in April
PJ’s Coffee & Wine - Opening in April

2nd Floor
Jason’s Deli - opening in April
AT & T Concept Store - opening end of April
Space above the 2nd floor will be office space

Building D (Corner of 4th & Light Rail)
1st Floor
Bowling Alley - opening in May
Flying Biscuit - opening late April or May
Shane’s Rib Shack - opening in May

2nd Floor
Wild Wing Cafe - opening in April
Five Guys - opening in April
1st Charlotte Physicians - opening in April

3rd Floor
Movie Theater - opening in June or July

Building E
1st Floor
CVS - opening end of May or June

2nd Floor
Clothing Store - opening May/June
Thai Restaurant - opening May/June

3rd Floor
Office Space

Other notes of interest:
Grand opening will be in April or May.
The covered walkway connecting the Omni Hotel to Epicentre will be completed at the end of March.