Charlotte Magazine April 2022

Why All the Rebrands? p. 14

Atlanta, Revisited p. 19

History in a Kopper Kettle p. 36

PLUS Featured Agents & Builders

A New Lease Retirement living gets an upgrade

+ Culture Shock

APRIL 2022

charlottemagazine.com

Behind the city’s arts shake-up p. 76

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CONTENTS CHARLOTTE / APRIL 2022 / VOL. 27, NUMBER 4

62

Features

NEW LIFE As the core of the baby boomer generation reaches retirement, senior living communities are adding more space, options, technology, and fun

BY TAYLOR BOWLER

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CALL OF THE ’BURBS People think of Charlotte’s urban core as the hot area for apartments, but developers increasingly head toward the I-485 loop—and beyond

BY GREG LACOUR

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OUT OF THE LOOP Four new and under-construction apartment complexes outside the city center

BY TESS ALLEN

Plus 78

THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT In 2021, Charlotte appointed Priya Sircar as its first arts and culture officer and assembled a board to distribute funding and develop a long-range plan.

Could the move help turn Charlotte into a cultural destination?

BY ALLISON BRADEN

ON THE COVER: Tom and Carol Arnold, residents at Southminster, a south Charlotte retirement community.

Photograph by Rusty Williams.

ON THIS PAGE: Construction continues at Pringle Square Apartments, off Steele Creek Road in southwest Charlotte. Photograph by Herman Nicholson.

APRIL 2022 // CHARLOTTE

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46

33

36

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04 22 CONTENTS IN EVERY ISSUE 6 From the Editor 8

Connect

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You Are Here

ANDY McMILLAN; PETER TAYLOR (2); COURTESY ARIEL PETTY

THE GUIDE 84 Seen The city’s best party pics

THE BUZZ 11 Life Lessons Therapist and author Nedra Glover Tawwab on building her social media presence 14

Business Everyone in Charlotte seems to be rebranding

THE GOOD LIFE 19 Weekender Get reacquainted with Atlanta 22

Style Satrell Beauty founder Nichole Wright leans on her finance background to build her cosmetics business

26

Room We Love A mountain-inspired bathroom in Cotswold

40

On the Line 5th Street Group’s executive pastry chef, Michaela Moehring

28

Real Estate Cozy, cabin-inspired homes

42

Recipe The Stanley’s Game Set Matcha cocktail

30

Culture The best things to do and see this month

42

Bite-Sized News Foodie tidbits on a small plate

FOOD + DRINK 33 Now Open PARA merges cuisines in South End

44

Restaurant Guide Charlotte’s best bets for Latin cuisine

46

Beer A new generation of drinkers feels the power of the sour

36

Served History Big portions and family traditions at Pineville’s Kopper Kettle

APRIL 2022 // CHARLOTTE

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F RO M T H E E D I TO R

YOU SHOULD BE DANCING

Our city prepares for a generation of retirees who aren’t ready to take their seats

Volume 27, Number 4

APRIL 2022

morrismedianetwork.com

charlottemagazine.com

PUBLISHER Allison Hollins ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Andy Smith ADVERTISING SALES ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Gail Dougherty, Sue Graf, David Hughes, Patricia Laurence ADVERTISING SERVICE COORDINATOR Tonya Ray EDITORIAL EDITOR Greg Lacour LIFESTYLE EDITOR Taylor Bowler ASSOCIATE EDITOR Tess Allen COPY EDITOR/FACT-CHECKER Allison Braden CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Cristina Bolling, Allison Braden, Lauren Levine Corriher, Kathleen Purvis ART & PHOTOGRAPHY ART DIRECTOR Jane Fields CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Daniel Coston, Andy McMillan, Herman Nicholson, Peter Taylor, Rusty Williams CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATORS Rob Donnelly, Shaw Nielsen DIGITAL CONTENT COORDINATOR Amanda Pagliarini

Charlotte magazine 214 W. Tremont Ave., Suite 303, Charlotte, NC 28203 CONTRIBUTORS Email editor@charlottemagazine.com for writer’s guidelines.

Unsolicited photographs, illustrations, or articles are submitted at the risk of the photographer/artist/author. Charlotte magazine assumes no liability for the return of unsolicited materials and may use them at its discretion.

SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES

877-248-9624 ADVERTISERS For advertising information and rates, please contact us at advertising@charlottemagazine.com.

A Publication of MCC Magazines, LLC a division of Morris Communications Company, LLC 735 Broad Street, Augusta, GA 30901

MORRIS MEDIA NETWORK PRESIDENT Tina Battock VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS Scott Ferguson DIRECTOR OF MANUFACTURING & PRODUCTION Sherry Brown ACCOUNTING MANAGER Veronica Brooks CIRCULATION BUSINESS MANAGER Michelle Rowe MORRIS COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY, LLC CHAIRMAN William S. Morris III CEO Craig S. Mitchell

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LOGAN CYRUS

LOLA’S IS HOPPING, FESTIVE, as befits the holiday season. The residents at Southminster take to the dance floor in the shadow of a Christmas tree and shake what the Lord gave ’em. Others gather around tables with cocktails and glasses of wine. They’re retirees, mainly folks in their 70s and 80s. An earlier generation grew misty-eyed at “Moonlight Serenade” and other World War II artifacts. What’s the DJ spinning here at Southminster’s on-site bar? What else? “Stayin’ Alive.”

Whether you’re a brother or whether you’re a mother, you deserve respect for just getting out there at that age. But that wasn’t what struck Taylor Bowler, our lifestyle editor, who wrote about the south Charlotte retirement community for our annual real estate issue. (The story begins on p. 62.) She learned about the community outbreak of Saturday night fever because a man named Larry Dagenhart shot 50 seconds of video with his iPhone and emailed it to her. Big deal, you think. But Larry’s 89. Taylor later spent some time at a Southminster yoga class. The instructor, 79-year-old Carol Arnold, had her playlist of ambient namaste jams ready to go on her phone.

“They’re very young seniors, if that makes sense,” Taylor says. “I think seniors sometimes get a bad rap when it comes to technology, whereas these residents, as far as I’ve seen, embrace it. It comes very naturally to them.”

This real estate package talks about apartments—who can rent what, where, and for how much—and communities like Southminster highlight one aspect of a growing phenomenon.

The oldest baby boomers, born in 1946, turn 76 this year. The youngest, born in 1964, celebrate their 58th birthdays. From one pole to the other GREG LACOUR are 71 million Americans—and Charlotte, as a greg.lacour@charlottemagazine.com celebrated retirement destination, has to find places for a bunch of them.

For their lifestyles, too. Boomers came of age in the plenty of postwar America. So Southminster and other continuing care retirement communities—don’t call them nursing homes!—accommodate their lifelong habits with perks: verdant courtyards, indoor swimming pools, cottages with high-speed internet, and disco nights at Lola’s.

Goodness knows they’ve earned it. But our package plays the other side of the record, too: Even with developers throwing up new complexes for all ages, and in places where they’ve never been in the Charlotte area, demand for apartments still surges ahead of supply. That means rents continue to rise, and more people have to live farther out or leave altogether. You can live a great life in the new apartments, provided, as with so much else in this city, you can afford to live there at all.

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // APRIL 2022

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Connect

ONLINE EXTRAS, EVENTS, AND CONVERSATIONS

REACT

Responses to the February issue of Charlotte magazine To “Racing Reimagined,” p. 50 I enjoyed this conversation with @SG_TarDawg for @CharlotteMag about @NASCAR past present and future, and all the great things we have going on in the community. I’m really looking forward to this 2022 season!

Tweet from @MarcusSMI I’m sorry but when half the article is saying how a driver who’s average finish for 2021 was 21st [and] he’s one of the most “celebrated drivers” that right there is why people call it a dying sport.

Tweet from @cpt_crazy91 From new and current drivers to the next generation of cars, it was fun chatting with @CharlotteMag about the future of #NASCAR. Check it out!

Tweet from @kylepetty To “The Other Tracks,” p. 56 Great exposure for the area’s short tracks and accurately put into layman’s terms for the publication’s readers who may not be as educated in the sport.

Hopefully it gains the interest and results in some new fans at places like Hickory and Millbridge!

Tweet from @aaron_creed I barely remember being 5 or 6 y o my parents taking us to Hickory and Cleveland County fair grounds. we lived in Shelby. What I remember is

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the noise, but mostly having to take a bath b/c of red dirt.

Tidbits of useless knowledge to keep you relaxed Tweet from @lmyracrna

Today’s must read is @greglacour in @charlottemag. The headline, the topic … all so good.

Tweet from @iftheshoefits

To “Pole Position,” p. 60 Wait, you mean to tell me it wasn’t just that one drunk guy in that dive bar that one time who actually thought this was a real thing?! …

He was convinced and kept trying to point it out. I kept telling him I thought he was crazy.

Tweets from @jefftaylorhuman

Understand the reason Mick Jagger visited when recently in town was to see that poster…

Instagram comment from @schwartz_chris

This poster has been one of my favorite things to show firsttimers at the Thirsty Beaver Thank you, @greglacour and @CharlotteMag for the story and the laugh!

Tweet from @ErinBreeden Excellent, excellent story, Greg.

I read every inch.

Tweet from @CristinaBolling Thanks for this story. Too funny. But … wouldn’t someone in the picture have noticed him, uh, unzipping and revealing himself? Or zipping back up? Seems to me he couldn’t have pulled this off (or out, as the case may be) without being discovered. Someone in that pic should know.

Tweet from @viv_bernstein It’s definitely a Instagram comment from @apesmith

Everytime I see this in a bar or restaurant I have to take a peek for a good laugh Instagram comment from @garrett_west

ON THE WEB Want more to read? Check out these popular stories on charlottemagazine.com.

1.

A Survey of the Charlotte Area’s Romantic Restaurants 2.

11 Must-Try Breakfasts and Brunches in in Charlotte: 2022 3.

Where to Eat in Uptown Charlotte Right Now

To “Return Policy,” p. 14 Awesome writeup on our new CEO and the future of @cmlibrary. What a time to be taking the reins (both for me and him). I see greatness ahead.

Tweet from @TarheelFoodways Thank you, friends, for this wonderful feature of our CEO. Facebook comment from Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Keep doing big things, M.T. Instagram comment from @luquireagency To “Denise Butler,” p. 20 Yay! Congratulations @cocoacuties Instagram comment from @lamorelifestylepr

Charlotte magazine’s tablet edition is available via the Apple Newsstand and at magzter.com.

FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA /charlottemagazine @charlottemag @charlottemag

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // APRIL 2022

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INSIDE: WELLNESS / BUSINESS

BUZZ

THE

WHAT MATTERS NOW IN THE CITY

W E L L N E SS

NEDRA GLOVER TAWWAB Charlotte therapist strikes gold with bestselling book and social media presence that emphasize the value of boundaries

COURTESY ARIEL PETTY

BY LAUREN LEVINE CORRIHER

CHARLOTTE THERAPIST Nedra Glover Tawwab has more than 1.3 million Instagram followers—nearly as many as Panthers star Christian McCaffrey, more than Hornets forward Gordon Hayward, Mayor Vi Lyles, and the City of Charlotte. Followers rely on Tawwab for insight on mental health topics that range from forgiveness to realistic goals, packaged in bite-sized chunks. Scan the post, read the caption, and you’ve learned something to make your life better while you wait for that meeting to start.

The Detroit native worked for years in mental health before she moved to Charlotte in 2009 and founded her private practice, Kaleidoscope Counseling, in 2011. She lives in north Charlotte with her husband and children.

“I feel like I flourish and thrive here,” she says. “The weather is beautiful. I love the sounds of birds and the animals I see run-

APRIL 2022 // CHARLOTTE

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THE BUZZ ning around. Even a gecko sneaking into my house is a beautiful surprise. That’s certainly not something I saw in Detroit.”

In March 2021, Penguin Random House published Tawwab’s first book, the New York Times bestseller Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself, followed by a companion workbook.

She’s since appeared on Good Morning America and in Forbes and USA Today, talking about the essential role boundaries play in mental and emotional health.

The book’s success has shifted Tawwab’s career—she sees fewer clients now and devotes more time to content creation through outlets like Instagram, where she aims to start honest, accessible conversations about mental health.

Here is Tawwab in her own words, edited for space and clarity.

I STARTED POSTING on Instagram in 2017. In January 2019, I had about 2,000 followers. In June, I was featured in a New York Times article about Instagram therapists. I didn’t even know this was happening, I just saw it and was like, “Oh, my gosh!” From there, my account went to about 100,000. Then sometime in June (2021), I reached a million.

I THINK SOCIAL MEDIA is an amazing way to increase conversations. Many people are unaware of certain things that are troubling them. Just hearing someone say the word “gaslighting,” for example, is like, “Oh, my gosh, that’s what that is!”

Because there’s nothing like feeling like: There’s something wrong with me. Nobody else is depressed; nobody else is anxious. I don’t know why this person is treating me like that.

BEFORE I STARTED USING INSTAGRAM, I had a very apathetic view of social media.

I thought it was a space that created all these issues. I hadn’t considered that you can go into social media with boundaries and that the space can be healthy, depending on how it’s used and what it’s used for.

HOWEVER, PLEASE KNOW that not everything you see on my social media will apply to you. If you find yourself like, “Yes, yes, I think that’s it,” then that’s great.

But it’s also something to process with a therapist, because I’m not your therapist.

I’m a therapist who uses Instagram, but

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I’m not talking to you one-on-one to understand the details of your story. My post might not have enough nuance to support what you need in your particular situation.

I THINK MY CONTENT resonates with people because it’s digestible. So often, when we think about therapy, we think about professional jargon. On my page, I’m breaking down concepts in a way that people can understand and hear. It’s short. It’s sweet. It’s bulleted. This is the modern way that people are consuming information. I think it can be a beautiful introduction to therapy, particularly if we’re uncomfortable or afraid. I’ve received tons of messages from people saying, “I was on the fence about therapy, but I saw you and now I think I’m going to call a therapist.” I love those messages.

THE WAY I POST on Instagram hasn’t changed. I’m not a perfectionist; I’m actually an imperfectionist. I want to be authentic, and that means there may be a typo. There may be a comma left out. I am a writer, not an editor.

THINK ABOUT THE AREAS of life that mental health impacts: parenting, relationships, homelessness, incarceration, adolescence. Unfortunately, accessibility is a problem in many cities, including Charlotte. We need more mental health resources. It shouldn’t be so hard to get help. There shouldn’t be a cost barrier to getting help.

THIS IS AN ISSUE FOR MOST CITIES because we haven’t addressed mental health as a real crisis. This accessibility issue has increased in the pandemic.

People are doing more freelance work.

They’re working contractually. Insurance isn’t provided, so they may not have the financial resources to attend therapy.

I STARTED TO WRITE MY BOOK, Set Boundaries, Find Peace, in October 2019.

Between writing the book and writing the workbook, I’ve learned so much about boundaries. I’ll be talking about boundaries when I’m 97. As humans, I think we naturally have boundary issues.

And therapeutically, it’s helpful to assist people in understanding when they’re having a boundary challenge.

THESE ARE IDEAS that I’ve been talking about for years, and that’s why it’s very easy for me to write this stuff down, because it’s like, “I’ve said this a thousand times.” These are the things I say to all of my clients. They’re a part of my therapeutic process.

MY BOOK WAS RELEASED on March 16, 2021. Two weeks before that, I was talking to everybody from sunup to sundown.

By March 30, I was saying, “What did I do? Here I am talking about boundaries, and I’m having headaches because I’m doing too many things in one day.” I had to check in with myself and say, “You’re doing too much to want this book to be successful.” Because if I can’t set boundaries with myself, then we need to throw out the whole book.

I’VE BEEN A THERAPIST for 14 years, and I’ve learned to understand what clients you schedule at the beginning of the day, who’s going to make you laugh in the middle, so you have that energy to keep going. Now I’m learning how to show up in this world, because this is a new portion of my career. I’m learning as I do more podcasts and appearances.

I see clients two days a week, and I’m not accepting new clients. Right now, I’m working on something new, so I write two days a week. The other day is reserved for interviews and appearances, though there are times when I have to adjust my schedule.

