Greenville LIFE in the EAST
INSIDE:
SUMMER/FALL 2019
Freeboot Friday • Dickinson Avenue • Towne Bank Tower • Jim Blount • Holton Ahlers • Globe Pharmacy
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Publisher Robin L. Quillon Editor Bobby Burns
04
FREEBOOT
24
CONTENTS
JIM BLOUNT
08 DOWN ON DICKINSON 14 GLOBE PHARMACY 24 TOWNE BANK TOWER
Greenvi LIFE in the
EAST
lle
SUMM
ER/FAL
28 HOLTON AHLERS
Contributing writers Sharieka Botex, Maya Jarrell, Andie Smiley, Ronnie Woodward Photographers Deborah Griffin, Molly Urbina Advertising representatives Tom Little, Christina Ruotolo, Katelyn Osborne and Rubie Smith Creative services director Jessica Harris Creative services Brandi Callahan, Lora Jernigan, and Dawn Newton Layout design Jasmine Blount Greenville: Life in the East is a publication of The Daily Reflector and Adams Publishing Group ENC. Contents may not be reproduced without the consent of the publisher.
L 2019
FROM THE EDITOR
Hot Times in The City INSIDE :
Freebo
ot Frid ay • Dickin
son Av
enue • Towne
Bank Tow
er • Jim Blo
unt • Holton Ahlers
• Globe
Pharm acy
A Drone view of Dickinson Avenue courtesy of the City of Greenville
4
Summertime is always a hot time in Greenville. This summer the city is hotter than ever, an we’re not just talking about the temperature. As the community gears up to welcome back students to East Carolina University for another year, the city is bustling with new developments, particularly down on Dickinson. This edition of Greenville Magazine Life in the East focuses on the district’s evolution with help from writer Maya Jarrell, who lived in an apartment there as a child. We also profile Greenville native Jim Blount, Greenville: Life In The East
who helped develop University EdgeDickinson Loft apartments. We feature a unique addition to Uptown, the Globe Pharmacy, and as the town gets ready for football season, they can celebrate the 20th year of Freeboot Friday. Speaking of football fans can read about renovations at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium and a Q&A with Pirate quarterback Holton Alhers. We hope you enjoy this edition, and stay cool until the heat breaks this fall.
— Bobby Burns Fall 2019
Rick Smiley, Debbie Vargas and Candy Pearce, three of the founders of Freeboot Friday.
HEADS INTO 20TH YEAR OF
PIRATE PARTYING
A
By Andie Smiley
s the 2019 football season approaches, the annual Pirate fanfares grow closer and closer. Freeboot Friday, in particular, is one of the most anticipated series of events, and this year it stands to be even better than the last: Freeboot Friday is celebrating its 20th anniversary! The first Freeboot Friday was held on Sept. 8, 2000, as a pep rally before ECU’s first home game of the season. The event has always had a special connection to the Pirates, and it’s even in the name: A “freebooter” is another name for a pirate or plunderer. Even so, supporting
Deborah Griffin
the football team was only a small part of the reasoning behind the creation of the event 20 years ago. Debbie Vargas, the CEO of the Convention and Visitors Bureau at the time, had even bigger plans. “We were funded off the hotel/motel tax,” Vargas said about the bureau. “So, our football game weekends, when the hotels are completely filled, were kind of like beach time. But people were starting to come in on Saturday and then leave, so the thought was to get them to come Friday for a concert and then stay Saturday so we were getting an extra night’s stay.” She also hoped that regular live concerts would help Greenville
return to its cultural roots in music. “Greenville used to be pretty much a capital for live music. We were starting to lose that niche.” The Freeboot Friday plan came only a few years after a massive redevelopment of Evans Street, with more than half the funding provided by Greenville residents. The project had a special focus on the architecture, aesthetic, and conversion of the pedestrian mall that had closed the street to vehicular traffic. The return to music seemed like the missing element in a city that was beginning to turn back towards the arts. The first Freeboot Friday, however, was far from the bustling event it is today. “The first one was actually at the parking lot across from Chico’s, and we maybe had a hundred people at the most,” Vargas said. Gaining sponsors was one of the biggest challenges to hosting a large event. “In the very beginning, until you prove yourself, it’s really hard to get someone who can help fund it, because it’s not an inexpensive event.” One of the earlier sponsors was Wells Fargo, and the bank is currently one of the longest running sponsors for the event. Once it did grow, there were yet more hurdles to overcome to keep the event fun for college students as well as the general population. “It was going to be a challenge to move it anywhere because there was no ordinance that would allow you to consume alcohol on public grounds,” Vargas explained.
