The skyline of Charlotte is rapidly changing. There is new construction everywhere  high-, mid- and low-rise. And it's not all office space...penthouses, condominiums, apartments and even single-family homes are becoming part of Uptown.

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Uptown is one of the city’s fastest-growing areas, with 9,000 residents now and perhaps double that in another five years. There is so much housing growth that the Multiple Listing Service has given Uptown its own designation: Area 99.

The city's cultural and entertainment venues and more than 150 restaurants and 40 late-night bars attract the urban crowd. With so much to do within walking distance, some Uptown residents park their cars on Friday and don’t move them the entire weekend.

Bank of America Stadium, home to the NFL's Carolina Panthers, anchors Uptown on the southwest end. At the other end of Uptown is the McColl Center for Visual Art. The city’s cultural district, dubbed North End, extends from the Center southward to the center of town, Independence Square, at Tryon and Trade streets.

North End includes Discovery Place science museum, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library, North Carolina Blumenthal Performing Arts Center, Spirit Square, the Mint Museum of Craft + Design, the McColl Center for Visual Art and a handful of private art galleries. The area also includes an the renovated Museum of the New South and the new $27.5 million ImaginON, a project of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library and Children’s Theatre that includes a youth library, classrooms, technology center, early childhood reading center, performance stages and a craft shop. At the site of the old Carolina Theatre, the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art will include works by modern-era artists including Edgar Degas, Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol.

Recently restored, the Charlotte trolley travels from the Atherton Mill in South End up to Ninth Street in Uptown. The #85 car was built at the Dilworth Trolley Barn in 1927 and is the only original electric trolley car still in operation. Three new cars joined the original to provide trolley rides seven days a week.

The new light rail system that began operating in fall 2006 shares the trolley corridor. The light rail connects Uptown to outlying cities and also runs through the Charlotte Convention Center and the Westin Hotel. Anticipation for the light rail system caused property values to skyrocket along the route.

The Charlotte Bobcats Arena is located at Trade and Caldwell streets home to the NBA expansion team and Charlotte's hockey team, the Checkers. Bobcats Arena also hosts numerous concerts, the Charlotte Jumper Classic as well as the circus.

The growing First Ward neighborhood, once the site of numerous parking lots, has seen significant changes in recent years, in part due to the construction of the new arena. The aptly-named Courtside, a 16-story condominium high-rise in First Ward at the corner of Sixth and Caldwell was completed in 2006. In First Ward’s Garden District around Ninth and Davidson streets near the trolley line, condominiums and “townloft” homes are available in a wide price range.

The Fourth Ward features turn-of-the-century homes in this quaint quadrant between North Tryon and West Trade streets. Once in a state of disrepair, determined homeowners and the bank that became Bank of America reinvented the Fourth Ward into one of the most charming spots in the city with its sidewalks and street lamps and cozy front porches.

Some new condominium mid-rises include 715 North Church, boasting 85 condominiums where some units are reserved for artists working at the McColl Center for Visual Art and offices on the ground floor. Fifth and Poplar, a 305-unit mix of penthouses, rental units, and town homes, offers a number of amenities, including a concierge service, state-of-the-art fitness center, central courtyard and its own Harris Teeter.

Several buildings continue to preserve Charlotte’s historic charm. See the 1928 Frederick Apartments, renovated as condos, and Settlers Place condo community, which incorporates the 94-year-old N. C. Medical College building.

Even Elmwood Cemetery, the historic green spot separating Fourth Ward from Third Ward, has become park-like for strollers and joggers.

Uptown’s southwest quadrant, Third Ward, features small, renovated homes mixed with new condominiums and apartments. On its southern side is Bank of America Stadium and on its northern side is West Trade and Gateway Village – Bank of America’s mammoth new mix of homes, retail and office space. The Village stretches along five blocks of West Trade and also has a YMCA. Gateway Lofts and Post Gateway Place near Trade Street add nearly 300 apartments to Uptown.

Johnson & Wales University enhanced Third Ward as it opened in the fall of 2004 with an $82 million campus and couple thousand students. There are several apartment buildings within walking distance of the University.

The Ratcliffe on the Green is an upscale condominium high-rise in Second Ward, an area in the southeast quadrant of Uptown previously occupied by mostly government buildings. The luxurious Ratcliffe offers an interactive park with fish fountains and landscaped walkways and is surrounded by an abundance of retail and office space. Other residential development around Marshall Park is called for in the city’s 2010 plan. It is predicted that Second Ward will soon be home to more than 2,000 new housing units.

Looking for a sophisticated penthouse? The Park  located at Third and Caldwell will be Uptown’s tallest residential structure and luxury abounds. From Concierge service to a 10,500 S.F. rooftop park on the 20th floor, with trees, a swimming pool and walking paths, will be a "rooftop oasis in the sky."s

Uptown Charlotte has the benefits of a major city with a small town flair.