I’M ALWAYS OPERATING in multiple roles. There are moments when I need to be a therapist. There are moments when I need to be a speaker. There are moments when I need to be a mom, though that’s a 24-hour duty, being a parent. If my kids come home from school, and they’ve had a tragic day, and they’re sitting in my office, then I have to pause and say, “Can you hold on a second? I have a situation here.”

I FEEL LIKE I’M MAKING SPACE for the things that I love. I’m more selective of the things that I say “yes” to because I know that my time is very valuable. I need to be doing things I enjoy, because if not, I could be at home with my kids. I know I cannot be of service to everyone.

I often direct people to speak to a mental health professional, talk to an elder in

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // APRIL 2022

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your community, or read more books about the things you want to know about.

ONE BIG WAY to know if you’re having a boundary issue is to follow your feelings.

So often, we have feelings that are telling us that something needs to be done. We’re feeling anxious. We’re feeling burned out.

We’re upset when we’re around certain people or in certain situations. Those are all indicators that there needs to be some change. And often, the change needed is boundaries.

THE MOST COMMON misconception about boundaries is that they’re mean, that setting a boundary will ruin your relationship. There are some relationships where it can be really challenging to set a boundary. But I’ve also been shocked in the process of setting boundaries with some folks. It’s like, “Oh, wow, that wasn’t even an issue.” And yet we’re afraid to say or do certain things because we’re predicting way ahead of time that something will be an issue.

IF YOU’RE HESITANT about setting boundaries, consider the other times when you set boundaries. You’ve been setting boundaries probably as long as you’ve been alive, whether it was refusing to eat peanut butter or refusing to wear red pants, or whatever the thing was.

We’ve all been setting boundaries in our own unique ways.

MANY PEOPLE report the most boundary issues with their family. You have more of an emotional attachment there. You can tell just by body language when your mother is disappointed. But the beautiful thing about family is they love us. And most of our family members want to be in a relationship with us.

MANY OF US need to reclaim our voices to continue setting boundaries. As an adult, it’s important to reclaim that voice and to say to your friends, your partners, your children, “This is what I need. This is what I don’t like. This is what I expect.”

LAUREN LEVINE CORRIHER is a writer whose work has appeared in Southern Living, Parents, Condé Nast Traveler, Shape, Health, Axios Charlotte, and more. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @LatestByLauren.

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APRIL 2022 // CHARLOTTE

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THE BUZZ

B U S I N E SS

BRAND, BRAND AGAIN

Everybody in Charlotte—businesses, nonprofits, schools—seems to be rebranding these days. Here’s why and how they’re usually more than just cosmetic changes

BY TESS ALLEN | ILLUSTRATION BY ROB DONNELLY

IN OCTOBER 2021, the popular uptown food hall 7th Street Public Market announced a new name, The Market at 7th Street, which struck people throughout town as a slight and perhaps unnecessary rearrangement of its old name. About the same time, McColl Center for Art + Innovation dropped the latter part of its name and rebranded to simply McColl Center.

Those are just a pair of Charlotte institutions that, over the past year or so, have rebranded, adopting new names to reflect changes in strategy, philosophy, or perceived identity. Even when the most observable changes are so slight they seem barely worth the trouble—trivial or “extra,” in the Urban Dictionary sense— rebrands are more than that.

They can be signposts for profound shifts in an organization’s direction or

14

fresh starts under new leadership. They can accompany expansions or contractions. They respond to changing tastes and market trends. Whether they’re big or small—or even whether they ultimately succeed—they’re about keeping up with the times, avoiding the stigma that every entity dreads: irrelevance.

“Rebranding isn’t just a new logo or a new name,” says Jennifer Ames Stuart, a professor of marketing at UNC Charlotte, which has undergone its own recent rebrand. Stuart, a former business school dean, says rebrands usually emerge from “reevaluating brand positioning”—marketing lingo for gauging public perception of a business, nonprofit, school, or other entity through data-based research.

Under an even broader definition, it could come from a decision to change anything about a brand, says Bob Killian.

He’s a Cornelius resident and CEO of Killian Branding, a business with offices in Charlotte and Chicago that specializes in rebrands. Killian also wrote Rebrand! The How-To Guide for the Darwinian Survival of Your Company/Candidate/College/ Cause/Career, published in 2020.

He says “rebrand” can refer to an overhaul (new name, design, positioning, etc.) or a single small change, like a website refresh or introduction of e-commerce.

It qualifies as a rebrand as long as it helps establish or enhance identity, he says: “Brand equity is real equity, and one shouldn’t risk squandering it by making a large-scale demolition when a refresh might suffice.”

No one maintains a comprehensive list of rebrands, but Charlotte instituContinued on page 16

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // APRIL 2022

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a Warm and Supportive Community of Friendship “Everyone is down to earth, and we like to be with each other.”

Just ask anyone who lives here. Southminster is a Life Plan community like no other.

Many are drawn to us for the peace of mind that comes from knowing that different levels of care are available as they age. But they immediately discover something that matters even more: a community of friendship and support that lasts a lifetime.

Southminster, Charlotte’s premier Life Plan Community - the ultimate singles place, couples place and people place.

For information and availability, contact 704.551.6800 | Charlotte, NC | Southminster.org

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THE BUZZ tions seem to do it a lot. The likely reason: They’re in constant flux as Charlotte grows, changes, and accepts more people from more places.

UNC CHARLOTTE’S August 2021 rebrand announcement specified that the 75-year-old institution would replace the longstanding abbreviation “UNCC” with “Charlotte.” This decision was, predictably, mocked on social media and elsewhere.

“Sorry, it’ll be UNCC until I graduate so I don’t have to keep explaining when people have no clue who ‘Charlotte’ is,” tweeted a student, @Where2NextApril, who added a laughing emoji.

But Charlotte (the university) had what it thought were sound reasons. The school hired a new chancellor, Sharon Gaber, in July 2020, and she began to talk with community leaders, alumni, students, and faculty about the university’s reputation. Stuart says they told Gaber the same thing, over and over: “We punch above our weight.” “We’re the best-kept secret in Charlotte.”

University outsiders, including plenty of Charlotteans, tended to perceive the school as it had been decades before—a low-population commuter school and the small fry of the UNC system. Today, UNCC has more than 30,000 students, which makes it the system’s second-largest university, and is recognized internationally as a research institution.

In October 2020, Gaber announced a 10-year strategic plan that, she wrote in a message to faculty, staff, and students, “offers an extremely important opportunity to set the direction of the future of UNC Charlotte.”

“EVERYTHING that doesn’t evolve,” Killian says, “goes extinct.” Especially for businesses, COVID acted as a potential extinction-level event, abruptly uprooting customers’ priorities and habits. They cut back on unnecessary spending. They ate out less, if at all. They had groceries delivered. Fear of the virus led some to demand more e-commerce and contactless options.

“The tectonic plates are shifting under all sorts of brands,” Killian says. “(Businesses) have to examine how change is affecting them, their customers, and their prospects.” With any rebrand comes the risk of its failure. But, he says, brands that don’t

16

evolve with their consumer bases die, outflanked by more nimble competitors.

Many brands have gotten the message: Killian Branding, founded in 1987, has made more money in the last two years than in any other two-year stretch in its history.

Charlotte’s already churning business scene, coupled with COVID-fueled jitters about the near future, may explain the recent rebrand wave among all kinds of organizations. 7th Street Public Market changed its name to The Market at 7th Street to emphasize its nonprofit status and set itself apart from other food halls, a spokesperson says; the “Public” in the name confused customers, who had already begun to refer to it as “The Market.”

McColl Center rebranded to signal a new artists-first mission. Optimist Park’s food hall changed its name from Tompkins Hall to Optimist Hall in 2018, a year before its official opening, in response to a public outcry about the Tompkins name; Daniel Augustus Tompkins was a 19th-century textile mill developer who believed abolitionists “went too far.” Truist was born out of a merger between BB&T and SunTrust.

The Charlotte Chamber and Charlotte Regional Partnership merged to create the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance.

Some Charlotte institutions have traded what seem like perfectly explanatory, if clumsy, names for more nebulous ones. But the changes do signal organizational shifts. The social services nonprofit Urban Ministry Center merged with Men’s Shelter of Charlotte to form Roof Above. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing Partnership adopted a new strategic plan and became DreamKey Partners.

Charlotte Regional Realtors Association expanded and renamed itself Canopy Realtor Association.

Stuart says businesses and other organizations have to continually ask themselves: Has my target audience shifted? Do I need to serve a new market?

Is there additional opportunity? Has my core market shifted? “Relooking at things constantly and being able to be nimble and adaptive,” she says, “that’s the key in business today.” Especially in a city adapting as nimbly as Charlotte.

Seriously, So Many Rebrands IN RETROSPECT, Charlotte’s enthusiasm for rebrands may have kicked off in 2013, when six local medical centers rebranded to Novant Health centers, including Presbyterian Hospital to Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center. The hospital adopted a new logo and primary color, aubergine, which Novant said indicated “excellence” and “warmth.” Five years later, Carolinas HealthCare System, which operated the city’s other major hospital, Carolinas Medical Center, changed its name to Atrium Health to reflect its growth as a regional provider. An atrium, the company said, is “a place filled with light” and “where connections are made.”

While more recent rebrands may not be quite as momentous, they still indicate new directions, especially in spaces where public perception is everything. Here are a few more notable rebrands from the past couple of years, just in case, like us, you still occasionally use the old names.

WHAT’S OUT

WHAT’S IN

Coordinates Coffee

7-21

Wildroots Coffee Collective

Charlotte Agenda

8-21

Axios Charlotte

Bring Back the Buzz

8-21

The Crown Club

Liberate Your Palate

9-21

The Cocktailery

NASCAR Plaza

12-21

550 South

Centro Railyard

12-21

The Winnifred

Kiki Bistro

1-22

Sister

Fox 46

1-22

Queen City News

5Church

1-22

Church & Union

TESS ALLEN is the associate editor.

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // APRIL 2022

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GOOD LIFE

INSIDE: WEEKENDER / STYLE / ROOM WE LOVE / REAL ESTATE / CULTURE

THE

MAKING THE MOST OUT OF LIVING HERE

Live music at TWO urban licks, a warehouse-turnedrestaurant in Old Fourth Ward.

COURTESY CAREN WEST PR

WEEKENDER

Atlanta

If you haven’t been in a while …

BY TAYLOR BOWLER

A-TOWN, HOTLANTA, the Hollywood of the South, the Big Peach: Atlanta has taken on countless nicknames through the years. In North Carolina, we often refer to it as “Charlotte’s big sister.” We have banks, Bojangles, CATS, and the Knights. They have CNN, Chick-fil-A, MARTA, and the Braves.

Both of us wanted the NASCAR Hall of Fame; Charlotte got it. Then Atlanta nabbed the College Football Hall of Fame. Atlanta has worse traffic, more urban sprawl, glitzier shopping, and buzzier restaurants.

APRIL 2022 // CHARLOTTE

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THE GOOD LIFE

STAY If you’re here to shop, stay at Hotel Colee in Buckhead, which puts you within walking distance of the neighborhood’s two high-end shopping malls. The hotel lobby is a revolving art gallery that displays prints by Atlanta-based artists. Renowned designer Andrew Alford fashioned each floor with a different mix of prints and pastels, including a fourth-floor infinity pool with a multicolored pool deck. For a taste of Atlanta history, stay at the Georgian Terrace Hotel, across the street from the Fox Theatre in Midtown. The hotel has hosted notable guests like F. Scott Fitzgerald and President Calvin Coolidge, as well as the 1939 premiere of Gone with the Wind. For a more eclectic scene, book a room at Hotel Clermont. The renovated 1920s building has funky tiled bathrooms and retro artwork, and it’s about a 20-minute walk from Piedmont Park.

Kinship (above) has locally sourced meat, cheese, and a coffee counter; TWO urban licks serves Salmon Chips (right), a signature appetizer.

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Guests of Hotel Clermont (above) get cold PBRs at check-in as a tribute to the notorious Blondie, who works at the legendary lounge downstairs.

Hotel Colee (below) has a rooftop infinity pool that overlooks Peachtree Road.

COURTESY ACVB MARKETING/MELISSA ALPINE (2); ATLANTA COFFEE SHOPS

The city has 75 streets with the word “peach” in the name, and it’s difficult to navigate without a car. But thanks to the Atlanta CityPASS, it’s possible to see multiple attractions on foot—and in one weekend. If you haven’t visited in a while, or at all, Atlanta has developed quite a few new pockets to explore.

Atlanta and Charlotte became sports rivals in the 1980s and ’90s. The NBA’s Charlotte Hornets first took the court against the Atlanta Hawks in 1988.

Since 1995, the Carolina Panthers have knocked helmets against the Atlanta Falcons in the same NFL division. That means the Panthers and Falcons play twice a season—once in the ATL, once in the CLT—and, starting this year, residents of the two cities will spend even more time on each other’s turf. By the time you read this, the new Charlotte Football Club will have already played Atlanta United FC at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. They’re scheduled to play again at Bank of America Stadium on April 9.

So, with the rivalry heating back up, you might as well get to know thy enemy. If you want to have some fun in Atlanta (and not just a long layover at the airport), take the four-hour drive down Interstate 85 and get reacquainted—without the headache of rush hour and with all of the culture, shopping, sports, and good food your time will allow.

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // APRIL 2022

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EAT

Atlanta is full of trendy new restaurants and old-school eateries, but getting to them by car is practically unavoidable.

Call an Uber, and start your day at Java Jive, a retro diner that claims to serve “Atlanta’s best biscuit.” This cash-only joint has slung waffles, pancakes, and omelets for 28 years. For a light lunch or midday caffeine bump, head to Kinship, a butchershop-grocer-coffee-counter hybrid in Virginia-Highland. Co-owners Myles Moody and Rachael Pack can tell you the story behind each bottle of wine they sell while you wait for your sandwich or shop for fresh meat and local cheese. Grab a casual dinner at Taqueria del Sol, a counter-service restaurant with affordable tacos and margaritas and multiple locations across the city. For a livelier night on the town, make a reservation at TWO urban licks, a converted warehouse in Old Fourth Ward where you can hear live music Wednesday through Saturday and nosh on Salmon Chips, Pork Belly, and Smoked Brisket.

Mercedes-Benz Stadium (left); Fox Theatre (below).

COURTESY GENE PHILLIPS /ACVB & ATLANTAPHOTOS.COM

PLAY

Stroll the Atlanta BeltLine, a 33-mile loop that circles the city, and take a break at Ponce City Market, a food hall with everything from Indian street eats to artisan coffee. Find souvenirs in the market’s shops, have a drink at the beer garden, play a round of miniature golf on the rooftop, or ride the three-story slide at Skyline Park. For a leisurely afternoon outdoors, bring a picnic to Piedmont Park. In the summer, kids can cool off at the park’s public swimming pool or Legacy Fountain splash pad. If you explore downtown, visit Centennial Olympic Park, 22 acres where you can see multiple attractions in one place. Hunt for sharks at the Georgia Aquarium, tour the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, and stop by the World of Coca-Cola to sample more than 100 flavors of soda. Head to the other side of the park for a studio tour of the CNN Center and a view of Atlanta’s SkyView Ferris wheel. Before you leave, take a selfie in front of The Spectacular, an aluminum sculpture of the Olympic rings near the park’s east entrance.

The National Center for Civil and Human Rights (left).

THE I-85 RIVALRY

What’s often called “the I-85 rivalry” gained even more momentum on Dec. 17, 2019, the day Major League Soccer formally granted Charlotte its own franchise. Team owner David Tepper promised that Charlotte-Atlanta would be “a hell of a rivalry,” and the league proclaimed the start of an “I-85 Derby” with Atlanta United.

Now, Charlotte FC fans fill the upper level at Mercedes-Benz Stadium with Carolina blue.