They never wanted Freeboot Friday to be a non-alcoholic event, and Vargas was certain, and correctly so, that the children and families present would prevent people from wanting to overdrink. It was still a challenge, however, to find a venue that would accommodate both the event’s size and beer sales. Eventually, they were able to move to Five Points Plaza, with all their vendors in tow — including Budweiser. Since then, the event has evolved considerably. According to current president and CEO of Uptown Greenville Bianca Shoneman, Freeboot usually gathers 4,000-5,000 people each week, with the record attendance last year going well over 8,000. It’s required considerable reworking, from sponsorships to vendor layout. She has worked at the head of Freeboot Friday for the past eight years, taking the reins from Vargas and bringing the event into the 2010s. “We had some growing pains, because it was a very popular event and (we) hadn’t really thought about the logistics behind it … I remember my very first year that I was with Uptown Greenville, we worked with a local architect and engineering firm to do an improved site plan and to think about the operations behind the event,” Shoneman said. The primary problem in 2012 was line of sight. Vendors and lines in the middle of the event meant that it was hard to see the whole celebration from one point, and there wasn’t much open space for people to dance,
play with children, or stand with their was the consistent community turnout opportunities that the district has. Our intention is to bring the people downtown friends. After a few meetings, Uptown and celebration of the Pirates. Greenville decided on a simple solution: “We don’t come together because we and then to highlight how fantastic push the vendors to the periphery, in one want to stand in a parking lot and drink Uptown Greenville is.” And highlight it large ring around the Plaza. Let the lines beer, we come together because we want does. Businesses that invest in Freeboot snake around the edges and the main to celebrate ECU,” she said. Friday not only get a vendor space, but crowd remain in the heart of the event. But Shoneman added that the event part of the $35,000 of advertising that The change was extremely successful, still wasn’t just about ECU, especially the event leverages with in-kind media and the new space in the venue altered trades, and those that don’t sponsor get far more than just the aesthetics. “By the benefit of the added foot traffic every “...because our intention is home game. increasing the number of points of not to take away from the sales and providing more opportunities In the past 20 years, Freeboot Friday commercial opportunities that the district has.” to purchase alcohol and improve line has come a long way from the small of sight, we saw the participation in gathering across from Chico’s that it Freeboot Friday increase substantially. while Uptown Greenville begins to truly was in 2000. Topping out at around 9,000 When the participation grew, it made it shine. The event also serves to bring people, it today is a source of cultural easier to sell the event to sponsors, so people to the local businesses, and the pride that brings together and reaffirms we were able to increase the number of city makes sure that Freeboot doesn’t the city’s commitment to the downtown sponsors,” she said. This, in turn, led to interfere with the people leaving the district. While neither had been entirely the increase of giveaways and free events, event to shop or get dinner somewhere sure how long Freeboot Friday would go drawing even more people Uptown. in town. “We intentionally don’t program on when they first took the reins, when Elite Properties Elite Properties But not everything has changed since Freeboot Friday with a ton of food asked if they thought Freeboot Friday then. Shoneman said that if there was one vendors,” Shoneman said. “We keep it would continue for another 20 years to Properties thing that remained the same throughout both Vargas and Shoneman had the very limited, our intention is come,Elite 1131978 -Black 9/10/07 135:23because 0:00 her eight years coordinating the event, it not to take away from the commercial exact same reply today: “I do.”
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7
Lily, Greg, Maya and Stacy Jarrell, from left, stand by a mural on Dickinson Avenue outside the building they purchased in in 2003 and later renovated for a living and commercial space.
What’s up down on Dickinson:
Spirit of entrepreneurship, community help bring district back to life By Maya Jarrell
Molly Urbina
Maya Jarrell, a J.H. Rose graduate and rising junior at UNC-Chapel Hill, lived with her family on Dickinson Avenue from 2004-2006. She writes for The Daily Tar Heel and was an intern with The Daily Reflector.
M
y family moved back to
Greenville in 2002, and after a year or so of settling into town with my grandparents, my parents decided it was time for us to start building our own life. Their idea of building our life meant purchasing a shuttered old building on Dickinson Avenue that had housed Diener’s Bakery for more than half a century. After some extensive renovations, this building would not only become our home but also the offices of my parents’ graphic design
business. “For us we were looking for something to fit in a specific criteria,” my dad, Greg Jarrell, said. “We wanted something that offered us a place to live and work, so there weren’t a lot of buildings that were two-story and had enough space to do that. This was one of the few on Dickinson Avenue that gave us the opportunity.” After a while they began renting out the two commercial spaces on the first floor of the building, and the two additional apartments on the second floor. I lived in the third
apartment with my parents and my sister, Lily. If you are picturing our living situation within the hustle and bustle of today’s Dickinson Avenue, I am going to have to ask you to completely re-imagine. At the time, Dickinson Avenue was pretty bare when it comes to delicious restaurants and trendy breweries. Aside from my spending time with my family, my memories Dickinson Avenue consist of rummaging through the antique treasures at Dapper Dan’s a couple doors down and basically living in the Sheppard Memorial Library a few blocks away. However, my parents saw potential for Dickinson Avenue to become what it is today, and set out with their two commercial spaces to make that happen. “We had a lot of hopes and desires for that area to become developed, and for it to be a place where people would want to come and congregate,” my mom, Stacy Jarrell, said. “We didn’t really know, we took a risk whether or not it would happen,
and it’s pretty exciting to see that other people see its potential and have worked to make the area prosper.” “I don’t know that we feel like we’re the ones who made it happen, we just thought that we could be a part of making it happen,” Greg said. For a while it was difficult to fill the commercial spaces in accordance with their vision. They often turned people away that they did not think would be good tenants for them. “We were always selective with what we had in there, because we wanted to make sure it was the right fit with what we wanted to happen over in the neighborhood, and that it was a good stable business that was going to be around for a while,” Greg said. But now that more and more fresh and innovative business owners are turning to those streets to set up shop, finding good candidates for commercial spaces has gotten easier. One business that came early on in Dickinson Avenue’s transformation was the Dickinson
