Summer days, drifting away...
Plus: Epicentre news keeps getting worse; What's happening with CMS staffing vacancies?; Super-sized sign coming to the BOplex; New details on apartment project headed to Dilworth
Good morning! Today is Monday, August 23, 2021. You’re reading The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with local business-y news and insights for Charlotte, N.C. You might enjoy listening to our audio version on Spotify 🎧.
Need to subscribe — or upgrade your Ledger e-newsletter subscription? Details here.
Today’s Charlotte Ledger is sponsored by Fox Rothschild, whose Charlotte-based attorneys provide litigation, real estate, labor and employment, corporate and a wide range of other services to clients in a variety of industries.
PHOTO ESSAY
The end of summer in Charlotte, at a glance: football Fridays, backpacks back on, swimmers and thrill seekers soak it in
Are you a person who hangs onto summer as long as possible? Or are you looking forward to flannel and warm drinks, even though the thermometer stays stubbornly at 90 degrees?
We fall into a little bit of both camps, so we thought we’d share a few images from the end of summer in Charlotte, as pools power down, schools crank up, stadiums come to life and laid-back summer afternoons give way to back-to-business autumn days.
If you have a favorite snap you’ve taken lately that gives you the late-summer vibes, send it to us. We’d like to see what the end of summer looks like in your corner of Charlotte.
Summer fun, suspended
Thrill seekers took advantage of an end-of-summer weekday trip to Carowinds and screamed their heads off on the Copperhead Strike. (The park moves to a weekends-only schedule after Labor Day.)
The return of stadium lights
High school football season opened at the newly renovated Memorial Stadium on Thursday, ushering in more than two months of hoopla including marching bands, cheerleaders and exuberant student cheering sections.
The quad comes back to life
The campus of UNC Charlotte was hot and hoppin’ on Sunday afternoon during “RecFest,” as thousands of new and returning students checked out clubs and organizations they may want to join.
Ready to roll
Don’t these lined-up school buses on a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools transportation lot look like No. 2 pencils? They’ll be hitting the roads starting Wednesday morning. (Photo by Kevin Young/The 5 and 2 Project)
Empty chairs and empty swim lanes
Maybe it’s just too hot to swim, or maybe it’s because many pools have adopted a swim-at-your-own-risk policy now that lifeguards have gone back to college, but swimming pools are increasingly quiet places as August wanes. (But look for them to pick back up around Labor Day weekend, as swimmers seek one last plunge of the season.)
—CB
Today’s supporting sponsors are T.R. Lawing Realty…
… and Payzer:
Epicentre, now in default, is 2/3 vacant, new report says; Working to avoid utility shut-off
We all know the Epicentre uptown has been clearing out lately, but how vacant is it? A new report last week from the development’s court-appointed receiver says it’s only 1/3 filled.
That seems like an amazingly low figure for a prime piece of uptown real estate next to the light rail line that just a few years ago seemed as though it was the center of the action, with folks heading to Whisky River, Howl at the Moon and Suite.
But nightlife hotspots shifted elsewhere, like to South End, and there were a couple high-profile shootings at the site in 2019. The development’s tenants started closing. Some failed to pay rent, and the Epicentre evicted them. The Epicentre’s owner, Los Angeles-based CIM Group, then failed to make loan payments on an $85M loan. Deutsche Bank Trust Co. is the trustee for the investors who are owed the money.
The Ledger reported in January 2020 that tenants were expecting a “turnaround plan” from the Epicentre, but that apparently never materialized. Covid hit two months later.
The Epicentre was found to be in default of its loan this summer, and a court last month appointed a receiver for the property, who takes over managing the site in the interim as a foreclosure seems likely.
Keeping the lights on: In the receiver’s first report, filed Friday, Sabrina Jones of CBRE says that the 302,000 s.f. mixed-use property, with space for 50 tenants, is 63% vacant. She also reported that she “worked with Duke Energy and other utility providers to avoid disconnection of services due to lack of payment.”
When real estate borrowers fail to repay their loans, the people who are owed the money usually take over the property. They would then probably sell it to a new owner, who might have some new plans for the site, since it seems like its days as the center of the action are over. (We have no inside knowledge — just speculating here.)
CIM Group still lists the Epicentre on its website as “Charlotte’s premier dining and entertainment destination” with “11 million annual visitors.” Looks like it’s time to update the website.
News of the Epicentre being placed in default was first reported by the Charlotte Business Journal (whom we’re always sure to credit when its original reporting unearths news first, as is common courtesy and standard practice). —TM
Staffing vacancies similar to last year, but now CMS says it’s ready for in-person classes
Remember last year at this time, when Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools blamed staffing vacancies for being unable to start classes in person?
Superintendent Earnest Winston had reported in late July 2020 that CMS had 70 vacant teacher positions and was short 80 school bus drivers and 40 nurses, and he recommended that schools go all-virtual. He said that “the staffing challenges that we know of today and that we anticipate to occur over the next several weeks would have significantly compromised our ability” to educate students safely.