Fan clubs like Mint City Collective organize watch parties and bus trips for away games, and Charlotte FC’s Chief Fan Officer Shawn McIntosh says he’s already sensing quite a rivalry. “Right off the bat, there are so many great parallels,” he says. “Both teams are owned by NFL owners and play in NFL stadiums. There are a lot of things that Atlanta has done well that we can look at. This has all the ingredients for a really fun rivalry: geography, social media where fans can engage, and really passionate fan bases on both sides.”

MORE ATLANTA, LESS HASSLE

Ticket prices can add up, so get familiar with Atlanta CityPASS, a discounted ticket package the city debuted in 2019. CityPASS gets you admission to five popular spots, including the Georgia Aquarium, World of Coca-Cola, and Zoo Atlanta. For your last two attractions, choose between the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, Fernbank Museum of Natural History, and the Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame. A CityPASS is $77 for adults and $63 for kids 12 and under. It gets you expedited entry during peak times, and it’s valid for nine days.

TAYLOR BOWLER is the lifestyle editor.

APRIL 2022 // CHARLOTTE

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ST YL E

Nichole Wright

The Satrell Beauty founder leans on her corporate finance background to guide her cosmetics business

BY TESS ALLEN

22

AS A LITTLE GIRL IN CHARLESTON, South Carolina, Nichole Wright loved to watch her mom and aunt stand in front of a mirror and put on makeup. Her mom let her apply nail polish and lip gloss, the two items she felt didn’t make her young daughter look too grown up.

As an adult, Wright moved to Minneapolis, where she worked in financial reporting and analysis for companies like Travelers Insurance and UnitedHealth Group. But in the back of her mind, she says, she always toyed with the idea of starting her own business—specifically a beauty company that would allow her to tap into some of that excitement from her childhood.

She neglected the idea for a long time. But then she began to think more about it—and about the success of her father-in-law, who has owned and operated a bar and club called Wright’s Lounge in Lynchburg, South Carolina, for decades.

Wright was living in Charlotte and working for Brighthouse Financial in 2017 when

she thought, You know what? Let’s just do it.

Whatever happens, happens.

She founded Satrell Beauty that year, naming it after her teenage sons, Samuel and Dontrell. It began as a side hustle, and Wright launched her first two product lines, nail polish and lip gloss, out of her home, where she continues to work today. Polishes and glosses remain Satrell’s two primary lines, but she’s added lip scrubs and accessories to her online shop and, this year, plans to add lines of other makeup and skincare. Satrell is still a solo operation and a side hustle for Wright, who continues to work full time in finance, but friends and family pitch in to help when needed.

Satrell products are largely vegan-friendly and cruelty-free. For nail polishes, Wright uses dyes free of animal byproducts, and her lip products are made with beeswax rather than common moisturizers like lanolin (an oil Continued on page 24

COURTESY

THE GOOD LIFE

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // APRIL 2022

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THE GOOD LIFE secreted through the sweat glands of sheep) or squalene (oil from shark livers).

They’re designed to be accessible to customers of all skin tones, genders, ages, and incomes—nail polish costs $15, lip gloss $16. “I’m not trying to just focus on one particular group,” she says. “Beauty products shouldn’t just apply to a certain audience.”

When she launched, Wright attended beauty product trade shows to build brand recognition and learn what customers were looking for. But when COVID forced her to shift all her business online, she struggled to connect with them. She hopes customers can link her face to her brand in 2022. “I know I have to do it, to push myself to be at the forefront, to talk to my customer base so they can see the actual face of the business,” Wright says.

“It’s basically just me encouraging and pushing myself to be more motivated to put myself out there.”

COURTESY

Satrell Beauty makes nail polish and lip gloss for all skin tones and genders.

TESS ALLEN is the associate editor.

IT’S YOUR MOVE If you’d rather enjoy pickleball with friends than tackle your home renovation projects, Cresswind Charlotte makes it easy to find your next adventure, new home and fun. This is active adult living designed for the way you want to live.

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THE GOOD LIFE

RO O M W E LOV E

Mountain Calling

Crystal Nagel designs a bright, rustic bathroom for a mountaininspired Cotswold home

CRYSTAL NAGEL, owner of Crystal Nagel Design, works with the team at Halley Douglas Homes to oversee the design and construction of their highend spec homes. When they designed a modern siding-and-stone house in Cotswold last year, Nagel had a young family in mind. She made sure it had an open floor plan with a home office, spacious mudroom, plenty of storage, and a primary bathroom that matched the home’s mountain-lodge aesthetic.

“We give each house its own personality,” Nagel says. “We called this one the ‘mountain modern’ and used lots of natural wood and stone materials in every room.” —Taylor Bowler

26

FLOOR IT For the vanity, Nagel opted for a white quartz countertop, because it’s easier to maintain than granite or marble, and black matte hardware from Jeffrey Alexander.

She painted the space in Sherwin-Williams’ Snowbound and installed cylinder wall sconces from Generation Lighting on either side of the mirrors. For the floor, she chose Nero Marquina marble. “The black marble tile is different from the typical gray that you see in a lot of spec homes,” Nagel says. “The hexagon tiles add some visual interest, and the white veining is just really pretty.”

WELCOME HOME Nagel was spot on with her intended homebuyer: Not long after she finished in early 2021, a young couple with a toddler purchased it. They wanted a move-in-ready house with some personality, and they loved the modern lodge style. “Spec houses can get a bad rap because people think builders put the cheapest fixtures in to sell it,” Nagel says, “but this one has nice finishes that make it look clean and modern.”

COURTESY LAURA SUMRAK

VANITY FAIR Nagel wanted the 5,000-square-foot home to have a primary en suite with some “wow factor.” The bathroom, which connects to a spacious closet, has a freestanding tub, an enclosed toilet, and a hickory vanity with his-and-hers sinks. “That vanity was a commitment, but it gives a richness to the space,” she says. “It’s the focal point of the bathroom, and it matches the cedar beams in the family room and the white-oak stair railing.”

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // APRIL 2022

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APRIL 2022 // CHARLOTTE

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THE GOOD LIFE R E AL E STAT E

Hot Listings

Cozy, cabin-inspired homes. —Tess Allen

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2957 BEATY ROAD $599,900 GASTONIA Exposed beams, log walls, wood floors, and a gas fireplace with a stone surround make the open-concept main living space warm and inviting.

Teal kitchen cabinets add an unexpected pop of color next to the sleek stainless steel appliances. A sunroom with 11 windows spans one side of the cabin. The main home, three storage buildings, and an acre of land are included in the listing, but the owner is also selling 5.73 acres of adjoining land in a separate parcel. 4 BD, 2.5 BA, 2,400 sq. ft., RE/MAX, remax.com

509 INWOOD DRIVE $420,000 MADISON PARK On the market for the first time in 70 years, this ranch’s multiple updates include cedar siding, gutters, and an enclosed laundry room. Wood paneling and a brick fireplace give the main living space a mix of modern and vintage elements. Sunlight floods the floor-to-ceiling windows, and a private backyard and new front porch provide plenty of room for outdoor living.

2 BD, 1.5 BA, 1,273 sq. ft., Fathom Realty, fathomrealty.com Homes available as of Feb. 3, 2022.

COURTESY

10450 BRIEF ROAD $3,000,000 MINT HILL This 10,000-square-foot cabin operates as an inn with a heated pool and hot tub, three stone fireplaces, custom pine floors, a theater, a custom chef’s kitchen with Viking appliances, a wine cellar and tasting room, and a storm bunker. The 10-acre parcel includes a second residence, pool house, multiple outdoor living spaces, and a stocked pond. The owner is also accepting offers for adjoining parcels that include another 100 acres, a renovated cottage, and a horse barn with a private apartment. 5 BD, 9 BA, 10,027 sq. ft., Keller Williams Select, kw.com

10001 FIRESIDE LANE $780,000 SILVERWOOD It may not be a traditional log cabin, but curl up next to one of the two modern stone fireplaces inside, and you won’t know the difference. (The street name couldn’t be more appropriate.) The home’s masonry—both inside and out—and warm wood floors and cabinetry add to the illusion. With a finished basement, multiple common spaces, a laundry room, a two-car garage, and second living quarters, this two-story house has plenty of room to spread out. 5 BD, 4.5 BA, 4,704 sq. ft., Victory Real Estate Inc., victoryrealestateinc.com

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // APRIL 2022

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2/17/22 4:54 2:43 PM 2/22/22

THE GOOD LIFE CU LT U R E

The Playlist THE BEST THINGS TO DO AND SEE THIS MONTH

BY TESS ALLEN

Mind Matters ONE IN FIVE U.S. ADULTS—about 52.9 million people—suffers from mental illness, says the National Institute for Mental Health. So now that we’ve spent two-plus years talking about physical health, let’s talk about the psyche.

Discovery Place Science and Atrium Health present “Mental Health: MIND MATTERS,” a hands-on exhibit that explores “the science behind our feelings and how we experience the world.”

Children play an emotion recognition game.

4 WAYS TO FLEX YOUR MIND:

➊ TOSS ON A PAIR OF HEADPHONES and

➌ WATCH INTERVIEWS of people with

➋ DESTROY YOUR WORRIES in a “Worry

➍ CHECK OUT MINI-DIORAMAS that

try to answer questions while hearing voices “in your head.”

Shredder.”

mental illnesses like PTSD, depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia.

depict historical attitudes toward mental illness.

WHILE YOU’RE THERE …

Take a moment for mindfulness at companion exhibit “Path to Mindfulness.”

DISCOVERY PLACE SCIENCE

through April 10 Tickets start at $18, science.discoveryplace.org

Kids and pups need to run off some spring-fever steam?

Peep these two free, family-friendly events:

Paws in the Park

Cabarrus Arena & Events Center

Pineville Lake Park is going to the dogs.

Stop by for:

Pack up the kiddos and head to Concord for this year’s North Carolina Easter Festival.

Expect a day of Easter egg hunts, face painting, games, dance performances, crafts, vendors, and free pictures with the Easter Bunny.

» 15+ animal shelters with adoptable pets » Pup contests (smallest and largest dogs, best dog trick, costumes, etc.) » Food trucks » Art and business vendors » Kids’ playground

SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 1-5 p.m.

Free, eventbrite.com

SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

Free, charlotteblackdogs.com

30

The Harlem Globetrotters’ Spread Game Tour Bojangles Coliseum FRIDAY, APRIL 15, 7 p.m.

Tickets start at $29, ticketmaster.com

COURTESY; SHUTTERSTOCK

North Carolina Easter Festival

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // APRIL 2022

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2/22/22 2:05 4:54 PM 2/21/22 1/19/22 3:14 PM

ON VIEW THROUGH JULY 3, 2022 MINT MUSEUM UPTOWN Bridging the gap between museum, gallery, and studio to highlight innovative and thought-provoking works by artists from across the Southeast.

COINED IN THE SOUTH IS GENEROUSLY PRESENTED BY ATRIUM HEALTH. ORGANIZED BY YOUNG AFFILIATES OF THE MINT AND THE MINT MUSEUM.. IMAGE: ELIZABETH ALEXANDER (WINSTON-SALEM, NC). ALL THINGS BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL, 2020, CAST PAPER ON 8PLY MATBOARD AND WOOD; CAST PAPER, EXTRACTED WALLPAPER PATTERN ON 8PLY MATBOARD AND WOOD. 95 X 124 X 30 IN.; 92 X 124 X 40 IN. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND HODGES TAYLOR.

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FOOD DRINK

INSIDE: NOW OPEN / SERVED HISTORY / ON THE LINE / RECIPE / THE STORY BEHIND / BEST BITES / BITE-SIZED NEWS / RESTAURANTS / BEER

+

EXPLORE THE TASTES OF CHARLOTTE

The Crab Rangoon comes with four fried steamed buns topped with miso ginger sauce and pickled vegetables.

N OW O P E N

SMALL PLATES, BIG PRESENTATION PARA merges cuisines in a stylish South End setting

BY TAYLOR BOWLER PHOTOGRAPHS BY PETER TAYLOR

WHEN RESTAURANTS promote globally inspired small plates, it’s difficult to know what they mean.

Tapas? Fusion? Multi-course? Farm-to-table? “Globally inspired small plates” has become the industry catchall for Instagrammable food with a variety of influences.

The menu could include ostrich filets, purple yams, edible flowers, or vegan curry, and servers encourage you to order a bit of everything for the table.

APRIL 2022 // CHARLOTTE

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FOOD+DRINK Shareable dishes defy logic during a pandemic, yet they’re as trendy as ever. Here’s why it works: Diners can try new foods without a big commitment, and chefs can demonstrate their range because they’re not limited to one cuisine. Operators can charge entrée prices for appetizer-sized dishes made with fresh sashimi and premium wagyu beef, and most guests have to order two or three plates to feel satisfied. When servers are properly masked and bring fresh utensils with each dish, as they do at PARA, the “shareable” component feels safer. Add a “creative cocktail program” and patio seating, and you’ve got a buzzy new restaurant.

PARA is short for “imparable,” French for “unstoppable.” It opened in late January—during that gloomy stretch of winter when New Year’s resolutions are abandoned and $15 cocktails seem like a great idea—in the former Zeppelin space.

A custom mural by local artist Dustin Moates, co-founder of Southern Tiger Collective, stretches across the exterior of the building, and live moss from Torrie Savage flanks the 12-seat bar. The 55-seat dining room has green epoxy floors, tufted brown-leather banquette seating, and an array of pendant lights that hang from the industrial ceiling.

Yashira “Yoshi” Mejia leads the cocktail program, which includes three spirit-free alternatives. If you prefer something stronger, try a Berry Nice ($15), a refreshing but not-too-sweet cocktail, or a Japanese ($16), which is boozy, nutty, and cognacbased. The beverage menu also includes wine by the glass or bottle.

Executive Chef Alex Verica honed his skills at Dot Dot Dot and The Stanley,

PARA 235 W. Tremont Ave., Ste. 100 paraclt.com Hours: 5-11 p.m., Tuesday-Thursday 5 p.m.-2 a.m., Friday-Saturday KNOW BEFORE YOU GO: Dishes and cocktails rotate on a seasonal basis, so don’t be surprised if the menu looks different each time.

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Don’t leave without trying: Lobster Toast ($16) with milk bread, chive aioli, caviar, and radish.

The Milk Bread PB&J is garnished with fresh strawberries and edible flowers.

where he worked with his father, twotime James Beard semifinalist Paul Verica. Here, the 26-year-old has built a seafood-heavy menu with Asian influences. Highlights include Deviled Eggs ($13), punched up with miso, shrimp, salmon roe, and chives; Lobster Toast ($16), a crispy slice of milk bread topped with lobster chunks, chive aioli, caviar, and radish; and Sashimi ($18) with ponzu shaved ice, hot peppers, and radish. While the presentation is impeccable, the portions are small, so three plates won’t satisfy a party of two.

For round two, try the Tempura ($12), a cylinder of broccoli slaw topped with crispy oyster mushrooms, radish, and a tangy togarashi aioli. The Crab Rangoon ($16) comes with four fried steamed buns and miso ginger sauce for dipping. The Short Rib Dumplings ($16) are savory meat-filled bundles garnished with radish and cilantro, but at just three to a plate, they disappear fast.

The most surprising dish: the “Tuna” Crudo ($12), a plate of thinly sliced watermelon disguised as ahi tuna, topped with jalapeño, lime, avocado, hot pepper, and radish. The wild card, Milk Bread PB&J ($15), combines peanut butter, berry jam, and foie gras. It registers as savory at first, but it’s just sweet enough to save for the end of your meal. If that doesn’t satisfy your sugar craving, PARA also has three traditional Japanese desserts ($9 each) made with shaved ice. Toppings include cold brew, watermelon, pistachio, and matcha.

Verica’s small plates are a visual feast, but don’t come famished and expect to leave stuffed. If you prefer straightforward entrées you don’t have to share, stick to a steakhouse. But if you aren’t afraid to order dishes with ingredients you don’t recognize, and you like to linger and take pictures of your food, PARA is worth a visit.

TAYLOR BOWLER is the lifestyle editor.

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // APRIL 2022

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2/18/22 5:46 PM

Executive Chef Alex Verica’s dishes feature ingredients from local farms like Small City Farm.