Avenue Public House, or DAP House for short. When this restaurant opened in 2015 it became clear to me that something big was coming for my childhood street. When two couples, Kristi Southern and Brad Hufford and Jacob and Tandi Mahn, opened DAP House, they, like my parents, saw potential for something that wasn’t quite happening yet but they hoped to kickstart. “There was a little bit of activity, but certainly not the level there is now,” Hufford said. “We just wanted to get in kind of early, and the building here was such a great location. Us and Trollingwood, and others — Pitt Street Brewery certainly — have kind of gotten the ball rolling, but now we’re excited to see all the other new businesses.” Not only did Hufford get in on the action early, but he also grew up in the area and frequented businesses like Diener’s Bakery, Bill McDonald’s Karate and Nostalgia Newsstand (which still exists on West Ninth Street) throughout his youth. Having grown up frequenting its many businesses, Hufford has seen the Dickinson Avenue district go through a number of phases and has a unique perspective on its current development. “When I was a kid I came here and there was a lot more activity. Diener’s Bakery was still open, and this was kind of a thriving commercial area back in the day,” Hufford said. “Then of course the way developments happened — highway, commercial, malls — downtown kind of became less important.” Hufford went to college at East Carolina University and said that during that time no one frequented the area except for to dig through a thrift shop every now and then. “Then there was a period of people afraid to come downtown, but now with our business and a lot of other ones, you’re seeing older residents feel comfortable and are coming back down here, so it’s kind of been nice to be part of that change,” Hufford said. Like Hufford and two of his co-owners Kristi and Tandi, Drew Moss, the owner of one of Dickinson Avenue’s newest
businesses MPourium, is also an ECU grad. MPourium is a bottle shop and taproom that features an entire wall of self-serve beer taps. MPourium just opened in April, but Moss shared sentiments similar to Hufford about the revitalization of the Dickinson Avenue district bringing back consumers that haven’t been to the area . “When I was in college there was nothing down here so you didn’t walk down here, you didn’t go down here,” Moss said. “There was nothing really to attract the college student or recent graduate.” Now he hopes to create an environment catered to a demographic of Greenville that he says is currently underserved: the young professional. “You want to go out and socialize, and after I graduated there really wasn’t that here,” Moss said. “You know you could go down to the college bars, but after a while you wanted something different, and this really gives us that.” Moss’ target demographic is young professionals and recent graduates, a common theme among many of the the Dickinson Avenue businesses. In fact, the majority of the businesses cater to the same demographic. Everyone wants to build an area that gives “the adults” of Greenville a place to hang out and have fun that’s a little separate from the college hangouts. The transformation has been part of Greenville’s transition from a college town to a small city, many of the business owners said. “People would say that Greenville was a great place to go to college, but most students would be like, ‘As soon as I graduate I’m out. I’m moving to a city with job opportunities.’ And now I think that Dickinson Avenue and other parts of Uptown are offering more opportunities for urbanism,” Hufford said. “You’ve got restaurants, breweries cultural arts, you’ve got the State Theater now, and you’ve got potential to be an entrepreneur yourself — I think that’s a draw to the community of keeping ECU talent here, to be part of the revitalization that’s going on.” The new entrepreneurs also agree that this transition, this shared goal, is not possible unless they all work together to make it happen and a strong sense of
Brad Hufford, Kristi Southern, Tandi Mahn, and Jacob Wilson, owners of DAP House, pose outside of the building on July 2.
community has grown. “I think if we all succeed, we’ll all do better,” Moss said. “We’ve had Pitt Street’s beer on tap over here, we’ve had Uptown’s beer on tap up here, I don’t see it as competition, I see it as if we all do well then the community and Dickinson Avenue does well.” Hufford and the other owners of DAP House feel the same about their relationship with other restaurants in the area such as Luna Pizza Cafe and Ford + Shep. “We have great relations with all our neighbors, but as far as restaurants, you can’t eat the same restaurant every night of the week, so the more the merrier,” Hufford said. “Because our menus are so different, we have customers that will go to drinks at one business, and have dinner at one, and maybe dessert at another one, so it’s really good.” They believe in the community so much that Southern, Hufford’s wife and coowner, has been heavily involved in starting an organization called the Pitt Independent Eateries. The restaurant association hopes to interconnect all the independent restaurants in Greenville. “Our competition is more the chain restaurants on Greenville Boulevard, and not so much the local mom and pop restaurants that are in existence,”
Hufford said. This sense of friendly competition goes deeper than just the restaurants and breweries, extending to the lessvisible residential aspects of Dickinson Avenue. Residential developments like Dickinson Lofts, Pitt Street Lofts, Gather Uptown and the planned Avenue Townes townhomes at the corner of Dickinson and Reade Circle are catered to the same demographic as the loft apartments my parents rent out. Competition, in this case, creates community, my mom said. “In fact, I think that it might make people feel more comfortable with living down there because there’s more security,” Stacy said. “People want to live where other people are living instead of feeling isolated.” All of the aspects of the district’s growth have come together to create a community that has helped bring downtown Greenville back to life. And the transition from college town to small city is still in the early stages. “The buildings that are here will get upfit, and we’ll have new tenants, but then you’ll have improvements on sidewalks, crosswalks, new lighting,” Hufford said. “In these strange roads that come together that aren’t the traditional grid, you’ll see little pocket parks and opportunities for public art.” There is still so much more to come for the Dickinson Avenue district, and I can’t wait to see the little street of my youth become part of something so much bigger.
Maya’s list Here is a selection of Dickinson Avenue highlights from former Daily Reflector intern Maya Jarrell, who’s family renovated a building on the strip where she lived as a child.
Dickinson Avenue Antique Market
Dickinson Avenue Antique Market is one of the oldest businesses on Dickinson, and one that I frequented a lot when I was younger. They sell all kinds of antiques, vintage goods and collectibles.
Dickinson Avenue Public House
Dickinson Avenue Public House, or DAP House for short, was one of the first restaurants that I remember opening up on Dickinson. This restaurant and bar opened for business in 2015 and has been serving delicious food ever since.