So how do the vacancy numbers compare this year? CMS said Friday that it has 130 vacant teacher positions and still needs 43 bus drivers and 37 nurses, WBTV reported. So that’s 60 more teacher vacancies, 27 fewer bus driver vacancies and about the same number of nurses needed.
Mecklenburg County has five times as many weekly Covid cases now as it did a year ago, with more than twice as many people hospitalized, though of course there are also vaccines available for ages 12 and up, unlike a year ago.
Winston told the school board this month: “We plan to open and operate schools as close to normal as possible.” One difference this year: The state isn’t giving school districts the option to go virtual. Classes start Wednesday.—TM
Fancy electronic sign to replace old sign with changeable letters at The BOplex
It’s a sign of the times — the old sign in front of Ovens Auditorium and Bojangles Coliseum on Independence Boulevard is set to be replaced by a flashy electronic one.
The city has filed for a rezoning request to erect a new sign in front of the BOplex — one that’s up to 450 s.f. and 20 feet high.
The funny part of it is that the city’s sign ordinance doesn’t ordinarily permit a sign that big, so the city — which owns the property — needs a rezoning from itself to make it happen. So the request will get a fair shake. —TM
Related Ledger article:
“New name for Ovens-Bojangles Coliseum: ‘The BOplex’” (Nov. 4, 2019)
In brief:
Covid deaths rise: The county reported 18 Covid deaths last week, the first time Covid deaths have been in the double digits since mid-May. The health department said that of the deaths in the last two weeks, 52% are black residents, who make up about 33% of the county’s population. Confirmed Covid cases and hospitalizations also continued to increase. (Health Department)
New apartment complex for Dilworth: More details have emerged about a big apartment project on East Boulevard in Dilworth. Developers Brian Phillips and Jim Gross have secured an $80M loan to build 334 luxury apartments with 437 underground parking places on the corner of East Boulevard and Lombardy Circle (not far from the entrance to Freedom Park), which has been cleared in the last few months. The Ledger, citing city records, first reported in January 2020 that Gross — the developer behind The Arlington, the pink building in South End — was planning a mix of apartments, office and retail in a series of buildings up to 8 stories tall. But the number of apartments had not been previously disclosed. The Ledger reported in January 2021 that Gross’ company had assembled 13 parcels totaling 2.55 acres. Construction is expected to be complete in 2023. (Commercial Observer)
Growth plan updates: The Charlotte City Council is expected to receive updates tonight on the 2040 Comprehensive Plan and the creation of a Unified Development Ordinance, which would set new zoning rules citywide.
Race in the workplace: A “Racial Equity 21-Day Challenge” supported by several Charlotte companies is coming under fire, with critics saying it promotes “critical race theory” in the workplace. The training — sponsored by Bank of America, Lowe’s and Truist — encouraged participants to get “woke at work” and urged white people to “cede power to people of color,” according to documents from the program. It was also supported by Ally Financial, Atrium Health, Duke Energy, McGuireWoods, Ernst & Young, First National Bank, Gambrell Foundation, Grant Thornton and the Knight Foundation. In a statement announcing the program, the CEO of the United Way of Central Carolinas, which developed it, said: “This project allows each of us to examine the systems and policies that have historically disadvantaged [Black and Brown people] and benefitted others.” (Fox Business)
N.C. unemployment falls: North Carolina’s unemployment rate fell to 4.4% in July, down from 4.6% in June. The national average was 5.4%. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
More diverse in the suburbs: Communities of color in the counties surrounding Mecklenburg grew at a fast pace, according to an analysis of new census data by Axios Charlotte. The black population grew by 56% in Cabarrus County and by 28% in Gaston County, and Cabarrus’ Asian population more than tripled while Union County’s nearly tripled. (Axios Charlotte)
Inventive bankers: Bank of America said it recorded 227 patents in the first half of 2021, which is “the most patents granted in the first half of any year in the company’s history.” The bank said the patents were in areas including artificial intelligence, machine learning, information security, data analytics, mobile banking and payments. (Bank of America)
Taking stock
Unless you are a day trader, checking your stocks daily is unhealthy. So how about weekly? How local stocks of note fared last week (through Friday’s close), and year to date:
Need to sign up for this e-newsletter? We offer a free version, as well as paid memberships for full access to all 3 of our local newsletters:
➡️ Learn more about The Charlotte Ledger
The Charlotte Ledger is a locally owned media company that delivers smart and essential news through e-newsletters and on a website. We strive for fairness and accuracy and will correct all known errors. The content reflects the independent editorial judgment of The Charlotte Ledger. Any advertising, paid marketing, or sponsored content will be clearly labeled.
Executive editor: Tony Mecia; Managing editor: Cristina Bolling; Contributing editor: Tim Whitmire, CXN Advisory
It would be helpful if when reporting on Covid cases, you would note how many of the people hospitalized or deceased are unvaccinated. It's important to recognize the majority are unvaccinated.