Jan. 23–Charlotte’s Center City is seeing “explosive” growth in hotel, office and residential development thanks to strong investor and developer confidence in the uptown and surrounding area, the chief executive of Center City Partners said Thursday.

Center City is in a “defining period” again, after construction slowed because of the recession, Michael Smith said at an event to unveil the organization’s latest annual “State of Center City” report.

Gov. Pat McCrory was the event’s guest speaker. McCrory told the room of real estate developers and other business professionals that Charlotte, because of its diverse economy, has recovered from the recession faster than some other parts of North Carolina.

McCrory urged the event’s attendees to form coalitions with other nearby counties. “If the Charlotte region is successful, that success carries over” to other parts of the state, he said.

Charlotte Center City Partners compiles the annual report to promote uptown and the surrounding business districts. This is the fifth year the report has been published.

Last year saw rapid growth in the wake of a sluggish economic recovery, with construction beginning on the first new office skyscraper uptown since the recession.

“Construction cranes will be visible in every corner of uptown and South End in 2015,” the report states.

Smith said this year’s report shows that uptown is “healthy and vibrant.” With two more office towers, more than 1,600 hotel rooms and a slew of apartment complexes planned or underway, Smith said he expects growth to continue.

“Commercial real estate development turned up in an incredible way in 2014,” Smith said. “Who would have known that we would be back into such a defining period for our city so quickly?”

Here are some highlights from the report:

–The number of apartment units in and around uptown is expected to grow 64 percent over the coming years, with about 6,900 units under construction or planned. The population of uptown and South End is expected to reach almost 23,000 by the end of next year.

–Although uptown has 2.1 million square feet of retail space, it’s heavily tilted toward food and entertainment venues, with 232 restaurants and clubs versus 56 shops.

–After a decade in which only 3 million square feet of office space was built uptown, 2.9 million square feet are planned or under construction in the next several years.

McCrory said other states are creating “tough” competition for North Carolina.

“I’m competing against the Texas governor right now. I’m competing against (S.C. Gov.) Nikki Haley right across the border,” he said before naming other governors and states he said North Carolina competes with.

Those comments come as McCrory continues to seek funding for new incentives from the state legislature. Earlier in the month, he told an N.C. Chamber of Commerce luncheon the legislature must fund incentives “in a matter of weeks” or the state could lose companies considering bringing jobs here.

McCrory’s said his advice for continuing the growth of Center City is for it to have a long-term vision.

“Make it a team effort and create the vision for the next 25 years for the Center City and sell the vision,” McCrory said. “If you live on your success today, you’ll get beat by our competition.”

Observer staff writer Ely Portillo contributed.