Halo Home
Halo Home is a home furnishing store positioned right on the corner of Dickinson Avenue and Ficklen Street in the previous home of Dapper Dan’s. In addition to home decor, Halo Home also sells jewelry and gifts.
Jack Brown’s Beer and Burger Joint
Jack Brown’s is Greenville’s installment of the small southern burger chain. The restaurant, featuring a unique and delicious array of burgers and beer, has become a huge hit on Dickinson, and with my dad in particular.
Michael Brandon Styling
Trollingwood Taproom and Brewery
Along with DAP House, Trollingwood helped start the Dickinson revival. It was the first brewery in town. It’s open for special events now while the owners figure out what’s next for the property.
Michael Brandon Styling is a unique hair studio for both men and women. The studio’s location at 800 Dickinson Ave. has been a barber shop for its whole existence. As the third barber shop to exist in this location, Michael Brandon has maintained that tradition, offering a wide variety of cut and color services, but has given his shop a fresh twist with the inclusion of local craft brewed beer and art.
Greenville Times and 7 by Design
Southern Soleil Luxury Tanning
Greenville Times is an independent magazine housed right within the heart of the city’s growth. 7 by Design is on the other side of the building, and serves as the studio where the Greenville Times is produced.
Farmers and Makers Market
This market sells all kinds of local goods ranging from fresh produce and coffee, to handmade cards and pottery. Started by Greenville Times publisher Ryan Webb, the market welcomes anyone and anything as long as it is made within a 50 mile radius.
Smashed Waffles
Since its inception late in 2017, Smashed Waffles has become a local favorite down on Dickinson. The unique shop offers delicious coffee as well as sweet and savory waffles like you’ve never tasted before.
Ford + Shep
Chef Brandon Qualls opened up Ford + Shep in May of 2018. The restaurant, featuring an eclectic style and ever-evolving menu, offers a delicious and unique dining experience to the community.
A Time for Science
The buildings that are here will get upfit, and we’ll have new tenants, but then you’ll have improvements on sidewalks, crosswalks, new lighting...”
space where their art is then sold.
A Time for Science’s Greenville Science Center on Dickinson teams up with their Grifton Nature and Science Center to provide an up-close and in-depth look into science and nature. They host all kinds of events that give guests the opportunity to test out and experiment with these ideas for themselves.
The Art Lab
The Art Lab is administered by the Pitt County Arts Council and is housed in the same building as A Time for Science. Within The Art Lab are four studio spaces from which artists work, and a gallery
Southern Soleil was founded by Ellen Sheffer, and aims to provide clients with a professional spray tanning experience that helps them feel confident and beautiful.
The Hobbyhorse
Artist Jonathan Bowling works out of his studio on Dickinson Avenue to create a wide variety of metal work pieces. His work often depicts animals and fairies and is displayed throughout the Dickinson Ave and Uptown Greenville area.
From Marfa
From Marfa is a clothing store that offers fun and colorful clothing for women, men and children. The store features a wide variety of brands from Melissa & Doug to Cole Haan to Southern Proper.
Melt Fitness Studio
Melt is a personal training studio in my parents’ building that offers meal plans and workout classes, on top of their amazing personal training. Their goal is to encourage patrons to stick to the Melt acronym — Making Effective Lifestyle Transformations — daily. I bet the owners of Diener’s Bakery never imagined it could turn into something completely different.
Riverside Recreation
Riverside Recreation is the second business in my parents’ commercial spaces, and the newest to open in the Dickinson Avenue area. They rent out equipment for all kinds of water activities such as kayaks, paddle boards, paddle boats and more. Customers can use this equipment a few blocks up the road at the Tar River where Riverside Recreation has also set up drop-off services at the Town Common.
MPourium
MPourium is a self-serve taproom and bottle shop that serves dozens of beers to guests. With a full wall of taps, MPourium offers
Tony’s Automotive
Tony’s Auto is one of the only OG businesses I remember from being a kid that still exists. As an independent towing and auto repair shop, Tony’s has been thriving for as long as I can remember.
Crossfit Greenville
Crossfit Greenville is a traditional crossfit gym in the Dickinson district. They have training, classes, olympic weightlifting and more in order to help their clients reach their GPP (general physical preparedness).
Friendly Boutique beers from other local breweries such as Pitt Street and Uptown, as well as some less familiar beers that are sure to be just as refreshing.
7 House
7 House is a one-stop video production company. It offers services for all forms of video production from scripting and casting, to editing and special effects.
Stumpy’s Hatchet House
Stumpy’s Hatchet House is different from a lot of the businesses down on Dickinson. Instead offering beer or food, Stumpy’s offers an activity. A very unique activity at that. At Stumpy’s, patrons pay to throw hatchets at the wall. In addition to the hatchets, Stumpy’s provides a social venue with snacks and beverages, and welcomes guests to order or bring in food and drink of their own.
Friendly Boutique is one of the oldest businesses in Downtown Greenville. The boutique, which specializes in formal clothes, jewelry and wigs for women, moved from its original location on Evans Street to Dickinson Avenue along with the huge surge of new businesses.
Luna Pizza Cafe
When Luna Pizza Cafe opened in January 2018, I remember feeling very excited for what was to come. I love pizza, the place had a really cool vibe, and it was really one of a few restaurants down there at the time. This delicious restaurant uses fresh and local ingredients to create a pizzagoing experience that was missing from Greenville before its opening.
Pitt Street Brewing Company
Pitt Street Brewing Company marked a big milestone in the transformation of the Dickinson Avenue area when it
opened in September 2017. It was one of the most anticipated grand openings, and still manages to stay slammed despite the competition from similar businesses in the area.