The “Tuna” Crudo is a plate of ahi watermelon topped with jalapeño, avocado, and citrus.

Yashira “Yoshi” Mejia leads PARA’s cocktail program.

The Deviled Eggs are dressed up with miso, shrimp, salmon roe, and chives.

The dessert menu includes Japanese Shaved Ice made with sweetened condensed milk, Fernet-Branca, pandan, cold brew, and whipped cream.

APRIL 2022 // CHARLOTTE

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FOOD+DRINK Saradina Morris and her father, George Karnezis, who opened Kopper Kettle on a barren stretch of Nations Ford Road in 1971.

S E RV E D H I STO RY

PUT THE KETTLE ON

Big portions and family traditions have held tight for 50-plus years at this Pineville gem

BY KATHLEEN PURVIS | PHOTOGRAPHS BY PETER TAYLOR

SARADINA MORRIS didn’t plan to spend her life running a small café surrounded by warehouses and industrial parks outside Pineville. She had a perfectly good career already, as a counselor.

When her dad, George Karnezis, had a stroke in 2014, she stepped in to run her parents’ restaurant, Kopper Kettle, until they were back on their feet.

She never left. It turns out running a café filled with regulars suited her.

“It’s such a gem,” she says. “I love this place.”

One of her main reasons for staying is the time she gets to spend with her dad. He opened Kopper Kettle with his wife, Penny, in 1971, when their stretch

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of Nations Ford Road was miles of open fields and a few trailers.

Most days now, Morris picks him up and brings him to the restaurant, where he spends the morning talking to customers, telling stories, and eating his lunch. For Morris, it’s a precious chance to savor her dad’s company. She’s got a whole sheaf of notes in a drawer by the cash register with things her father, now 84, tells her.

Both George and Penny came from Greece in the 1960s. One of George’s early jobs was as a busser at The Open Kitchen on Morehead Street. He was there on the infamous night in February 1967 when Speros Kokenes, who owned

The Open Kitchen with his brother, Steve, was carjacked and murdered in what was believed to be a botched armed robbery.

It remains one of Charlotte’s most famous unsolved murders.

The Kopper Kettle used to serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It had a liquor license and a lively bar, but by the late 1990s, George and Penny decided to serve just breakfast and lunch. Today, the restaurant’s walls are covered with memorabilia, like caricatures of George and a former chef and waiter juggling dishes and rushing around, with captions in accented English. At least nine Continued on page 38

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // APRIL 2022

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2/18/22 6:05 PM

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FOOD+DRINK

The Greek Salad (above) is so massive, it comes on a platter. The dining room (below) opens for breakfast at 5 a.m.

The Original Smash Pot (above) is, er, a heart-healthy heap of potatoes, cheese, onions, peppers, tomatoes, and sausage or bacon.

Kopper Kettle’s version of a Philly cheesesteak (above), with pot roast (!) and au jus (!!).

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copper kettles are tucked throughout the restaurant, as well as copper art, including a hammered version of “The Last Supper.”

Spelling copper with a K was George’s idea, Morris says, because there’s no C in the Greek alphabet. Like most children of Charlotte’s Greek community, she attended Greek school to learn the language and culture, and she’s made trips to Greece to meet extended family.

When Penny calls during our interview to find out what time Morris will pick up her dad, the conversation is half in Greek, half in English.

In the years since she took over for her parents, Morris hasn’t changed the menu much: biscuits and egg platters for breakfast, along with a signature dish, The Original Smash Pot, a heap of potatoes topped with cheese, onions, peppers, tomatoes, and sausage or bacon. Lunch is salads and sandwiches, including Kopper Kettle’s own version of a Philly cheesesteak, with tender chunks of pot roast under a blanket of melted provolone and a side of au jus.

Morris takes pride in the large portions.

A Greek salad arrives on an oval plate that anyone else would consider a platter.

“They’re heavy-handed in the kitchen,” she says, “and I like that.”

COVID brought some changes, of course. They were only open for takeout for a few months, then reopened with half the seats taped off. “I get emotional just talking about it,” Morris admits. Many of her regulars are police officers and firefighters. She used to comp their meals, but she can’t afford to do that anymore. The high cost of ingredients has taken a toll.

Still, she does big business on Saturday mornings, when Pineville families come in for breakfast.

So how is being a counselor similar to running a restaurant? “That’s a loaded one,” she says, pausing to think it over.

It’s her ability to listen, she finally decides. People really appreciate it when you listen. “If everyone in the world would stop and listen,” she says, “it would be a better place.”

KATHLEEN PURVIS is a longtime Charlotte writer who covers Southern food and culture.

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // APRIL 2022

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FOOD+DRINK O N T H E LI N E

MICHAELA MOEHRING 5th Street Group’s 23-year-old executive pastry chef leads a sweet new dessert program at Church & Union

BY TAYLOR BOWLER

Age: 23 Hometown: Madison, Wisconsin Currently lives: Uptown Currently reading: Leading from Purpose by Nick Craig Currently watching: Desperate Housewives

How did this opportunity with 5th Street Group come to you? I moved here in 2016, when I was 17. I was a freshman at Johnson & Wales and looking for a job. I’d never been to Charlotte and started wandering the streets. I wandered into 5Church, put in an application, and got no response. I emailed a few more times; no response. Then they finally reached out, and I got an interview and then a job. They’ve invested a lot of time and energy into helping me grow.

So you were a full-time student and a full-time employee? Yep. All four years I was in school, I worked at 5Church. I was working 70 to 80 hours a week, so I skipped a lot of class (laughs). But I still made the dean’s list! I graduated in 2020 with a degree in food service management.

How do you split your time between 5th Street’s Charlotte restaurants? When they opened La Belle Helene last year, it had a kitchen five times the size of 5Church’s. So that became our production kitchen, where we make all the desserts for both restaurants.

Any new desserts you’ve rolled out since 5Church rebranded to Church & Union? At 5Church, we did a lot of comfort foods, like Pumpkin Bread Pudding and Carrot Cake, and the S’mores were always a bestseller. I’ve begged Chef Jamie (Lynch) to take the S’mores off the menu and do something different for years. He texted me before we

40

THE TOUGH STUFF

opened Church & Union and said we’re axing the S’mores! I’m replacing it with our take on a Milky Way. Dessert for breakfast: hard no or hell, yes? Hell, yes!

Chocolate or vanilla?

Vanilla

What’s one ingredient you always have on hand? Sugar.

Coffee or tea?

Coffee

What do you think is an underappreciated flavor? Sweet potato.

Margarita or martini?

Margarita Ice cream or hot chocolate?

Ice cream Carrot cake or apple pie?

Apple pie Banana bread or banana pudding?

Banana bread Crunchy topping or sweet drizzle?

Crunchy topping Street eats or sit-down?

Street eats Sugar Rush or The Great British Baking Show?

Sugar Rush

What’s your favorite thing to bake? Warm desserts like cobblers or crisps.

Is there one recipe you’d still like to master? A perfect pavlova.

It’s like dried meringue. You have to be in a perfect environment, and the South is not a perfect environment for that.

What’s your favorite restaurant in Charlotte other than your own? Peppervine.

What’s the most surprising thing about you? I’m a very loving, happy human being, but I give off a different persona in the kitchen. You’ve got to be stern with your staff in a respectful way, and as a manager, you have to say the hard things other people don’t want to say.

What’s one chain restaurant you’re not ashamed to admit you love? Olive Garden, hands down.

What do you like to do outside the kitchen? Music festivals and concerts are my getaways.

Any rules to live by in the kitchen? It’s just food; it’s not that serious. We can still have a good time.

COURTESY

Where does your love of baking come from? It was a combination of my mom and Cake Boss. I used to watch that as a kid and thought it was so cool. I would make my own fondant by melting marshmallows in the microwave and mash it together with powdered sugar. Bless my mom for cleaning up that mess.

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // APRIL 2022

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2/18/22 6:10 PM

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FOOD+DRINK T H E STO RY B E H I N D. . .

PAUL VERICA, owner and executive chef at The Stanley, calls its Game Set Matcha cocktail a “rip-off of a gin fizz.” It began with some extra matcha in the kitchen of his famed farm-to-table restaurant in Elizabeth. “We use matcha for rubbing down and curing fish,” Verica says. “We like to cross-utilize stuff in the kitchen, and we weren’t using this (matcha) anymore.” Ben Sullivan, the former general manager, decided to combine it with gin, egg white, lemon juice, and halfand-half. The staff taste tested the mixture three times as Sullivan adjusted the citrus to bring out the herbal notes. The result is poured into a Collins glass with a splash of club soda and a long, rectangular ice cube.

“The matcha made it a pretty color, and the visual aspect is a big thing in cocktails,” Verica says. “It has great herbal notes and a nice citrus forefront. It’s a nice sipper for the springtime.” —Taylor Bowler

R EC I P E

The Stanley’s Game Set Matcha Cocktail INGREDIENTS: 1½ ounces gin 2 ounces vanilla citrus syrup (recipe follows) 1 ounce lemon juice 1 egg white ½ ounce half-and-half 1 teaspoon matcha Splash of soda water DIRECTIONS: 1. Combine first five ingredients in a cocktail shaker and shake.

2. Add ice and shake again.

3. Strain into a glass (a Collins glass is recommended) over a large ice cube.

4. Quickly add soda water to the shaker to create a cream foam.

5. Scoop the foam onto the drink. Enjoy!

BITE-SIZED NEWS

Foodie Tidbits on a Small Plate 42

Vanilla Citrus Syrup

INGREDIENTS: 1 vanilla bean, scraped Zest and juice of 2 lemons Zest and juice of 2 oranges Zest and juice of 1 lime 2 cups sugar 1½ quarts water 1. In a saucepan, combine all ingredients and bring to a boil.

2. Boil for 15 minutes, then set aside to cool at room temperature.

3. Strain and reserve. The syrup should keep for 2-3 weeks in the fridge.

A Miami-based doughnut shop called THE SALTY DONUT will open on the ground floor of the Dimensional Funds Tower in South End this summer.

Look for glazed, gluten-free, and specialty flavors, plus spiked doughnut holes.

Restaurateur Jim Noble will open a third location of BOSSY BEULAH’S, his west

Charlotte chicken shack, at 314 N. White St. in Fort Mill later this year. Noble opened the second in Winston-Salem in December and has a fourth planned for South End this summer.

OMAKASE EXPERIENCE, an extension of Ballantyne’s Prime Fish Asian Sake Raw Bar, opens this month in

Best Bites Our favorite dish this month

TAMAL DE ELOTE, $2.50 EL PULGARCITO DE AMERICA DON’T LET YOUR LOVE of El Pulgarcito’s pupusas keep you from exploring the rest of the east side restaurant’s antojitos Salvadoreños, or Salvadoran appetizers.

If you do, you’ll miss out on the Tamal de Elote con Crema. Order them “fritos,” in whatever number you fancy.

Don’t expect them to arrive all dressed up or make you immediately salivate; fried tamales were never the most classically handsome guys at the table. But, served with a side of cool crema for dipping, they’re an unexpected delight: crisp on the outside (not crunchy like a potato chip but with a delicate snap), indulgently dense the way tamales should be, and blessed with a light sweetness from the ground corn masa that makes them impossible to quit.

If you order an entrée, you may need a to-go box. —Tess Allen

Providence Plaza. Chef Robin Anthony will serve multiple courses of chef’s choice and seasonal seafood from Japan.

JUNIPER GRILL, based in Pittsburgh, has opened a location in Ballantyne. The Southwest-inspired menu includes burgers, entrée salads, street tacos, and barbecue. —Taylor Bowler

COURTESY

The Stanley’s Game Set Matcha Cocktail

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // APRIL 2022

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FOOD+DRINK R E STAU R ANT S

Latin and American

Charlotte’s best bets for arepas, yuca fries, birria tacos, and California burritos PHOTOGRAPHS BY PETER TAYLOR

LATIN CUISINE encompasses a variety of flavors from South and Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Here in Charlotte, some restaurants have adapted their dishes to American palates, while others are more authentic to their countries of origin. From tamales to Tex-Mex, here’s a sampling of our local favorites. —Taylor Bowler

SEE OUR WEBSITE FOR A FULL DIRECTORY OF RESTAURANT LISTINGS.

The steak-and-shrimp combination plate at El Pulgarcito comes with rice and salad.

The jerk chicken wings at Roy’s Kitchen & Patio (above) are oven-roasted and tossed in Roy’s jerk sauce. Havana 33's Ropa Vieja (right) is a traditional Cuban dish of shredded beef, onions, peppers, and tomato sauce.

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CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // APRIL 2022

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2/18/22 6:12 PM

F E AT U R E D R E STAU R ANT

TAQUERIA MAL PAN 4625 Piedmont Row Drive, Ste. 115-D 980-298-6138

OWNER ANDRE LOMELI brings a Mexican and West Coast-inspired menu from his former restaurant in San Diego; his tacos, burritos, and enchiladas have the pizzazz of a food truck’s and the flavors of his native Yucatan Peninsula. The blue corn tortillas, loaded with shredded chicken, punch up a typical Taco Tuesday. The Torta de Cochinita Pibil, a traditional Mexican sandwich, is stuffed with braised pork, black beans, queso, guacamole, and sauces and spices that liven up a fluffy white roll. And the California Burrito, packed with skirt steak, queso fresco, salsa, and guacamole, is the best in Charlotte. (It contains french fries.)

HAVANA 33

637 Williamson Road, Ste. 100 704-799-0875 Enjoy lake views and authentic Cuban dishes like picadillo and mojo chicken with yuca fries and sweet plantains.

EL THRIFTY

CANTINA 1511

4271 Park Road 704-331-9222 This casual spot draws crowds for its margarita list and fresh takes on Mexican cuisine.

PACO’S TACOS & TEQUILA

1115 N. Brevard St. 980-949-7837 The Mexican cantina and gaming venue in Optimist Hall serves creative tacos and cocktails with a side of duckpin bowling.

6401 Morrison Blvd., Ste. 8A 704-716-8226 You’ll find plenty of options on a menu that includes eight taco varieties and more than 60 kinds of tequila.

CALLE SOL

3201 N. Davidson St. 704-332-8868 This NoDa “Baja seagrill” serves up the title dish as well as quesadillas, burritos, and salads in a fun, surf-themed atmosphere.

1205 Thomas Ave. 704-565-8291 Charlotte’s first cevichería has the warmth and decor you’d find at a neighborhood joint in Tampa’s Ybor City. Dishes use plantains, tropical fruits, and ají amarillo peppers sourced from sous chef Alfredo Galarza’s native Peru.

THREE AMIGOS

2917-A Central Ave. 704-536-1851 Feast on enchiladas and other Mexican staples like tinga de pollo and carne asada tacos. It’s always fresh, too—they’ll never save rice, beans, or meat for use the next day.

SUPERICA

Multiple locations Atlanta chef Ford Fry brings his TexMex menu of tacos, fajitas, and enchiladas to Charlotte.

CABO FISH TACO

SOUTHBOUND

2433 South Blvd.

704-912-1889 The breezy vibes and bright flavors at this taco joint call for a Pacifico or a margarita.

ROY’S KITCHEN & PATIO

3112 N. Davidson St. 704-910-2031 Come for a fruity cocktail, but don’t expect a trip to Margaritaville—this is a relaxed neighborhood hangout with cornhole, pingpong, and rotisserie chicken you can smell from down the street.

BAKERSFIELD

1301 East Blvd.

980-938-8565 This casual neighborhood spot serves authentic Mexican street fare and

Mal Pan’s menu includes house-made tortilla chips, the Mal Pan bowl, and a variety of tacos filled with Yucatan-style braised pork, beer-battered Mexican shrimp, sweet potatoes, and roasted vegetables.

more than 100 tequilas and American whiskeys.

MACHU PICCHU

315 S. Polk St., Ste. 4E, Pineville 704-889-0801 Enjoy six types of ceviche, plus a shrimp cocktail-inspired version and a three-shot sampler of marinade called leche de tigre, or tiger’s milk.

VELVET TACO

Multiple locations Get chicken tikka masala and bacon cheeseburger tacos at this Dallasbased, fast-casual taco joint.

