Blacklion to close final store in Pineville
Plus: Allen Tate CEO explains mountain realty company purchase; Health director says no plans for new mask rules; Ledger charity entry wins 'Best Video'; $47 to Orlando; Come drink with us tonight
Good morning! Today is Wednesday, August 3, 2022. You’re reading The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with local business-y news and insights for Charlotte, N.C. This post is sent to paying subscribers only.
REMINDER: Ledger members are invited to meet our team over beers and wine tonight in the Ballantyne area. Details below, or here.
Haven for Charlotte home decor shoppers and incubator of small businesses will shut after 26 years; 'Everybody goes to Blacklion’
MILES OF AISLES: Blacklion has long been a retail staple in Charlotte’s home furnishings market, selling everything from sofas and clothing to lamps and Christmas ornaments. The retailer provided an outlet for dozens of vendors to sell their wares directly to customers. Blacklion “has a cult following,” said vendor Susan Sloan. “The next six months are going to be a wild ride over there.”
by Cristina Bolling
Blacklion, a local home décor institution that’s filled Charlotte homes with furniture and accessories for 26 years, has sold its Pineville building and will close Jan. 31.
The 5.3 acre property and 68,000 s.f. building are apparently destined to become a medical office building. Blacklion is located directly across from the Atrium Health Pineville hospital.
Blacklion has long been a shopping staple among Charlotteans, many of whom spend hours browsing the aisles for furniture, art, home décor, clothing and accessories. The store has had a big name and presence in Charlotte, and for years there were several Blacklions across the region and beyond. When the ABC TV show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” filmed in Charlotte in 2008, Blacklion supplied all the furniture and accessories.
Property records show that the Blacklion site, the entrance to which is sandwiched between a Cook Out and an Aldi, was sold in May for $7.9M to a company affiliated with real estate developer MPV Properties. An MPV spokeswoman said Tuesday that the company is preparing an announcement but that she could not divulge details. But the name of the MPV subsidiary company — Blacklion MOB LLC — might offer a clue: “MOB” is developer shorthand for “medical office building.”
In an announcement this week on Facebook, owners Bob, Nita and Elisabeth Emory said they plan to bring “a new BLACKLION experience to Chicago, IL — to continue the family legacy and the BLACKLION brand.” The announcement said that Blacklion is leasing its property back through February and remains open “for business as usual.”
Calls and messages to Bob Emory and other Blacklion leaders weren’t returned Tuesday.
Over the years, Blacklion had stores in several locations in the Charlotte region, including Dilworth, Lake Norman, Huntersville and Concord. The store also had locations in Boston, Nashville, Columbia, S.C. and Atlanta, according to the company’s Facebook post.
Blacklion’s massive Pineville location has been a regional draw, attracting shoppers from hours away to browse the aisles.
(Interestingly, Bob Emory sold the property in 2010 to Aldi for $5.5M and leased the building back from them so Blacklion could stay in operation. But Emory bought back the building and most of the land in 2012 for $3.9M when Aldi announced plans to sell the Blacklion building. The twists and turns of the deal were detailed in this Charlotte Business Journal article from 2012.)
The store has dozens of vendors who supply the goods, and in some cases, Blacklion has served as a business incubator that led retailers to develop a following and open their own brick-and-mortar stores.
One current vendor, Susan Sloan, is now working to open her own whimsical gift and children’s toy shop called Fable in Ballantyne Village in early September.
Sloan rented a Blacklion booth in January 2019 to sell off leftover inventory resulting from the closing the longtime City Artworks shop in Myers Park, which she co-owned. She said her “jaw dropped” when she saw how much she made in sales at Blacklion in her first month, and she’s been there ever since, even increasing her rental space.
“It was the biggest surprise of my life,” Sloan said. “Until you’ve been (a retailer) in Blacklion, you have no idea the magnitude of traffic that goes through there. Everybody goes to Blacklion.”