Whirligig Stage
Whirligig Stage breaks away from other Dickinson venues and offers something completely different for the community: And outlet for the performing arts. This place has it all, featuring shows that range from comedy, to concerts, to karaoke as well as classes that turn audience members into actors and painters themselves.
Greco Restaurant Equipment Service
With the growing number of food service businesses opening up in the district, the demand for a business like Greco Restaurant Equipment Service also is growing. Greco sells premium quality food and restaurant products that range from ingredients, to cutlery, to janitorial supplies. Anything needed to run a restaurant can be found here.
Coming soon: Greenville Bicycle Company
Greenville Bicycle Company is an example of a business that is soon to come for the district. It will be owned and operated by cyclists who are deeply invested in the local cycling community, and hope to create the best experience for every customer. They will specialize in all things cycling from custom builds, to accessories, to service repairs.
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GLOBE OF ANOTHER FAME FILLS VOID, PRESCRIPTIONS DOWNTOWN By Andie Smiley
Deborah Griffin
Uptown Greenville’s newest store will be a Globe. Not Globe Hardware, the best-known Globe in the community until about 15 years ago. This new Globe will be a pharmacy at 401 Evans St. on the lower floor of a recently restored 100-year-old storefront.
Paige Hamilton, president of the Globe Pharmacy, is excited for the opportunity to keep Greenville’s traditions alive while providing services needed in the modern era. She has lived in eastern North Carolina her entire life, growing up in Kinston before attending Campbell University and moving to Pollocksville. Since she graduated from Campbell’s pharmaceutical program, she’s been working in pharmacies
14
Greenville: Life In The East
throughout the area, eventually buying the Realo drugstore in Trenton. She familiarized herself with Greenville while her daughter attended East Carolina University, seeing the need even then for a pharmacy that’s closer to the center of city activity. “(My daughter) said that it’s just so inconvenient to get to a pharmacy in general, particularly her first year … she told me, ‘For me to go to a drug store and pick
Fall 2019
up my prescriptions, it’ll kill an hour, hour and a half by the time I get to my car, drive there, and come back,’” Hamilton said. While ECU does have a pharmacy on the main campus as part of its student health services, it is only available to verified students who have fully paid their tuition and health fees — an imperfect solution for the increasing living and working populations of the downtown sector. Then, Hamilton was contacted about opening a pharmacy in the empty storefront. “One of the gentlemen who started the Uptown Brewery is a friend of mine from New Bern, and he just called me out of the blue and said, ‘Hey, some of us merchants here Uptown are looking at the empty storefronts … we thought a pharmacy would be a great addition,” she said. It was an opportunity that she didn’t want to pass up, so Hamilton sought out the store and worked with Tony Khoury, the owner of the building and condo above, as the facade was restored, then began repainting inside and installing furniture. In creating the store — originally the site of The King Clothier and later The Three Sisters clothing store and Bradshaw’s wig and dress shop — Hamilton worked with the Historical Preservation Commission to maintain the building’s historical aspects and left many of the brick walls inside exposed as they had been before. She even named the pharmacy after Globe Hardware in an effort to bring the Globe name back into the community. “(Naming it Globe) was a suggestion from Mr. Khoury,” Hamilton said. “Globe Hardware was such an institution that for the people who have lived here for a while, or been here a long time, it would be a name that they would instantly remember. So, on my behalf, he contacted Mrs. Wilkerson, whose husband owned Globe Hardware … she was very excited, and gave us her blessing to use the name.” The restored building has a classic look, with a deep blue facade and exposed brick running up the exterior of both floors. Inside, Hamilton has integrated bright purple walls and accents, incorporating ECU’s colors into the atmosphere and aligning herself even closer with the students and community that she hopes to reach. It’s a beautiful blend of old and new, and one that doesn’t stop at the Globe’s appearance.
Fall 2019
Hamilton hopes for patients and pharmacists to have a more old-fashioned and familiar relationship, and hopes that the building and name will firmly tie her to Greenville’s history and culture. But the pharmacy’s services will be extremely modern — including new machines and digital contact with local doctors, a smart phone app and a delivery service. “The historic aspect is the building and the facility and the tradition of service,” she said, “versus the actual filling of prescriptions and providing the products to the customer.” Hamilton is confident she can compete in an age of drugstore chains and growing online trade. The key is in the sense of community that she can offer to her customers and her employees, she said. “The historic aspect is the building and the facility and the tradition of service, versus the actual filling of prescriptions and providing the products to the customer.” “If I take care of them, they’ll take care of me,” Hamilton said of her team, whom she treats as family. “That’s one of the areas where people say, ‘Oh, you can’t compete with the chains as far as benefits or retirement.’ Well, maybe, maybe not, but one thing I can do is make sure that if you want to take the afternoon off so you can watch your kid play baseball, I’m going to do everything I can to make sure you can do that.” Hamilton chose the pharmacy business because it was one of the few jobs in medicine that would assure her a more lenient work-life balance, and she intends on giving that same benefit to her team. The Globe Pharmacy team currently consists of Hamilton, two experienced pharmacists from Greenville, and two incoming ECU students that have worked with her when they were in high school. Hamilton hopes to open the pharmacy later this summer, and is currently finishing the inside of the building and focusing on getting the word out.