SABOR LATIN STREET GRILL

Multiple locations Get signature arepas, empanadas, and nachos, as well as Taco Tuesday specials, at this popular local chain.

MARIA’S MEXICAN RESTAURANT

5234 South Blvd.

704-525-5075 Feast on QuesaBirria, a quesadillataco hybrid with melted cheese and slow-cooked beef, plus other birria variations that include burrito, ramen, loaded french fries, and pizza.

RURU’S TACOS AND TEQUILA

715 Providence Road 704-332-7933 The “I’ll Have What She’s Having” is a standout here, with grilled mahi-mahi, lettuce, avocado, cilantro, and pineapple salsa. But don’t pass over the Long Duck Dong, with Korean sweet-andspicy steak, pickled cabbage, sesame seeds, and cilantro.

KRAZY FISH

2501 Central Ave. 704-332-1004 Don’t miss the Spicy Potato Cake Tacos, which are thick flour tortillas stuffed with savory chunks of fried potato and ladled with Krazy Fish’s signature—and addictive—blueberry tamarind chutney.

TACOS EL NEVADO

Multiple locations Tacos El Nevado doesn’t have a Taco Tuesday special, but most of its tacos are $2 every day, so it’s always a solid deal.

EL PULGARCITO DE AMERICA

4816 Central Ave. 704-563-6500 Eat pupusas like you’d have in El Salvador and skirt steak done Central American-style, plus tacos with your choice of asada, pollo, chicharrón, and chorizo.

THE TIPSY BURRO SALOON & CANTINA

2711 Monroe Road 704-249-3317 This Tex-Mex spot in east Charlotte does it big, whether it’s sizable chimichangas or the decadent South of Philly Cheesesteak.

EL PURO CUBAN RESTAURANT

5033 South Blvd.

980-219-8339 Come for live music every night of the week, and eat Cuban classics like queso frito, ropa vieja, and croquetas.

APRIL 2022 // CHARLOTTE

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FOOD+DRINK

Jason Glunt named one of Salud Cerveceria’s sours, Dairelynerweisse, after his wife and co-founder, Dairelyn.

BEER

Pucker Up

In Charlotte and elsewhere, a new generation of drinkers feels the power of the sour

BY GREG LACOUR PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANDY McMILLAN

BEFORE ME, at the Salud Cerveceria bar in NoDa, stand two things: a 4-ounce sampler glass of Dairelynerweisse, a fruited Berliner Weisse with raspberry, blackberry, and pomegranate; and Jason Glunt, the friendly, fast-talking gentleman who founded this place and brewed this beer. I have some idea of what I’m about to taste—they’re called “sours” for a reason—yet there’s no adequate preparation for the acidic thresher blade of

46

that first sip. Do my lips smack? Yes. Do I feel a tingle behind my ears, as if I’m electrified? Yes. Does my face contort into a wincing pucker? Yes. Do I take another sip? Of course!

For the uninitiated, it takes three, Jason says. The first sip of a sour is rough. You’re just not used to it—the tartness from lactic acid and the complexity of the flavors. (Glunt and other brewers generally refer to this as “the funk.”) The second sip, oddly, is kinder. At Salud, my taste buds begin to register the vivacity of the pomegranate and the pleasant richness of the interlocking flavors. By the third sip, my palate has adjusted. I finish the sampler, and I feel the funk.

“I love the dryness,” Jason says as he taps under his ear. “Like, it hits you right here in the back of the jaw.”

When you drink a sour, you’re basically consuming a glass of bacteria, often acquired through exposure to open air—most commonly Lactobacillus and Pediococcus, which multiply during fermentation and produce the lactic acid and, therefore, the funk. Brewers often add fruit to the brew for more tartness, as in Salud’s Dairelynerweisse.

Traditional sours can take as much as a year to mature, though, which has pushed brewers to develop a shortcut— sweeter “kettle sours,” which they can brew in a matter of days—that Jason says outsell the older versions at Salud by a ratio of three to one.

As a business owner, Jason approves.

As a beer aficionado, not so much.

“Nowadays, everything is so sweet, you lose that funk, that bite. It’s like I’m

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eating Jolly Ranchers,” he says. “Don’t get me wrong—there’s nothing wrong with the new stuff. We do it. But there’s just more nuance to (older) beers. You miss that depth.”

Beer drinkers’ taste for funk is a relatively new phenomenon, at least in the United States. A decade ago, sours—lambics, goses, wild ales, Berliner Weisses like what I’m drinking—were generally considered European curiosities, virtually unheard of in American taprooms. But around 2016, in keeping with the U.S. craft beer movement’s incessant

search for the distinctive and eccentric, more sours appeared in tap lineups. A few breweries even began to specialize in them.

It’s not clear why, or what was behind the timing. “I think people tried sours and then saw that it resonated, and like many things in craft brewing, it became a self-perpetuating cycle,” says Bart Watson, the chief economist for the Brewers Association, a Coloradobased trade organization for small and independent brewers. “Stuff that works gets copied and adopted, and it goes from there.”

Nationwide sales of sours have more than doubled in the past three years, Watson says—but it remains a small niche; national retail data show they accounted for 1.3% of craft sales as of November, compared to 0.6% in 2018. If young folks keep quaffing those kettle sours, though, the numbers might keep growing. “It’s the younger drinkers—23-, 24-year-olds who grew up eating Sour Patch Kids—and it’s just like, dude, it’s insane,” Jason says. “People freak out over that stuff.”

GREG LACOUR is the editor.

A SOUR SAMPLER Three Charlotte-area sours worth the pucker

TRADITIONAL: CAROLINA CUSTARD Appalachian wild ale with pawpaw fruit Fonta Flora Brewery

KETTLE: SUMMER CAMP SAMMIES fruited Berliner Weisse with grape jelly, peanut butter, and marshmallow Newgrass Brewing Co. (Shelby) in collaboration with Salud Cerveceria

COMPROMISE: CADILLAC RAINBOWS tropical Berliner Weisse with mango, guava, passion fruit, and peach Divine Barrel Brewing

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COMING NEXT MONTH

NIGHT LIFE

REFLECTIVE

GREENVILLE, SC ARTISPHERE.ORG

APRIL 2022 // CHARLOTTE

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TOP

Hotels & Inns Planning your next getaway? Whether you prefer warm, sandy beaches, relaxing poolside, or the scenic beauty of the mountains, these luxurious hotels and resorts can make your stay more memorable.

THE MAGIC OF MONTAGE PALMETTO BLUFF

A

s the warm weather of spring approaches, we’re all eager to get outside and take advantage of the beauty blossoming around us. If you’re looking for a spring getaway, the Lowcountry of South Carolina is calling. Situated in Bluffton, South Carolina, between Hilton Head and Savannah, Georgia, is Montage Palmetto Bluff. Nestled within a 20,000acre nature preserve and overlooking the majestic May River this wonder of outdoor delights awaits.

Flowing with excitement as endless as the May River current, indulge in relaxing spa treatments, unique dining options, endless outdoor adventure and so much more. Whether kayaking and paddle boarding down winding waterways or golfing 18-holes on a Jack Nicklaus Signature Course, watch as the native Lowcountry wildlife unfolds before you.

This spring, soak in the sunshine with our Montage Stay & Play package. Reserve any Montage esidence for a five or six night stay and receive a $500 resort credit. Reserve seven or more nights and receive a $1,000 resort credit to explore our natural surroundings.

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MONTAGE PALMETTO BLUFF

888-430-8672 | montagepalmettobluff.com

2/17/22 11:42 AM 2/24/22 3:29 PM

SMALL TOWNS.

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South Carolina’s Old 96 District invites you to enjoy our rich history, local businesses, and abundant outdoor scene away from the big city crowds.

VisitOld96SC.com

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2022 FIVE STAR

Wealth Managers Who will be named?

Find out in a special section inside the September issue.

To share your opinion, go to

fivestarprofessional.com/wmconsumerfeedback

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Bringing top real estate, interiors + exteriors to your inbox each month.

Subscribe today!

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CHARLOTTE REAL ESTATE Learn more about Charlotte’s Realtors© and available listings on the following pages

Stephen W. Keith Boone Realty

Have you been thinking of buying or selling property in The High Country of NC? Then Stephen says...“I’m your huckleberry”.

An Appalachian State alumnus, Stephen brings in-depth knowledge of the local real estate market. Just a two hour drive from Charlotte, the area is dominated by Grandfather Mountain and consists of idyllic mountain towns such as Blowing Rock, Boone and Banner Elk. The Blue Ridge Parkway, three ski resorts, and endless hiking trails and waterfalls, complete the region’s popularity.

Boone Realty’s $34 Million in sales for 2021 shows that a small, honorable, family-oriented team of agents can make their client’s dreams come true in a big way! So come visit, and let Stephen be your guide to The High Country and its real estate opportunities.

STEPHEN W. KEITH

1950 Blowing Rock Road, Boone, NC 28607 828-406-9394 | skeith@boonerealtync.com boonerealtync.com

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Christine Hotham S

roker,

, elen dams ealty

®

Christine’s interest in real estate evolved from growing up in a family of REALTORS® as well as founding a personal interior design business. Her business negotiating skills were honed from years in financial management, corporate audit, and software sales for two ortune companies. ith a professional yet personal and friendly approach, she always works in her client s best interests.

She provides professional guidance while maintaining the utmost professional integrity. hristine has lived in orth arolina for over years with her husband and two sons. She en oys being outdoors, whether it s playing golf or tennis, or out on the beach, boating and fishing at their vacation home in owcountry, South arolina. In her free time, she is an active volunteer around the local harlotte community and strives to make a positive impact in the lives of others.

CHRISTINE HOTHAM

15235-J John J. Delaney Drive, Charlotte, NC 28277 704-607- 338 (mobile) | 704-34 -0 79 (office) ristine ot m.com

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Erin Ficenec roker,

2/17/22 8:58 AM

, Helen Adams Realty

®

Erin is an extremely driven and successful North Carolina Real Estate Broker at Helen Adams Realty. She recently earned the ertified uxury ome Marketing Specialist designation and was recogni ed in by the ake orman Media roup as a Multi Million ollar op roducing gent in ake orman. er considerable knowledge of the harlotte region sets her apart within the industry. rin s clients deeply val ue her excellent communication skills, along with a warm and welcoming demeanor. She strives to make the relationship the center of every transaction while providing the highest level of service to each client. rin lives in Mooresville with her wonderful husband, Mike, and their four ama ing kiddos. In her free time, she regularly practices Inferno ot ilates and en oys spending time with her family traveling inter nationally.

ERIN FICENEC

19826 N Cove Road, Suite F Cornelius, NC 28031 704-7 8-5657 (mobile) | 704-439-3300 (office) rinficenec.com

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Frank Warren

NC Broker, REALTOR®, elen dams ealty Frank Warren has been a trusted real estate adviser and agent for over 25 years. As a Charlotte native who has enjoyed living in a variety of neighborhoods, he has deep insights into his hometown. sk him about a specific area or property, and he might share an interesting story Frank’s clients value his no-nonsense approach - ask the right questions, understand the priorities, and put a well-researched plan into motion. Because he’s well-versed in solving just about any real estate issue, he carries a calm but confident demeanor into any purchase or sale. is clients know they can count on him to get things done ontact rank to put his expertise and proven track record to work for you.

FRANK WARREN

2301 Randolph Road, Charlotte, NC 28207 704-904-4745 (mobile) | 704-375-8598 (office) r n rren. elen msre lty.com

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R E L O C AT I N G T O C H A R L O T T E ?

Charlotte magazine covers dining, travel, events, the arts, culture, real estate, business, and people. We explore every corner of city so we can bring you the best places to eat, drink, shop, and hang out in every neighborhood. Learn more about your new city with this essential go-to guide for life in Charlotte.

AVA I L A B L E I N P R I N T, D I G I TA L O R B O T H .

S U B S C R I B E O N LI N E AT C H AR LOT T E M AG A Z I N E .CO M / S U B S C R I B E

E S S AY S / F O O D A N D W I N E / T R A V E L / S H O P P I N G & M O R E

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Ily Muñoz

NC & SC Broker, REALTOR®, Helen Adams Realty Ily moved to Charlotte fourteen years ago from Florida. She has a gift for listening to clients’ needs, helping them achieve their goals during their time of transition. Working as a listing agent and a buyer’s agent, she seamlessly passes on her expertise to clients helping them understand local real estate and market trends. She specializes in the South Charlotte market and speaks both English and Spanish. Ily is part of a top producing team at Helen Adams Realty. She has received the company’s top team award for six consecutive years. As a testament to her work ethic and dedication to her clients, Ily continues to be a recipient of Helen Adams Realty’s Commendable Customer Service award year after year.

ILY MUÑOZ

15235-J John J. Delaney Drive, Charlotte, NC 28277 704-900-4773 (mobile) | 704-34 -0 79 (office) c rlottel ere lest te.com

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Melissa rown S

roker,

2/17/22 8:59 AM

, elen dams ealty

®

I am an experienced REALTOR® and it is my goal to become your trusted real estate advisor for life! I enjoy guiding my clients through the often stressful process of buying or selling their homes in the harlotte region. rom first time home buyers to retirees looking to down si e, I provide unparalleled customer service, and work as your partner no matter where you are on your real estate ourney. his includes listening to your needs and wants, providing thorough market research and data to guide your purchase or sales decisions, and negotiating firmly but respectfully on your behalf in your most important financial decision. I d love to be your guide in this fren ied real estate market

MELISSA BROWN

15235-J John J. Delaney Drive, Charlotte, NC 28277 704-654-9700 (mobile) | 704-34 -0 79 (office) eliss bro n omes.com | eliss ro n i lo .com

Jenn Mattscheck

NC & SC Broker, REALTOR®, Helen Adams Realty Buying a home is a huge investment and selling property should give you the means to invest in your future. My goal is to help clients make those important decisions in an easy and efficient manner. Through extensive market knowledge and a lifetime of sales, marketing and real estate experience, I have discovered the key to success. My goals are your goals!! My passion is making others happy. So when you find your forever home, or sell your hidden gem, I want to be there to help guide you through that experience. My clients come back year after year and send the best referrals. I am truly grateful.

JENN MATTSCHECK

2301 Randolph Road, Charlotte, NC 28207 704-953-9663 (mobile) | 704-375-8598 (office) propertiesbyjenn.com

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2/28/22 10:19 AM

www.SiteOne.com/Hardscapes Three convenient locations to serve you: 1625 E Westinghouse Blvd Charlotte, NC 28273 704.821.2426

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115 Corporate Blvd Indian Trail, NC 28079 704.684.4971

214 Transco Rd Mooresville, NC 28117 704.896.9969

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GROUND BREAKING

BUILDERS

Buying or building a new home, or renovating your current one? Learn more about industry professionals on the following pages

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CAR COLL

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NOW SELLING in THE EXCLUSIVE VILLAGE OF MARVIN.

­

Price and availability is subject to change without notice. Jones Homes USA™reserves the right to make modifications at any time. ©2022 Jones Homes USA | #RBC 80529

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LIVE IN LUXURY AND EXCLUSIVITY!

T

he Gates at Marvin is a new community nestled in the southwest corner of Waxhaw Marvin Road and Stacy Howie Road in Marvin, one of the most exclusive areas just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina. Each of the six homes will have 2 ½ to more than 3 ½ acres, its own gated entrance and start at $1.9 million.

“We constantly get requests from people looking for homes with acreage and a sense of exclusivity,” said Rob Kreisher, Vice President of Jones Homes USA Charlotte Division. “This new community offers all the luxuries of the most exclusive homes, and with only six homesites, you can’t live in a much more exclusive community.” Kreisher has a long history in the area, playing an integral role in the initial sale and development of the communities.

In The Gates at Marvin, each home is built for the way families live today, with exceptional quality, the latest designs and energy features, huge kitchens, open living spaces, incredible luxury features that are included, and state-ofthe-art technology. The Gates at Marvin homesites are on sale now. Please make an appoint-

ment at The Falls at Weddington sales center.