Sloan said as soon as Blacklion re-opened after being closed for six weeks due to Covid, “the top blew off. It was crazy. They were the busiest two years I’ve had since 2006.” She plans to keep selling at Blacklion until it closes next winter, in addition to opening her own shop.
Beth Taflinger, owner of Casual Elegance in Blakeney, started her retail career at Blacklion around 2002, when she was a mom of two kids under age 6 who wanted to try her hand at selling jewelry and gifts.
Blacklion gave her the chance to learn about buying and managing inventory, and she eventually increased her rental space from one booth to 11, with booths in Blacklion’s Pineville, Huntersville, Dilworth and Columbia locations. She opened Casual Elegance 12 years ago, where she sells gifts, home decor and clothing.
“It was the perfect way to learn (retail) and figure it out, and your mistakes were little because you weren’t buying for a whole store,” Taflinger said. “I’m grateful to Blacklion.”
Blacklion was ahead of its time in the booth-retail world when it opened its flagship Pineville location in 1996 in a former Kmart. Now, that model is growing in Charlotte and in other cities.
A few new large booth-retail shops have opened around the area in recent months, including Arkansas-based Painted Tree Boutiques which opened in Matthews, and Salata Style in Rock Hill. A new Painted Tree Boutiques location is slated to open this winter in Gastonia.
—Ledger editor Tony Mecia contributed to this article.
A home in the mountains: Allen Tate buys Asheville realty agency
Allen Tate Realtors said Tuesday that it has bought Asheville-based Beverly-Hanks Realtors, a move the company’s CEO says solidifies its presence in the N.C. mountain home market.
Allen Tate, the Charlotte area’s largest residential real estate agency, already had offices in Boone, Blowing Rock, Cashiers and Highlands, but the purchase for an undisclosed price gives Allen Tate a presence in additional mountain towns including Asheville, Hendersonville, Lake Lure and Brevard.
“Now, we cover all the mountains, as of today,” CEO Pat Riley told The Ledger. “We’re excited.”
With the addition of Beverly-Hanks’ 18 offices, Allen Tate will have a total of 70 offices in a territory that also includes the Triad, Raleigh-Durham and Upstate South Carolina. The growth benefits the company because it can refer clients and share website listings among locations, Riley said.
Economic outlook: Asked about the economy, Riley said that “supply and demand issues are not going to get better anytime soon” because homebuilding is not keeping pace with demand. He added that the real estate market appears to be “normalizing.”
“Yes, instead of 20 offers on a house, there might be 4. And instead of 20 offers in 20 minutes, it might take 2 weeks to get 4,” he said. “But in the Carolinas, because of in-migration, we are not being hit as much as our friends around the country.” —TM
Charlotte neighborhoods have a night out with police
Back Creek Forest in University City was one of more than 60 neighborhoods in Charlotte that participated in National Night Out on Tuesday. It’s is an event that invites local law enforcement into communities to build trust and relationships with residents. The event was not held last year because of Covid, organizers said. Also in attendance were City Council member Greg Phipps and U.S. Rep. Alma Adams and Charlotte Fire Department Deputy Chief Samuel Jones. Felicia Thompkins, the Back Creek home association president, said: “We’re trying to change images. These are our friends. These are our protectors.” She presented police officers with a $200 donation to Crime Stoppers to show the community’s appreciation for Charlotte’s law enforcement officers. (Ledger photo by Lindsey Banks)
Health director: Mecklenburg not considering any changes on mask rules
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the spread of Covid in Mecklenburg was upgraded to the “high” range, which means it now recommends wearing masks indoors. In the past, high transmission rates have led the county health department to recommend stepped-up masking, which led to mask requirements in government buildings and in schools.
But Mecklenburg health director Raynard Washington said Monday that none of those options is on the table now. Asked if the CDC recommendations would lead to changes here, Washington told reporters:
At this time, we are not considering any mandates of any sort in terms of mask-wearing. As I believe you all remember, we have talked previously about the need to really ensure that everyone in our community knows what tools are available to them, in terms of protection against Covid.