Greenville: Life In The East
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Greenville: Life In The East
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Greenville: Life In The East
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Dickinson
Developer: Jim Blount takes pride in helping his hometown grow By Sharieka Botex
T
he development of Greenville is noticeable whether you’re walking through it, running through it, living in it, or following detour signs to travel on alternate routes that potentially offer a glimpse of the retail spots, food and beverage venues, attractions or student housing buildings. Among the development is University Edge and Dickson Loft Apartments, an apartment-styled building that towers over neighboring buildings. The tall residential space at 550 Pitt-Greene Connector is located in a mecca of convenience — it’s walking distance to the G.K. Butterfield Transportation Center and the booming Dickinson district with the added peace of mind assured by the Greenville Police Department headquarters next door. Jim Blount can rattle off a list of amenities that make the apartment building an attractive, desirable living space. Blount, 52, a partner and member of the owner’s group seemed at home in the complex during an interview bore the July 4 holiday. More than 400 people actually make the new apartments their homes. “We are 100 percent fully occupied for next fall,” Blount said. “When we opened in August, we were 80 percent. We were really battling with these other projects, like Gather Uptown and The Eastern, The Boundary and The Province — all of us to trying to fill the beds that we have. It was very, very difficult. I think that the students that were looking at the properties in Greenville were wanting something that was already completed.” Blount said parents and students looking to secure a
Deborah Griffin
residence in April or May of last may have been hesitant and reluctant to sign the lease while construction was ongoing. The lease-up period in spring 2019 was a different story. “It far exceeded my expectations when the building was complete,” Blount said. “I really had no idea, the level of impact it would have, as far as a gateway project into Dickinson Avenue and right here in the Uptown area. I know I’m biased, but it’s a great looking building. I did see plans from other projects that our development partners had built, so I kind of knew what the building was gonna look like from an architecture and land planning aspect, but I had no idea that it would fit in this area as well as it does right now, and really add so much to the downtown area.” DEVELOPMENT OF A DEVELOPER
Competition is not a foreign concept to Blount, a Greenville native and resident who left the city in the 10th grade to attend high school at Virginia Episcopal School, and graduated in 1991 with a bachelor of arts in history from Washington College in Maryland. Blount, at a time, envisioned himself with a different career, a job that prepared him for the grind and hustle that can come with working in property development. “When I was in college, I was working on a charter fishing boat on the Outer Banks every summer, and as far as I was concerned, I was going to be a charter boat captain when I got out of college,” Blount said laughing. “After the fourth summer I was down there, I was just so
tired at the end of each summer, and I knew that I had to get into the real world, and that was when I moved on into working in national politics.” Blount moved to the Washington, D.C., area for six years and spent time working for the Bill Clinton and Al Gore campaign in 1992, he said. From 1993-1995, he worked as the special assistant to the Director of Health Care for the White House Office of Management and Budget, and from 1995 to 1998 he worked as a special assistant and liaison in the United States Department of the Treasury, he said. Blount said he learned a great deal in the trenches for the ClintonGore advance team in eastern North Carolina. “When you’re in the advance team, basically what you’re doing is you’re traveling ahead of the candidate, setting up bleachers, coordinating buses to come in,” he said. “You are just doing everything you can to build a crowd, and it is the bottom of the bottom as far as trying to get a start in that type of work … You always end up having to deal with these very kind of, local leaders, influential leaders, you know, to make sure you’ve found the right venue, you’ve got all the right people at the venue, you’ve got all the right political business leaders in the right seating area and I think … in the development field it’s a lot of organizational … categorizing, and, sequential steps to get the product done, and a lot of that comes from when you’re working in that field too.” GETTING INTO THE GAME
From 1998 to 2000, Blount lived in Raleigh’s trendy Cameron Village. He said it was an eyeopener to how students in the Raleigh area were living.
“A light bulb went off ... that Greenville really didn’t have any ty pe of smaller, cottagey ty pe apartment buildings and duplexes,” Blount said. “So when I moved back … I actually started my business in the grid,” he said. He and his brother and sister inher ited a duplex from their grandparents on First Street in a patchwork of university-area neig hborhoods students refer to as the grid. He bought out his siblings and used the equity to buy his first building in 2003, he said. That complex is now known as The Retreat at Town Common. His entree into the business allowed him to combine the skills learned in tourism and politics and combine them with an eye for decor and design inherited from his mother, Jane Wright, he said. From 2003, Blount Properties would acquire seven locations in the grid. The buildings house 70 units with more than 100 residents: about 90 percent are students and 10 percent are graduate students or young professionals, Blount said. In addition to The Retreat at Town Common, they include Flats on Second, The Chelsea, River Run Apar tments, The Cottage House Apartments, Meade Place Apartments and Market Place Villas. “I had no idea, that I would end up involved in a $30 million project in downtown Greenville,” Blount said. “But like other people, I really started with one property and I built off that and I understood, you know the buying process, the money process, the apar tment leasing process, and then executing on the creative side of rea lly sprucing up and painting the brick, and landscaping, and flags on the second floors, and hanging flowers from the second floors, and rocking
chairs, you know, just creative stuff. My mom is an in interior designer in Wilmington, and I obviously inherited a lot of her genes.” Blount’s father, Marvin Blount Jr., an attorney and former superior court judge, died in 2006. His sister, Jane Lewis, 50, is the business manager for Lewis Builders in Wilmington. His brother Marvin Blount III, 54, is a superior court judge. Their grandfather Marvin Blount Sr., was a lawyer, mayor of Greenville and an officer with Blount-Harvey Department store downtown, now the location of Coastal Fog. LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
The Dickinson district a few short years ago was desolate, Blount said, but it wasn’t always. “When I was a kid, this little area right here was actually bustling,” Blount said during the visit to University Edge. “You had Diener’s Bakery here. You had the Carolina Grill. You had Jim McDonald Karate, where I took karate. ... This was like a little merchant avenue right here. Back when I was a kid, it was bustling.” The city’s outward sprawl through the 1980’s and 90’s killed commerce there, many of the district’s buildings emptied and some fell into disrepair and a ghostlike state. “They were older buildings probably owned by families for many generations that they probably didn’t have children back here, or someone to pass that property on, and you know it was time for ... a revitalization effort on the Dickinson Avenue area,” Blount said. While the effort took many forms, including leaps of faith by a large number of small, private investors, city leaders also developed the Dickinson Avenue Revitalization Plan