Jones Homes USA is also selling luxury homes in the Charlotte area at The Falls at Weddington and Bent Creek.

About Jones USA: Jones Homes USA is known for creating the most sought-after neighborhoods, combining innovative home designs and advanced home technology with stunning included features considered upgrades with other builders.

JONES HOMES USA

406 Turtleback Ridge Marvin, NC 28104 • JonesHomesUSA.com • 704-908-6885

EMPIRE COMMUNITIES

A

s one of North America’s largest privately held homebuilders, Empire Communities has an established tradition of creating prestigious award-winning new homes and communities that have earned a reputation for not only outstanding attention to detail and customer service, but for amenities and a sense of community that make a neighborhood thrive. Since we began in 1993, we have built over 22,000 new homes and condos, with current communities in Houston, Austin and San Antonio, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Toronto, Canada.

We build homes that make everyday life richer and more sustainable, with enviable home designs where smart space planning and quality building meet.

For us, life revolves around giving our best, thinking differently and treating everyone with respect, and we’re grateful to be bringing these values and years of experience into the Charlotte market.

Formerly Shea Homes North Carolina

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EMPIRE COMMUNITIES

See where you belong at empirecommunitiesNC.com

2/22/21 9:47 AM 2/28/22 10:42 AM

YOUR DREAM ON YOUR LOT Empire Design + Build offers a wide range of services to guide you through your custom homebuilding journey, from helping you select your homesite to choosing the perfect floorplan, and selecting the finishes that’ll beautifully pull your space together.

Customized plans on your homesite in the greater Charlotte area from the $500’s to over $2 million.

EmpireDesignBuildNC.com | 704.602.3333 Sales: ECH Brokerage LP. License #C33712. Construction: EHC Homes, LP, DBA Empire Communities (NC: 85275; SC: 123509). E.&O.E. Equal Housing Opportunity.

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Builders and Remodelers

YOUR GUIDE TO THE AREA'S BEST BUILDERS AND RENOVATORS

ACCENT HOMES CAROLINAS 3906 Brandie Glen Rd. 704-308-3006 accenthomescarolinas.com

BEACON BUILDERS 317 E. Tremont Ave., Ste. 304 704-309-1834 beaconbuilders.com

CHARLOTTE HOME IMPROVEMENT 2014 Park Dr. 704-777-8013

CYRAS CUSTOM HOMES 4436-B South Blvd.

704-264-7280 cyrascustomhomes.com

ALAIR HOMES 11910 Terrill Ridge Dr., Davidson 704-622-2262 alairhomes.com

BELK BUILDERS 401 Hawthorne Ln., Ste. 110-203 704-400-4710 belkcustombuilders.com

CHARLOTTE LIVING REALTY 1125 E. Morehead St., Ste. 208 704-659-6705 charlottelivingrealty.com

D & W, INC. 7540 Grier Rd. 704-598-9316 dandwinc.com

ANDREW ROBY, INC. 2000 W. Morehead St. 704-334-5477 andrewroby.com

BERGEN’S CONTRACTING & REPAIR, INC. 712 Morrow Ave., Pineville 704-889-2020 bergensrepairs.com

CHIOTT CUSTOM HOMES, INC. 4310 Park Rd., Ste. 101 704-469-7444 chiott.com

DAVID DUNN & SONS CUSTOM CARPENTRY 240 Zimmer Rd., Fort Mill 704-243-7253 daviddunnsons.com

ARCADIA HOMES 6428 Bannington Rd., Ste. A 704-412-4130 arcadiahomesinc.com

BLUE WATERS CONSTRUCTION 9628 Industrial Dr., Pineville 704-323-4121 bluewatersconstruction.com

CITYVIEW BUILDERS, INC. 704-334-6097 cityviewbuilders.net CLASSIC STONE CREATIONS 1529 Industrial Center Cir. 704-525-2580 classicstonecreations.com

ARTISAN CUSTOM HOMES 21016 Catawba Ave., Cornelius 704-987-9369 artisancustomhomes.com

BUNGALOW DESIGNS, INC. 704-995-5031 bungalowdesignsinc.com

ASHLAND CUSTOM HOMES 834 Wismar Ct. 704-281-7571 ashlandcustomhomes.com

CAROLINA CRAFTSMAN BUILDERS 704-634-8999 carolinacraftsmanbuilders.com

CLOSETS BY DESIGN CHARLOTTE* 1108 Continental Blvd., Ste. A 704-588-7272 charlotte.closetsbydesign.com

H.C. BARRETT & ASSOCIATES, INC. 10100 Park Cedar Dr., Ste. 108 704-542-1105 hcbarrett.com

CAROLINA HOME REMODELING 372 Crompton St. 704-714-5744 carolinahomeremodeling.com

COPPER BUILDERS 1235-E East Blvd., Ste. 155 704-389-5308 copperbuilders.com

BARRINGER HOMES 1341 E. Morehead St., Ste. 202 980-284-7007 barringer-homes.com

CHARLOTTE DESIGN BUILD, INC. 15105-D John J. Delaney Dr., Ste. 329 704-749-4506 charlottedesignbuild.com

CRAFTSMEN CONSTRUCTION 4745 Silabert Ave. 704-537-7337 craftsmenconstruction.com

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DAVID TYSON & ASSOCIATES, INC. 704-523-6521 DERHODES CONSTRUCTION, LLC 2625 E. 5th St., Ste. D 704-281-4156 derhodesconstruction.com DIALECT DESIGN 933 Louise Ave., Ste. 10121-A 704-763-0506 dialectdesign.com DIAMOND BUILDERS OF AMERICA 14805 Rexford Chase Ct., Matthews 704-443-1000 diamondbuildersofamerica.com

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DIFABION REMODELING 1070 Van Buren Ave., Ste. D, Indian Trail 704-882-7738 difabionremodeling.com THE DOWD COMPANY 6701-B Fairview Rd. 704-364-0943 DREAM HOME BUILDERS & REMODELERS 16011-A Lancaster Highway, Ste. 337 704-659-1905 dreamhomebuildersand remodelers.com DUBOSE CUSTOM HOMES 704-348-7003 dubosebuilders.com EMPIRE COMMUNITIES* Formerly Shea Homes of North Carolina 8008 Corporate Center Dr., Ste. 300 704-602-3333 empirecommunitiesNC.com

HOBSON BUILDERS, INC. 4108 Park Rd., Ste. 103 704-654-2911 hobson-builders.com

LYNN LUXURY HOMES 3020 Prosperity Church Rd.,, Ste. I 704-200-0889 aclynnhomes.com

SIMONINI HOMES 501 E. Morehead St., Ste. 4 704-333-8999 simonini.com

D. R. HORTON 8001 Arrowridge Blvd.

704-377-2006 drhorton.com

MADISON HOMEBUILDERS 2720 W. Arrowood Rd. 704-523-5151 madisonhomebuilders.com

SINACORI BUILDERS 10100 Park Cedar Dr., Ste. 166 704-543-7474 sinacoribuilders.com

IMPACT DESIGN RESOURCES 305 Foster Ave., Ste. 200 704-778-6814 impactdesignresources.com

MASTERBUILDER FELLOWSHIP FOR THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT, INC. 433 Main St., Matthews 704-708-5367 masterbuilderfellowship.com

STEELE’S CONSTRUCTION 34 W. Main Ave., Taylorsville 828-302-0074 steelesconstructionllc.com

IRON RIVER BUILDING GROUP 5634 Rocky Trail Ct. 704-846-0331 ironriver.com JAS-AM GROUP 5113 Piper Station Dr., Ste. 201 704-507-8795 jasamgroup.com JCB URBAN COMPANY, INC. 1200 E. Morehead St., Ste. 200 704-334-2927 jcburban.com

ETHIC LLC 2433 The Plaza 704-533-0057 ethicllc.com

JEFF CHANCE CUSTOM HOMES 704-400-8854 jeffchance.com

EVANS COGHILL HOMES 4108 Park Rd., Ste. 413 980-447-2755 evanscoghill.com

E.S. JOHNSON BUILDERS 455 S. Main St., Ste. 320, Davidson 704-987-7950 esjohnson.com

GEMINI CONSTRUCTION 3006 Old Montgomery Rd., Monroe 704-400-6826 geminiconstructioninc.com

JONES & HEDGES 704 East Blvd.

704-904-9927 jhcustombuilders.com

GERRARD BUILDERS 1920 Abbott St., Ste. 302 704-241-8863 gerrardbuilders.com GRANDE CUSTOM BUILDERS 4368 S. Tryon St. 704-999-6898 grandebuilders.com GRANDFATHER HOMES 1111 Central Ave., Ste. 320 980-219-7480 grandfatherhomes.com GUTHMANN CONSTRUCTION 10720 Carmel Commons Blvd., Ste. 300 704-752-9990 guthmannconstruction.com HENDERSON BUILDING GROUP 704-201-1429 hendersonbuildinggroup.com

JONES HOMES* Bent Creek 1057 Chippenham Ave., Indian Land, SC 803-547-7132 The Falls at Weddington 406 Turtleback Ridge, Weddington 704-246-7034 JonesHomesUSA.com

MEETING STREET HOMES & COMMUNITIES 19925 Jane Crump Way, Cornelius 704-714-3070 meetingstreet.net MEL DESIGN BUILD, INC. 704-361-1535 meldesignbuild.com MILLS ELOGE 2923 S. Tryon St, Ste. 220 704-246-2577 millseloge.com

TIMBER BLOCK 3708 Curleys Fish Camp Rd., Connelly Springs 866-929-5647 timberblock.com TIMBERLINE HOMES, INC. 2316 Shenandoah Ave. 704-634-7862 timberlinehomesofnc.com

MVP CONSTRUCTION 704-286-6687 mvpconstruct.com

URBAN BUILDING GROUP 342 Circle Ave. 704-307-4606 urbanbuildinggroup.com

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF THE REMODELING INDUSTRY 704-365-6274 naricharlotte.com

VISTA HOMES 2301 W. Morehead St., Ste. A 704-594-4174 vistahomesclt.com

NEW OLD, LLC 3605 Latrobe Dr., Ste. G newold.com

WADDELL CUSTOM HOMES 2243-A Ebenezer Rd., Rock Hill 803-985-4160 waddellcustomhomes.com

PALMER CUSTOM BUILDERS 704-544-0367 palmercustombuilders.com PIKE PROPERTIES 1300 Baxter St., Ste. 255 704-332-3332 pikeproperties.com

KELLY MCARDLE CONSTRUCTION 4515 Old Pineville Rd. 704-344-9411 kellymcardle.com

RAM CONSTRUCTION 401 Rensselaer Ave. 704-352-6090 ramconstructioninc.com

KENNETH BEALER HOMES 1454 Brawley School Rd., Mooresville 704-662-6400 kennethbealerhomes.com

RAND STREET CONSTRUCTION CO. 704-375-3933 randstreetco.com

KINGSWOOD CUSTOM HOMES 115 College St., Pineville 704-889-1600 kingswoodhomes.com

THR DESIGN BUILD 401 Hawthorne Ln., Ste. 110-179 704-595-3573 thrdesignbuild.com

SANTI DESIGNS 13917 Albemarle Rd. 704-837-7302 santidesigns.net

T. WHELAN HOMES, INC. 748 Brawley School Rd., Mooresville 704-662-6460 twhelanhomes.com WHITLOCK BUILDERS 8101 Tower Point Dr., Ste. 100 704-364-9577 whitlockbuilders.com WINDOW & DOOR PROS 1141 Hawthorne Ln. 704-344-1875 windowanddoorpros.com ZAR CUSTOM HOMES 980-236-7444 zarcustomhomes.com

* Denotes featured advertisers

APRIL 2022 // CHARLOTTE

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NewLife

BY TAYLOR BOWLER

PHOTOGRAPHS BY RUSTY WILLIAMS

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The Loft Library overlooks Lola’s Bar, where residents gather for live music, drinks, and dancing.

The core of the baby boomer generation is reaching retirement age, and that’s driving an emerging trend in Charlotte and elsewhere: Communities with more space, more options, more technology, more fun. Southminster is a growing community in south Charlotte where retirement living emphasizes the ‘living’

APRIL 2022 // CHARLOTTE

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ON THURSDAY MORNINGS around 10:30, the entrance of Southminster’s wellness center buzzes with chatter.

Twenty residents gather outside the aerobics room, gabbing about grandchildren and upcoming trips to Florida, until Carol Arnold opens the doors and ushers everyone in. The 79-year-old sets up chairs and yoga mats, and she moves with the ease of someone half her age.

“Did everybody notice Sue’s new shirt?” she says as she pulls out her iPhone to find her playlist. “It’s so stylish!”

The class consists mostly of women.

But a man stands in the front row, on the mat closest to the window: Tom, Carol’s husband of eight months. “Tom has a bit of stage fright,” Carol says with a grin. As the ambient music kicks on, she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. “Good morning, and welcome to Standing and Seated Yoga.”

She tells the class to plant their feet on the floor, establish good posture, and become aware of their breath. “Bring new life into your body and remove the old with each exhalation,” she says. “Feel your body and mind relax.” For the next 45 minutes, she leads them through warrior pose, downward-facing dog, and swan dive. With her hands propped on the chair, she demonstrates a modified plank. Tom, 80, struggles a bit with his barefooted tree pose but rarely takes his eyes off Carol.

Not long ago, people like Tom, Carol, and their neighbors wouldn’t have been practicing their planks. Times have changed. Here, people in their 70s and 80s do yoga, perform water aerobics in the indoor pool, and attend dance parties at an on-site bar called Lola’s. One thing

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you absolutely do not call Southminster, or any of the expandCarol Arnold (top, in dark blue shirt), a ing communities like it in Charlotte, is an “old folks’ home.” longtime instructor “Our residents don’t see themselves living in a nursing at the Harris YMCA, home or assisted living,” says Stewart Wiley, director of sales teaches Standing and Seated Yoga and marketing for Southminster, which occupies 27 acres at Southminster’s near Quail Hollow Club. “This generation of senior adults is Embrace Wellness not like prior generations. They act and dress younger, they Center. view themselves as younger, and they’re much more active.”

As the class emerges from their savasana, Carol stands up, brings her hands to heart center, and signals the end of class with a “namaste.” In the back row, someone says, “Is it time for drinks?” Another replies, “Lola’s doesn’t open ’til four!”

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // APRIL 2022

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“This generation of senior adults is not like prior generations. They act and dress younger, they view themselves as younger, and they’re much more active.”

—STEWART WILEY, director of sales and marketing for Southminster

SOUTHMINSTER OPENED IN 1987 with about 130 apartments in one main building.

Residents had a choice of only three standard floor plans you’d find in a traditional assisted or independent living community.

Southminster’s newest apartments range from 1,400 to 2,000 square feet. Wiley calls them “hybrid villas,” and they boast high ceilings; built-in shelves; French doors; zeroentry shower stalls; private, covered patios and balconies; and access to underground, secured parking. “They’re like a cross between an apartment and a cottage because you have natural light coming in almost every room, but they have a custom feel to them,” he says. “They’re the rage in senior housing.”

A complex that used to occupy a single building has grown through four major expansions. Stroll through the lobby of one of Southminster’s four new apartment buildings, and you’d think you were in a SouthPark high-rise. Sleek pendant lights hang from high ceilings, and floor-to-ceiling windows let sunlight flood the common areas.

The entrance fees range from $130,000 to $960,000. Monthly fees cover amenities like weekly housekeeping, wireless internet, groundskeeping, and 24-hour security, and range from $3,600 to $6,600. Wiley recommends residents have net assets that total at least three times the entry fee.

Enter the main building, and you’ll pass a game room, library, fitness center with an indoor pool, and stadium-style movie theater. Residents catch up over glasses of wine at Lola’s, walk their dogs in the courtyard, and scroll through photos of their grandchildren on their smartphones. Long-term providers and researchers have worked in recent years to update the terminology associated with senior care. People who live at Southminster are “residents,” not “patients,” and the spaces where they live are “units,” not “beds.”