We have been at this for quite some time now and continue to communicate regularly about what tools are available to folks. I don’t believe at this time we would entertain any sort of enforcement tools, but are of course advising folks based on the current risk in the community.
The CDC continues to recommend “universal indoor masking” at schools in areas with high Covid transmission, but only 2% of the 500 biggest districts had such a policy as of July 1. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools typically follows the recommendations of the health department.
A few local stores, like REI in Pineville, have signs requesting customers wear masks, but those requests are routinely ignored. The Observer reported this week that many local businesses are reluctant to re-impose mask requirements.
Monkeypox details: On monkeypox, health department officials said the number of cases has risen to 33 in the county and that a “majority” of patients are Black “MSMs,” or men who have sex with men. But they were quick to add that the public shouldn’t think of monkeypox as a disease that affects only gay men and that it can spread through ways other than sex, such as close contact with infected patients.
When pressed to provide a more precise demographic breakdown of Mecklenburg monkeypox patients, Washington said he was “hesitant to provide an actual percentage.” A study in the New England Journal of Medicine last month found that of more than 500 monkeypox cases diagnosed worldwide through June, all patients were men, and 98% identified as gay or bisexual — with sexual contact thought to be responsible for 95% of cases.
Asked if the disease is spreading in Mecklenburg outside of the community of gay and bisexual men, Washington didn’t directly answer, replying only that the disease is spreading locally. —TM
Raising the roof on Ballantyne’s amphitheater
Construction of the new amphitheater that’s part of the huge Ballantyne Reimagined project is progressing. (Photo on top, rendering on bottom.) It’s expected to open in fall of 2023 and will accommodate up to 3,500 attendees, with a high-tech sound system, space for concessions and food trucks. “In addition to national and local music acts, programming will include festivals, markets, fitness classes and more,” developer Northwood Office says. (Photo and rendering courtesy of Northwood Office.)
TONIGHT 🍻: Stop by and say hello at Ledger ‘Beers with the Editors’ event, 6-8pm in Ballantyne
Don’t forget — today from 6-8 p.m., feel free to swing by one of Ballantyne’s most sensible bars, inside the Harris Teeter at 15007 John J. Delaney Drive. (It’s at the intersection of Johnston Road and Ballantyne Commons Parkway.)
We are holding an informal “Beers with the Editors” drop-in event and will buy a round or two. And should you need to pick up a rotisserie chicken and some hot-bar fried okra to take home for dinner, it’s just steps away — no extra stops required.
Feel free to bring a friend, though we are not broadcasting this to everyone — only to paying Ledger members like you. Membership has its privileges!
More details are here. If we miss you this time, we’ll catch you at a future one. —Tony, Cristina & Lindsey
In brief
Wells Fargo eyes Texas hub: Wells Fargo is building a “regional campus” in Irving, Texas, that could house as many as 4,000 workers. It has been in the works for a while, and the bank is in line for $31M in economic incentives for the project. Wells has reiterated that it has no plans to move its headquarters out of San Francisco. Wells Fargo is Charlotte’s largest financial-sector employer. (Business Journal, subscriber-only)
Green Party controversy continues: The State Board of Elections unanimously voted to recognize the Green Party in North Carolina. The party’s petition had been previously rejected due to an ongoing signature fraud investigation, but the board has now determined that the Green Party has more than enough signatures to earn immediate recognition. However, the party missed the July 1 deadline to submit nominees, so the jury is still out if its candidates will be on the ballot in November. The N.C. Democratic Party said it will file a lawsuit this week against the decision to “protect the integrity of the North Carolina political process.” (WCNC)
SouthPark apartments: Crestlight Capital, the new owner of two SouthPark office towers, wants to add 300 apartments, 112,000 s.f. of medical office space and about 40,000 s.f. of retail to the site on the corner of Fairview Road and Barclay Downs Drive. (Observer)
Atrium Health PAC funded election: Atrium Health’s political action committee spent $16,000 in the 2022 city council race, according to its filing with the Federal Election Commission, which is nearly double what it spent in 2019. The PAC was more selective this election and gave checks to only six candidates as opposed to giving out checks to all contenders like it did the past two elections. It’s common for PACs and healthcare professionals to give money to elections, especially since the council makes many decisions that impact the hospital. Atrium Health did not comment. (Axios Charlotte)
Biking for charity: The “24 Hours of Booty” charity cycling event last weekend raised $1.3M to support cancer patients, organizers said.