that was completed in 2012 by Ayers Saint Gross, a Washington, D.C., based landscape, land planning company, Blount said. The city sold a public parking lot between Dickinson, Reade Circle and Pitt Street to Blount and his partners with Sidewalk Development in 2015 to make way for what would become University Edge-Dickinson Lofts. The project took off as other developments like Trollingwood, Dickinson Avenue Public House and Pitt Street Brewing began to add shape to the district. The city broke ground for the G.K. Butterfield Transportation Activity Center as construction for the apartments began. The development of housing like University Edge, the Boundary, Gather Uptown and others have helped drive commercial and business development in the city center, Blount explained. It’s all the result of more people wanting an urban lifestyle. “Everything is really migrating back toward the center city,” Blount said. “This project fit well with that … I think what makes this project so unique and why we liked it so much is the Dickinson Avenue Corridor is shaping up to be a very cool, hip, artsy cultural area that is very eclectic, and that’s very attractive to a developer.” MORE TO COME
Blount speaks about his role in the project with a sense of humility while acknowledging that his hometown connections helped him. “I used my local knowledge, and my local contacts,” Blount said. “As far as being able to add something to a team that had everything but a local person to help navigate them through permitting, and helping them find subcontractors
Fall 2019
and vendors and anything else they needed to get this project moving and keep it from being stalled, and I think that’s where I added the most
to the project. I am fine with that role.” When it comes to what’s next, Blount sees a need to provide more than just student housing. “I think that the next big push for this area right here is to create more residential, and what I mean by that is … non-student conventional market rate apartments for working adults ... for single adults, young professiona ls, grad students, faculty, Vidant Health executives,” Blount said. “That’s what the city and the developers need to focus on next is creati ng oppor tu n ities for residential, and we’ve got plenty of student housing here. We will never have a shortage of student housing ... that ship has sailed, and we need to focus on young professionals.” He said efforts by groups like
Uptown Greenville to create successful events like PirateFest, Freeboot Friday and the Uptown Umbrella Market have helped the area grow and he hopes to see more activities like that along with business and grassroots efforts like Spazzfest and Sup Dogs’ Doggie Jams. He plans to stay in the mix to try to help those things happen, he said. “I never realized how much time it would take to help advocate, to help to communicate with the city and the private sector on, ‘Hey we need this’,” Blount said. “We need this project for Uptown, or we need a safer Uptown ... You know, we need Edison lights hanging over Dickinson Avenue to make it look more cool and funky. We need more artwork ... Those are the things that the developer can help ... advocate for.” Ongoing development means thinking about the competitive market, the risks, the commitment to creating and maintaining nice, well-kept living spaces for people with amenities and accessibility to places they need to be and want to go, Blount said, along with advocating to ensure that the community meets its potential. He said he has been in discussions with hotel developers and there has been an expressed interest in the downtown area. “I’d like to do one more project, you know, similar to this,” Blount said. “I would like for it to actually be a mixed-used project on an area that would bring in several different phases. I’d like to be involved with helping to recruit a hotel, and some office, and some conventional market rate.” Whatever comes next, it has to be about more than just money, however. “I’m not so into the money,” Blount said. “I really get excited about the revitalizing older buildings and properties and building new projects like this. I really enjoy creating properties that give the community, or the neighborhood, whether it’s an apartment building in the grid or apartment building downtown Greenville, something that looks good and the community can be proud of, and our city can be proud of.”
Greenville: Life In The East
21
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Greenville: Life In The East
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Fall 2019
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Greenville: Life In The East
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23
TOWNE BANK TOWER Pirates Ready To Show Off Stadium Upgrades By Ronnie Woodward
Molly Urbina
E
ast Carolina University’s football team begins preseason practice Friday under first-year Pirate coach Mike Houston, and the Pirates’ first game with their new coach is Aug. 31 at rival N.C. State. Other important dates to highlight, especially for ECU fans, are Aug. 16 and Aug. 17, which will celebrate the opening of Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium’s TowneBank Tower. ECU is planning on an Aug. 16 ribbon cutting for the $60 million Southside Renovation Project, a brick and steel tower that features luxury suites, premium seating and a high-tech press box. The next day is the annual Meet the Pirates event, which this year will feature an open-house style opportunity for fans to check out the most extensive project to enhance Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium since it opened in 1963. “The first thing is it passes the look test,” said Pirate athletics director Jon Gilbert, who like Houston also is in his first year at ECU. “It should enhance our game day atmosphere and enhance our recruiting as well. … I want it to be a first-class experience, starting in the parking lot and then the way (fans) are greeted at the stadium and certainly their experience in the seats.” The Southside Renovation Project was initiated by previous AD Jeff Compher in March of 2016. Work by T.A. Loving Co. and Frank L. Blum Construction ramped up after the 2018 season to be completely finished in early August. ECU will hold its home-opener Sept. 7 against Gardner-Webb at 6 p.m. Construction crews and university officials used the football press box and suites buildings already in place at the University of Cincinnati, Texas Christian and Wake Forest as guiding posts. The Pirates’ previous press box structure was installed in 1977. “While our previous space had an antiquated charm of sorts, we are now in a position to offer amenities to our friends in the media that will enable us to provide a conducive and functional working
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environment that fully complements our lasting commitment to customer service,” ECU media relations director Tom McClellan said. “The renovation has not only allowed us to catch up, but in my opinion, surpass facilities our colleagues across the American Athletic Conference currently enjoy. In fact, saying it is more aligned with many of the Atlantic Coast Conference and Southeastern Conference schools I’ve had the opportunity to visit certainly wouldn’t be an exaggeration.” A new experience for many fans will feature a total of 46 suites and loge boxes inside the five-story structure. The scholarship club levels include 530 seats available to sell. ECU will have six home football games this season. In addition to its most obvious use during football games, Gilbert also has talked about wanting to rent out the tower for other activities.