The changes, physical and verbal, reflect a large-scale generational shift. The oldest of the baby boomers hit 65 a little more than a decade ago. The heart of the generation, people born in the mid-to-late 1950s, is reaching it now. Charlotte continues to be a popular retirement destination, and communities have grown to accommodate people who have chosen to move into places like Sharon Towers on Sharon Road, which houses 330 residents, and Aldersgate on Shamrock Drive in east Charlotte, which has undergone 10 expansions since it opened in 1946.

They and Southminster reflect a national trend of retirement living for seniors who don’t want the hassle and upkeep of homes that no longer suit them. Most of

Southminster’s roughly 450 residents aren’t “put” here by their adult children, and many aren’t even retired yet. They don’t require assisted living or skilled nursing, although Southminster offers both should their needs change. More and more residents are choosing these life plan communities (also known as CCRCs, or continuing care retirement communities), which allow them to live independently but not in isolation.

In 2020, Southminster completed a three-phase, $120 million expansion that included a 200,000-square-foot medical facility and 66 new residences.

Southminster had been fully occupied for about four years prior to the groundbreaking, and their waitlist doubled in that time.

“It was like a freshman class of students moving here in summer 2020, at the height of COVID,” Wiley says. Between March 2020 and May 2021, 108 new residents moved in. “We have a waitlist with nearly 700 names, but COVID has altered that. People are getting on the waitlist much sooner.” Some add their names because they’re thinking ahead to the time they know is coming; others want a unit as soon as one comes available.

Some want a one-bedroom apartment; others prefer the two-bedroom cottages.

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he says, “the wait could be as little as one year to over five.”

The rapid graying of the baby boomers, a phenomenon sometimes dubbed the “silver tsunami,” drives the demand.

The U.S. Census Bureau projects the senior population will grow by 30 million within the next eight years— which means 20% of the population will be 65 or older by 2030, compared to about 13% today. “We’ll have more people over 65 than under 18 for the first time in U.S. history,” says Rodney Harrell, a vice president at the AARP Public Policy Institute.

About 1 million Americans lived in some type of senior living community in 2019, according to the National Center for Assisted Living; that number is expected to double by 2030. The American Health Care Association reports 28,900 assisted living communities in the U.S., but CCRCs like Southminster are a more specialized category. AARP reported 2,000 CCRCs nationwide as of 2019, up from about 900 in 1993. Charlotte, home to more than 62,000 seniors, has six. A 2014 UNC Chapel Hill study found that North Carolina’s 57 CCRCs served about 19,000 residents—and projected that number would rise to 35,000 by 2034.

People traditionally have lower incomes after they retire. The most recent

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retirees are different, says Karan Kaul, a principal research Newlyweds Carol and Tom Arnold associate at the Urban Institute’s Housing Finance Policy exchanged vows at Center. The strength of the stock market in the years after a small ceremony at the Great Recession left many with a surplus of investment Lake Norman last May. income, and COVID has curtailed their spending habits.

“With people not going out, not traveling, and getting stimulus payments, it gave their savings a decent bump,” he says. And in the pandemic economy, most prospective CCRC residents have easily sold their homes or cashed out their home equity to cover the entrance fee.

As more boomers move into retirement age—the last were born in 1964—they’ll continue to shape the U.S. housing market. If enough boomers move to senior living communities, will it free up family housing for the next generation of homebuyers, the smaller Generation X? Will the explosion in CCRCs today lead to empty units by the time Gen Xers turn 65?

TOM AND CAROL ARNOLD, the yoga-class couple who predate the boomers, encountered the opposite problem when they decided they wanted to live in Southminster.

“Our apartment,” Carol says, “was just a hole in the ground when we first saw it.”

The Arnolds met in 2017, when their cousins introduced them. Carol already lived in Charlotte to be close to her daughter. Tom lived in Virginia Beach but decided Charlotte was near enough to his son in Winston-Salem. They considered buying a house or condo, Carol says, but “a retirement community made sense at our age.”

Once they were engaged, the couple looked at Sharon Towers and The Cypress, two miles up Park Road from Southminster, but liked Southminster most. The only hitch: The expansion wasn’t finished. They bought—sight unseen—one of the two units no one had reserved and worked with the builder to choose countertops, tiles, and hardware. They moved into their two-bedroom, 1,600-square-foot apartment in summer 2020. A little less than a year later, they were married.

Their biggest surprise has been an active social life, even during a pandemic. When the Arnolds first moved in, meals had to be delivered to their rooms. But they’d gather in the courtyard for happy hour every evening until the food carts showed up and everyone dispersed to their apartments for dinner. “It was like freshman year,” Tom says. “You’re bonded forever.”

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The Arnolds’ classmates consist of people who led full and fascinating lives before they got to Southminster. Tom’s a farmer from Virginia, and Carol’s a longtime teacher and yoga instructor. In the courtyard or dining room, they’re likely to run into Larry, a former attorney who plays guitar, or maybe Richard, who developed Pringles potato chips, or Ted and Bonnie, actors who have just returned from a film shoot in Atlanta.

Richard Darragh and his wife, Mildred, are the resident sweethearts. They’ve been married 68 years and share five children, 12 grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren. They’re natives of Montreal—Richard, 91, is French Canadian. He spent 36 years at Procter & Gamble, where, in addition to his Pringles achievement, he developed the spreadable consistency of Jif peanut butter and perfected Duncan Hines cake mixes.

After Richard’s retirement at 62, the Darraghs lived in New York, Ohio, Florida, and Tennessee before they settled in Charlotte, where one of their daughters lives.

“In Nashville, we had two years of bad health,” Mildred says, “so the kids got anxious with us there without family.” Southminster won out over retirement communities in Nashville and Greenville, South Carolina, where one of their sons lives, because of its superior medical facilities.

Those proved critical. Mildred developed a kidney infection that required emergency surgery in 2020. Then, last October, she suffered a stroke and spent a week in the hospital in Pineville, although she was able to return home to continue her physical therapy.

“I feel a lot safer here,” she says. “The care we’ve gotten here has been superb.”

Now that Mildred is on the mend, the Darraghs are back to catching up with their neighbors in a place that’s more social than they’d ever imagined. “I thought I’d be hanging around with old people in wheelchairs,” Richard says.

Richard and “But I’ve been pleasantly surprised. The residents are so interestMildred Darragh ing and so interested. We have great conversations all the time.” (pictured here in It helps when you share an apartment complex with a lawyer.

Southminster’s private dining room) Larry Dagenhart, 89, was an attorney for McGuireWoods for moved into their 60 years. Dagenhart and his wife, Sarah, lived in their Eastover apartment in July home for 50 years until they decided to downsize and move to 2018 after a nineSouthminster in 2012. They’d watched their oldest daughter move month renovation they supervised. her in-laws into assisted living and decided they would never

burden their three adult children with that task. “My wife and I agreed we should come here when we could still walk—or jog—through those doors,” Larry says.

“She said this was a gift to our children.”

Larry wanted a ground-floor apartment with a patio for a garden. None of the units had enough space, so he purchased two and combined them. He and Sarah moved in after a nine-month renovation, and he built a longitudinal garden on the expanded patio. “It’s mostly flowers, and I grow veggies in winter to fill up the space,” he says. “I try to have something blooming most of the year.”

Sarah died in 2020. Larry fills his days by tending his garden, playing guitar, and singing. He and his neighbors get together on Sunday nights to catch up and listen to Larry play his guitar. “I play three chords and sing loud,” he says with a laugh. “You can sing over a chord you don’t know.”

SOUTHMINSTER CONTINUES to grow, not just in square footage but with residents who still have stories to tell and things to do. Its next expansion, which it calls Top of East, is a $20 million renovation that administrators expect to be complete in December.

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“Residents wanted less goody-goody movies; they wanted more R-rated things in the lineup.

I think that’s why they showed Dopesick.”

—BONNIE JOHNSON

Ted and Bonnie Johnson keep binders filled with old call sheets, ticket stubs, and Polaroids from various movie sets.

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Top of East includes 20 new apartments, each with its own floor plan.

Units range from 1,400 to 3,000 square feet, with fully equipped kitchens, stainless steel appliances, and iPads where residents can order meals, find the community event calendar, and see who is celebrating a birthday that day. Hybrid villas will come equipped with a system that alerts staff to falls, and the campus will have more landscaped courtyards, three fire pits, a pickleball court, and a putting green.

For Ted and Bonnie Johnson, all these niceties are a stark contrast to the type of place they might have landed in a generation ago, when people in their 80s were often treated as if their lives were already over. “My mother always said, ‘Don’t put me in a nursing home,’ but then she fell and broke her hip,” Bonnie says. “She had to go into one of those places with a bed, a bathroom, and a TV, and she was miserable.”

Today, Ted and Bonnie live in a twobedroom apartment where the hallway is lined with movie posters and behindthe-scenes photos from films and TV shows they’ve appeared in over the last three decades. A shot of Bonnie with her stunt double on the set of the Netflix series Ozark hangs beside a poster of Sleeping with the Enemy, one of her first

feature films. In the office, Ted displays photos from his stint in Larry Dagenhart plays guitar for his Leatherheads, including a candid shot of George Clooney from neighbors on Sunday the set. On an adjacent wall is a collage from the Lincoln shoot, nights. “I do country where he played Governor John W. Ellis of North Carolina. and gospel and campfire songs,” he The Johnsons moved to Southminster in 2013 after 17 says. “I get them all years in their home in Ivy Hall, a gated community in south singing.”

Charlotte. Ted and Bonnie, who each have two adult children from previous marriages, toured five retirement communities in Charlotte and narrowed it down to three when a spot at Southminster opened up. “We thought it would be a five-year process,” Ted says, “so we got on waitlists before we were ready.”

They knew the real estate market was good, but even they were surprised when their house sold in one day. Bonnie took it as a sign. Their 1,600-square-foot apartment in Southminster’s main building, recently vacated by a tenant who’d moved to skilled nursing, has a big primary bedroom with a blank wall where they can shoot their audition videos.

Bonnie, now 80, spent her career as an executive secretary but began acting in films when she moved to Charlotte in the 1980s. Most recently, she appeared in the Hulu miniseries Dopesick, which stars Michael Keaton. Ted, 83, worked in banking most of his life and began acting after he married Bonnie in 1996. “I never did a stitch of acting in high school,” he says.

On a given week, the couple might audition for a television pilot over Zoom or drive to Chattanooga for a film shoot. When one of their movies or TV shows premieres, Southminster hosts a special screening in the theater. Ted and Bonnie introduce the film or show, talk about the shoot, and answer questions. “Residents wanted less goodygoody movies; they wanted more R-rated things in the lineup,” Bonnie says. “I think that’s why they showed Dopesick.”

When we talk in February, she and Ted are preparing to shoot a web commercial in Tallahassee, which reminds her: They’ll need to alert the staff that they’ll be away. She walks to the kitchen, where the iPad is propped in its charging dock, and swipes left to send off a quick message. Then she taps the day’s schedule to see what’s happening at Lola’s tonight.

TAYLOR BOWLER is the lifestyle editor.

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Pringle Square, a 292-unit complex in the rapidly growing Steele Creek area, opened in June 2021.

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CALL

OF THE

’BURBS People think of Charlotte’s urban core as the hot area for apartments, but developers increasingly head toward the I-485 loop—and beyond

By GREG LACOUR Photographs by HERMAN NICHOLSON

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Trenton Mill Lofts in Gastonia.

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apartments in the Charlotte area since 1970. When adults with children move to the Charlotte area for work, they’re at times accompanied by their retired parents, who want to live near their grandchildren. So the grandparents sell their house and move—but want something more spacious than a standard apartment because, Porter says, “they want a place for the grandkids to come over and stay and sleep and spend a weekend with them. They’re willing to pay for something nicer because they came out of a house.”

As of January, Charter listed three Charlotte-area complexes, all in the suburbs, two across the state line in Fort Mill. The closest is Pringle Square, which opened in 2021 just outside the Interstate 485 loop in the Steele Creek area of southwestern Charlotte. Its 292 units place tenants near a pair of shopping centers that opened in the last decade, Berewick Town Center and Charlotte Premium Outlets, and start with a one-bedroom, one-bath, 600-square-foot apartment at $1,275 per month. That’s in line with the market rate, and it’s an owners’ market.

IN BROAD TERMS, developers want to build apartment complexes away from the urban core because people will continue to move to the Charlotte area and because land gets cheaper the farther it is from the middle of town.

Other factors come into play, too. Developers usually

HERMAN NICHOLSON

HARLOTTE’S SUBURBS are swelling with apartment complexes: off intersections near shopping centers, behind Walmart Supercenters next to four-lane highways, on lots made freshly valuable by nearby train tracks. Up they rise, some with 300 units or more, two-bedrooms, three-bedrooms, with pools, fitness centers, dog parks, “affordable luxury,” and rents that continue to shoot skyward along with the apartments themselves.

This isn’t entirely surprising. Charlotte continues to draw thousands of newcomers every year. They need somewhere to live, and the city is still annexing land at the fringes of a transportation network that directs more routes, for cars and trains alike, into more areas than ever before.

But areas far outside Charlotte’s urban core—far from uptown and neighborhoods like NoDa, Plaza Midwood, and, especially, South End—have traditionally served as the seedbeds for detached single-family homes, often in subdivisions. South End et al. have earned a reputation in the last decade or so as the hubs of urban Charlotte apartment life, where you can rub shoulders with young and affluent neighbors in the elevator before you walk the dog up the Rail Trail to your choice of local brewery.

The suburban developments cater to broader age ranges and different priorities. “In a lot of cases, (new tenants are) chasing their grandchildren,” says John Porter III, president of Charter Properties Inc., which has developed CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // APRIL 2022

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area that’s always harbored plenty of inexpensive units for students.

Tapestry aims for older, more affluent tenants. “Nestled in Nature,” its promotional tagline reads. “Connected to the heart of the city.” Unit prices start at $1,299 per month for a studio.

have fewer physical and regulatory obstacles to circumvent with suburban sites and those in smaller, less dense cities like Gastonia, Mooresville, and Kannapolis. In other words, developers can usually build more quickly, with less risk and fewer headaches. Bigger lots also allow for more design options, which means developers can cater to a larger and more varied pool of prospective tenants.

“I think you’re going to start to see more experimentation by developers in suburban markets,” says Ben Yorker, who leads multifamily projects in the South for the real estate development firm Northwood Ravin, which has an office in Charlotte. Especially during COVID, renters in high-rises on small, urban-core lots often felt like they were in prison, Yorker told an audience at a Greater Charlotte Apartment Association breakfast in late January.

Developers and renters alike have learned the value of open space. “Just because they want to rent,” Yorker says, “doesn’t mean they want to live in flats stacked on top of other flats.”

The capacity to spread out is a signature advantage of suburban sites—Pringle Square’s 292 units stretch over about 20 acres. Another new complex, Arlington Properties’ Tapestry University City, disperses 352 units on a little more than 13 acres. Tapestry is hardly in the sticks, but the extension of light rail to University City in 2018 touched off a wave of apartment construction in an

NONE OF THIS BODES WELL for people who struggle to find affordable places to rent. Mark Ethridge handles affordable housing development for Ascent Real Estate Capital in Charlotte and serves on the board of Roof Above, the city’s main advocacy nonprofit for the homeless. Ethridge told the crowd at the Apartment Association breakfast that the general economic outlook is rosy for owners and developers, less so for tenants who can’t afford to pay $1,300 per month for a studio. “You wake up every morning,” he says, “and ask, ‘How could it get any worse?’”

Overall demand for apartments shows no sign of slowing, even with new construction all over town and beyond.

Developers built nearly 10,000 units in the Charlotte-area market from August 2020 to August 2021, according to a September 2021 report by the Charlotte apartment market research firm Real Data. But in the same year, residents moved into nearly 11,000 units—an indication that demand for apartments surpasses the rate at which developers can build them.

After a mild, COVID-related economic lull in 2020, the market roared back in 2021: Over the same period, the average monthly rent in the Charlotte area jumped from $1,229 to $1,375. The rental vacancy rate, 6.9% as of February 2021, had rebounded to 4.9% by August, according to the September Real Data report. Anything below 10% is considered high demand; 5% might as well be zero.