Airport 5K: Registration is open for the Charlotte Airport’s 15th Runway 5K race. The event is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 22, at 7:30 a.m. and will take place on the airfield. The course includes two miles of runway and a close-up look at aircraft landing and taking off.
Wearing pink heels, Ledger founder wins ‘Best Video’ prize at Dress for Success Charlotte charity fundraiser 🏆
We’re pleased to announce that a 90-second video of Ledger editor Tony Mecia strutting around in hot pink high heels has been named “Best Video” at this year’s “Stiletto Swagger” fundraising event benefiting Dress for Success Charlotte.
The video, set to the Kenny Loggins 1986 hit “Danger Zone,” is a spoof of “Top Gun: Maverick” and features footage filmed at the Charlotte airport’s overlook and well as a shirtless beach football scene filmed at Hilton Head Island. The video, produced by Ledger assistant Caroline Mecia and filmed by Ledger general counsel Taryn Mecia, beat more than a dozen other videos of Charlotte men wearing high heels.
The Stiletto Swagger is a yearly event that raises money to provide skills and resources to women in the Charlotte area to find and keep jobs. This year’s event is expected to raise between $60,000-$75,000.
If you’d like to donate (tax-free), here’s a link to Tony’s fundraising page — the top 12 heel-wearing fundraisers will be featured in a 2023 wall calendar. (He’s at #7 at the moment.)
➡️ You can view the entire online event here.
Cheap getaways from CLT
NFL Week 1: Charlotte to Las Vegas, $167 round-trip on Frontier (nonstop), Sept. 9-12.
Charlotte to Boston, $176 round-trip on JetBlue (nonstop), Sept. 23-26.
Charlotte to Denver, $145 round-trip on Frontier (nonstop), Aug. 27-30.
Charlotte to Orlando, $47 round-trip on Frontier (nonstop), Sept. 10-14.
Charlotte to Fort Lauderdale, $124 round-trip on Spirit (nonstop), Aug. 25-29.
Charlotte to Thessaloniki, Greece, $526 round-trip on Lufthansa (one-stop), Oct. 16-25.
Charlotte to Athens, Greece, $519 round-trip on Lufthansa (one-stop), Oct. 10-18.
Charlotte to Zurich, Switzerland, $518 round-trip on Delta (one-stop), various dates Oct-Dec.
Charlotte to San José, Costa Rica, $459 round-trip on American (one-stop), Jan. 19-26
Charlotte to Lima, Peru, $406 round-trip on Spirit (one-stop), Sept. 8-16.
Source: Google Flights. Fares retrieved Wednesday morning. They might have changed by the time you read this.
Programming note: Ledger editor Tony Mecia appears as a guest on 90.7 WFAE at 6:40 a.m. and 8:40 a.m. on Thursdays for a discussion of the week’s local business news in the station’s “BizWorthy” segment. Audio and transcripts are also available online.
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Executive editor: Tony Mecia; Managing editor: Cristina Bolling; Staff writer: Lindsey Banks; Contributing editor: Tim Whitmire, CXN Advisory; Contributing photographer/videographer: Kevin Young, The 5 and 2 Project
Thanks for the Runway 5K shout out and for using the Outlook for your fundraising video! I feel like CLT got lots of love in this edition. Melissa Treadaway