“The club level is a sports bar type of atmosphere up here,” he said during a tour for local media members in April. “We talk about what we can use it for other than the six Saturdays per year, and this room will be used for a multitude of functions from weddings to us using it for recruiting. This room really excites me.” ECU has had three football coaches, including Houston, since Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium’s last renovation in 2010, when the Boneyard student seating section was created behind the east end zone. The expansion added 7,000 seats for a 50,000 capacity. Senior associate athletics director for internal operations J.J. McLamb said that project cost about $18 million. East Carolina then left Conference USA for the more-competitive American Athletic Conference in
Fall 2019
2014, and is still trying to find its footing in the AAC. Previous coach Scottie Montgomery posted three straight 3-9 overall records before being fired. TowneBank Tower’s opening coincides with optimism with many Pirate fans about Gilbert, Houston and others at ECU. “It’s a game-changer for us,” McLamb said of the stadium upgrades. “It really transforms our stadium, not from the functionality of what we are doing, but with the appearance. People will come in and when you have that structure sitting there, even flying in and out of the Pitt-Greenville Airport, you’ll see it.” TowneBank’s headquarters are in Suffolk, Va. The bank has more than 40 locations in Virginia and North Carolina, including a strong foothold in the Outer Banks. A Greenville location opened early this year on Charles Boulevard. “We thought this was an important thing to do to help bring this program forward and we hope to create a lot of winning seasons,” said Bob Aston, executive chairman of TowneBank, during a visit to Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. “We have a nice stadium and new great coach and we are excited about him. We are pleased to be here.”
Greenville: Life In The East
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...There is a community outside of the university that a lot of people don’t know about until they put themselves out there.”
QUARTERBACK
QUESTIONS One-on-One with
Holton Ahlers Submitted Photos
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Greenville: Life In The East
Fall 2019
Holton Ahlers is entering his first full season as East Carolina football’s projected starting quarterback. Here are 10 questions to the Greenville native and sophomore about football and some fun: Q: How is your golf game? HA: The team actually went to Topgolf last year and I won in my group. I haven’t played a full 18 holes in a while, but we go to the driving range all the time and I am probably not very good. I can hit it a long way, but it just doesn’t always go straight. Q: How would describe first-year ECU coach Mike Houston to Pirate fans? HA: Intense. He doesn’t let anything get through and focuses on the details a lot, which is what we need here. I would say more than anything he is intense. Q: You are a left-handed QB. What can you do with your right hand? HA: I play basketball right-handed a lot and write right-handed and eat righthanded. I even kick right-footed and when I play disc golf, I throw with my right hand. I can actually throw (a football) with both hands, but I just do it better with my left hand. Q: If you weren’t allowed to play quarterback, what other position would you play? HA: I’ll say receiver. I think if I have kids, I would want them to play either receiver or quarterback because it would be fun. Q: What is your favorite memory from D.H. Conley High School? HA: My senior night against J.H. Rose. It was a blackout game with special uniforms and a special night because a bunch of my best friends were seniors as well. We still stay in touch and hang out quite a bit, so it is that because we ended up winning that game pretty big and Rose-
Conley is a pretty big deal around here. Q: You have lived in Greenville your entire life. What is the best thing about Greenville? HA: The people. Greenville doesn’t have big skyscrapers or amusement parks or anything like that, but it’s about ECU and the people here. That is one of the biggest things that I tell recruits when they come visit is to give Greenville a chance to accept you. They will accept you quick and will love you and you can become family here. I have seen that, obviously, because I’m from here, but even more when I got to ECU because there is a community outside of the university that a lot of people don’t know about until they put themselves out there. Q: Who has influenced you? HA: God, my mom and Tim Tebow. With Tebow and growing up watching him, he is a lefty and I’m a lefty and we have the same playing style. There are not a lot of Christian athletes who take a step and put it out there like he has. During my recruitment process, I thought a lot about where could I have the biggest impact on the community around me and I felt like it was here and it was definitely ECU. Also, anyone in my family because I look up to everyone in my family and listen to any opinion that they have.
Q: Who are the most intimidating and intense teammates in the weight room? HA: (Defensive lineman) Jalen Price and (offensive lineman) Sean Bailey. Bailey is such a big dude and he lifts as much as you can put on the bar. I’ve never seen him not get something, so it’s probably them two. Q: You were a passionate Pirate baseball fan this year. Has that always been true? HA: I grew up playing baseball and thinking I would play baseball here and not football, even though I dreamed of playing football. We’ve always had frontrow seats to the games and always come to the games. I just think now that people notice me more at the games because of being a quarterback here. But I have always been there in the stands.
Q: Speaking of family, you are 6-foot-3, 236 pounds and the youngest of four boys and your dad was a collegiate athlete. Who is the tallest person in your family? HA: I have two brothers who are 6-9, so they are tied I guess. They go back and forth on who is taller. I am the shortest, but people do say I am still growing.
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