“Demand is expected to keep pace with new supply over the next year,” the report says. “The average vacancy rate will remain below 6.0%, while rents continue to grow at around 5.0%.” And that factors in nearly 22,000 units that, as of August 2021, were either proposed or under construction.

As long as the number of potential tenants meets or exceeds the number of available units, landlords will practically be able to name their price. (In an owner’s market like this, even the unusually high cost of construction materials tends to get passed on to tenants.) “We’re on a high, we’ve been on a high, and history tells us that there will be a low that comes back, but there’s no indication of that happening,” says Engle Addington, a Real Data analyst since 2004. “There’s a low vacancy rate, rents keep going up—so it’s almost like a mad grab: Take what you can get … wherever you can find land.”

GREG LACOUR is the editor.

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Loop OUT OF THE

A sampling of new and underconstruction apartment complexes outside Charlotte’s urban core— even outside Charlotte

BY TESS ALLEN

Tapestry University City

COURTESY (3)

5340 PERIWINKLE HILL AVE.

DEVELOPER: Arlington Properties Inc. OPENED: September 2021 TOTAL UNITS: 352 RENT: $1,299-$2,275 AMENITIES: Indoor train lobby, dog park, detached garages, cybercafé with coffee and tea bar, fitness center, yoga and spin studio, package concierge, pet washing station, saltwater pool, cabanas, dining terraces with grills and outdoor TVs, clubroom, billiards room and pub, door-to-door valet trash service, car care center, bike storage

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TRENTON MILL LOFTS

TAPESTRY UNIVERSITY CITY

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485

EVOKE LIVING AT WESTERLY HILLS

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85

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PRINGLE SQUARE APARTMENTS

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485

Trenton Mill Lofts DEVELOPER: Lansing Melbourne Group OPENED: January 2022 TOTAL UNITS: 85 RENT: $900-$1,845 AMENITIES: Hammock park, storage units, dog park, daily valet waste service, billiards lounge, co-working space, beer taps, coffee bar, package lockers, grilling area, fire pits, electric car charging stations, fitness center, yoga studio, outdoor gaming area, bike storage, courtyard cinema

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HERMAN NICHOLSON (3); SHUTTERSTOCK

612 W. MAIN AVE., GASTONIA

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Pringle Square Apartments

15155 OLLIE DRIVE (OFF STEELE CREEK ROAD) DEVELOPER: Charter Properties Inc. OPENED: June 2021 TOTAL UNITS: 292 RENT: $1,275-$1,870 AMENITIES: Clubhouse, saltwater pool, outdoor pavilion with kitchen, fitness center, pet agility park, garages, storage units, yoga studio, fire bowl, laundry center, business center, pet wash station, car care center, package lockers

Evoke Living at Westerly Hills COURTESY (4); HERMAN NICHOLSON

5004 EVOKE LIVING LANE (OFF WILKINSON BOULEVARD)

DEVELOPER: Crosland Southeast OPENED: September 2021 TOTAL UNITS: 156 RENT: $377-$1,479 AMENITIES: Clubhouse, fitness center, playground, community room, picnic area

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The Queen’s Gambit Charlotte’s first arts and culture officer, Priya Sircar, will help set a long-term plan for the sector. The result, she says, “will be shaping the future of Charlotte.”

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For decades, the City of Charlotte helped fund the Arts & Science Council, an independent nonprofit. In 2021, the city changed tack: It appointed Priya Sircar as its first arts and culture officer and assembled a board to distribute funding and develop a long-range plan. Could the move help turn Charlotte into a cultural destination?

By

ALLISON BRADEN

Photographs by ANDY

McMILLAN

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P

riya Sircar visited Charlotte for the first time

in 2018. At the time, she was director of arts for the Miami-based Knight Foundation, which provides grants to support journalism, arts, and culture in communities, like Charlotte, where John S. and James L. Knight once published newspapers.

Mandated to tailor city-specific funding strategies for the foundation’s arts program, she and her colleagues set up a booth at Free Range Brewing, where they invited artists and organizations to help them understand Charlotte’s cultural scene. She was astonished at the response. More than 75 people stopped by the booth: fine artists, nonprofit staff, creative professionals, board members, and philanthropists.

From these conversations, along with data analysis and meetings with local arts heavyweights, Sircar learned about the organizations and individuals that make up Charlotte’s arts sector.

Then, like an astronomer, she traced their connections and oriented herself among the complex constellations.

What emerged was a glowing sketch of an arts sector in crisis.

The brightest points on Sircar’s star chart were the uptown-based legacy institutions: the Mint, the Bechtler, the Gantt, the Blumenthal, McColl Center,

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the opera, the symphony, the ballet.

Fainter and more scattered were smaller organizations, festivals, and galleries.

She learned about the Arts & Science Council, an independent nonprofit responsible for distributing millions in public and private funds to artists and cultural organizations.

These institutions, large and small, juggle a variety of income sources, including earned revenue, like ticket sales; government funding; grants from entities like ASC and Knight Foundation; corporate contributions and sponsorships; individual donations; and endowments. In addition to distributing city and county contributions, ASC solicits donations from individuals and corporations to support its grantmaking and other activities. To complicate matters further, five of Charlotte’s marquee arts institutions, including the Mint Museum Uptown and the Gantt, operate out of city-owned buildings.

This crazy quilt of revenue sources

is a hallmark of arts sectors across the country. The fundamental source of the problem here, Sircar learned, was that individual donations to ASC tanked in 2008 and never fully recovered. ASC’s funding—and by extension, funding for the entire sector—was drying up.

O

n the morning of April 13, 2021, the Arts & Science Council’s acting president, Krista Terrell, was scheduled to make the organization’s annual request to the Mecklenburg County commissioners for funding for the upcoming fiscal year.

Though she was named acting president just two months before, Terrell wasn’t new to ASC. She’d served the organization for 19 years in a marketing and communications capacity—experience that would soon come in handy.

Ten minutes before her presentation, she read a WBTV article that explained the city’s plan for funding the arts and culture sector: Charlotte would no longer fund the arts primarily through her organization.

In January 2021, Mayor Vi Lyles appointed a committee to review the city’s approach to funding arts and culture. ASC’s ailing budget had become a perennial point of contention, with city, county, and ASC leadership at odds over how to make up for the vanishing private sector money. In 2009, ASC’s annual fund drive revenue dropped from $11 million to $7 million. “After the recession, the private sector just slowly started not giving money to ASC, and they were giving it directly to arts organizations,”

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says Mayor Pro Tem Julie Eiselt, who led the committee. “So, ASC would continually say to the city and the county, ‘Hey, you need to step up.’ And the city and the county would look at each other and say, ‘Well, you need to do this first.’”

The city wasn’t opposed to boosting its funding to support the sector’s growth.

(In 2018, it bumped its ASC contribution from $2.9 million to $3.2 million.)

But before it made a more dramatic and meaningful investment, Eiselt says, the city wanted some guarantee that the funds would support focus areas it had identified, especially economic development. City Council members view the arts as a potential draw for visitors and an opportunity to bolster the pandemicbattered hospitality industry. “Our job,” Eiselt says, “is to help get heads in beds.”

She envisions Charlotte as a city of festivals. Or, if not that, maybe something like it. “Look at what music’s done for Nashville,” she says. “We don’t really have that kind of a brand.” The Panthers and Hornets bring in millions of visitors and dollars. The arts have the potential to do the same thing. How does the city’s arts spending per capita, she wonders, compare to its spending on sports? “Those are the conversations we have to be having and not treat the arts like they’re a side gig,” she says. “It’s got to be treated like a sophisticated industry.”

The city had other qualms with ASC. The nonprofit kept a quarter of its contributions, including the city’s, to fund capacity-building initiatives like audi-

As Arts & Science Council president, Krista Terrell leads an organization that will no longer play a primary role in Charlotte’s arts funding.

ence development workshops and arts career training, intended to help artists and organizations grow. But, according to Eiselt, big players like Opera Carolina and Charlotte Ballet complained that they didn’t need help to build capacity.

They would rather have the money. And,

Eiselt says, “we felt strongly that there needed to be more of an equity lens on the arts.”

ASC did release a cultural equity report in February 2021, which, among other things, apologized for a history of discriminatory funding. But commit-

ASC HISTORICAL FUNDING SOURCES Public and Private Sector (2006-2022) $11,250,000 $7,500,000 $3,750,000 0 CAMPAIGN YEAR

2006

2007

2008

FUND DRIVE

2009

2010 COUNTY

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

CITY

Source: ASC

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tee members felt that the report was too little, too late. They decided the city needed to change its approach.

Terrell was blindsided. She’d heard murmurs about the committee’s work and had reached out to members to provide data and context, but she contends that city leaders never came to a consensus with her or her predecessor, Jeep Bryant, about the proposed change.

She learned the details in City Manager Marcus Jones’ press release, printed in full in the WBTV article: The city and its private-sector partners would allocate a total of $36 million to fund the arts and culture sector over three years, from July 1, 2021, until June 30, 2024.

The Foundation for the Carolinas would disburse the funds, much the way it distributed CARES Act grants during the pandemic. An 18-member arts advisory board would determine grant awards for 2022 and establish funding priorities by crafting a comprehensive cultural road map. ASC would get to appoint one member. The city would also appoint an arts and culture officer, a new position, to lead the effort.

Two weeks later, Terrell was named president of the Arts & Science Council.

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“But something that’s happened for at least the last 20 years and possibly longer is a shift toward only thinking about economic development, so there was a backlash.”

—PRIYA SIRCAR

I

n August 2021, after a national search, the city hired Sircar as its inaugural arts and culture officer. Her familiarity with the city was a plus, but she also had a résumé full of skills and experiences the sector needed. At the Knight Foundation, she was already developing a funding model tailored to Charlotte. Before that, as a consultant with Lord Cultural Resources, she helped organizations and communities craft cultural identities, something this town conspicuously lacks.

But before both of those roles, Sircar was a master’s student in arts administration at Columbia University in New York.

In one of her first classes, surrounded by fellow fresh-faced idealists, she learned a lesson she still thinks about often.

The arts, her professor explained, will always lose the competition of sorrows.

There are so many urgent causes, and the arts don’t carry the emotional valence of, say, animal abuse or childhood disease.

Put another way, the arts are funded through philanthropy, not charity, which poses a unique challenge for arts administrators who want to secure sustainable funding. In the 1980s, there was a national advocacy effort to recast the arts as critical drivers of economic development. And it’s true, Sircar says, the arts do generate tourism and income.

“But something that’s happened for at least the last 20 years and possibly longer is a shift toward only thinking about economic development,” Sircar says. “So there was a backlash.” All this

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economic development talk, arts administrators reasoned, didn’t help their cause much. Lack of funding remained a constant challenge, and that holy grail—sustainability—still eluded them.

That was certainly true in Charlotte: Per capita arts funding was cratering.

The city’s growth over the last couple of decades made it impossible for arts organizations to keep up. “The arts and culture sector,” Eiselt says, “was starving for funds.”

So, if the promise of economic development alone doesn’t get money in the door, what does? Lately, Sircar says, arts administrators have shifted back toward a focus on art for art’s sake. They can’t put all their eggs in the economic-development basket or the art-for-art’s-sake basket. That’s a bit of a simplification, she adds. The sector needs to go further and holistically analyze its role. “In more recent years,” she says, “there has been an effort to make it a more nuanced conversation about what’s valuable about arts and culture in community.”

Sircar’s job is to lead that conversation in Charlotte. The discussion has progressed for a while, never more loudly than in 2019, when the ballot included a referendum on a quarter-cent sales tax to fund arts, parks, and education. The tax would have earmarked $22.5 million per year for local arts. But it didn’t pass. Terrell blames a rushed campaign and vague wording on the ballot, determined by the General Assembly. Her takeaway is that voters want to support the arts, but not through a sales tax.

Eiselt agrees that the community wants to support the arts, but she argues that voters didn’t know where their money would go: “They didn’t know what the plan was. Who would spend the money? Who would be in charge of the money? Well, they knew who was going to spend the money—it would be the county—but there was no plan on how it was going to be spent.” (Terrell says there was a plan but acknowledges that it may not have been clear to voters.)

In November 2019, two weeks after the referendum failed, ASC cut four staff positions, which accounted for 15% of the nonprofit’s annual salary budget. The move exemplifies the volatility and year-to-year uncertainty

that haunt the sector—and that was before the pandemic.

The national arts nonprofit Americans for the Arts has collected data from almost 20,000 arts organizations to estimate the toll COVID has taken since March 13, 2020. Sixty-six percent expect “severe financial impact.” Nationwide, total losses across the sector top $1.7 billion. “We were the sector that was the first to go dark when COVID happened,” Terrell recalls. “I’ll never forget, Charlotte Ballet was supposed to open Sleeping Beauty on Friday the 13th, and they had to shut it down.”

Since then, Sircar says, sector leaders have reconsidered whether sustainability is the best goal. “Something about that word implies that there’s no fluctuation,” she says. The pandemic demonstrated—in dramatic fashion— the value of adaptability. The new buzzword is “resilience.”

“I know the goal of this three-year plan is to get to a dedicated revenue stream,” Terrell says. And though she questions the methods, she supports the goal. ASC is now, Terrell says, a resource and partner to Sircar and the advisory board as they work to distribute $4.4 million to artists and cultural organizations before the fiscal year ends on June 30.

While the city’s three-year initiative is intended to bring flexible, lasting strength to the sector, Sircar and the arts advisory board still have to figure out what that looks like. The publicprivate commitment to boost funding to $12 million per year helps stanch the damage, but no one knows what the new model will look like, let alone how sustainable it will be.

That’s where the comprehensive cultural plan comes in. Sircar credits ASC for developing cultural plans for the city. (In 2013, for example, the organization participated in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Cultural Life Task Force, which sought community input and analyzed the public-private partnership.) But the landscape has changed fast, and Sircar looks forward to a conversation that addresses Charlotte’s growth-spurt challenges, including how to support everyone from individual artists to small community organizations to uptown’s heavy hitters. “It’s not just about the

plan that results,” she says. “It’s about the process itself.”

Sircar is keen to encourage more collaboration among artists, legacy institutions, and small organizations. For example, she cites the Mint Museum’s 2021 exhibit “It Takes a Village,” produced in partnership with BlkMrktClt, Brand the Moth, and Goodyear Arts. One point that emerges again and again in feedback from stakeholders is that it can be hard for artists to make a living here, which reinforces the need for a plan that not only gets heads in beds but also puts food on the table for the city’s artists.

S

oon after Sircar moved to Historic West End with her husband and young daughter in 2021, she attended a BOOM Festival event. The full festival was on hiatus thanks to COVID, but the organizers put on a half-day event at the Sailboat Bay apartment complex in east Charlotte, a venue intended to engage an underserved area. Neighborhood kids helped the organizers set up in the morning. A performer invited Sircar’s daughter and other children onstage to dance and play music as part of the act. Those few hours reiterated what’s at stake.

The arts, after all, speak to something more fundamental than making a buck for the city. Eiselt describes how she took a train when she was young to visit the King Tut exhibit at Art Institute Chicago.

More than the exhibit itself, she remembers standing in line with people from different backgrounds. Their shared excitement lingers in her memory; the joy and wonder remind her what cultural events are capable of.

Like the archaeologists who excavated Tut’s tomb, if you dig past the bureaucratic bickering, the quarter-cent sales tax, the boards and committees, you’ll unearth why it all matters: The arts provide an outlet to kids who don’t feel at home in other subjects. They teach us how to be human, then they teach us again in a thousand different ways. They are a fathomless source of solace, community, and belonging. “The arts,” Eiselt says, “change people’s lives.”

ALLISON BRADEN is a contributing editor.

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PART Y P I C S

Seen

Photographs by DANIEL COSTON

Upcoming Calendar of Events Submit your event online at charlottemagazine.com/things-to-do, and look forward to seeing more from these: APRIL 4/3 Bless Your Heart Brunch and Silent Auction to benefit the American Heart Association, Charlotte chapter at The VUE Charlotte on 5th 4/23 South End Rail Trail Clean Up at New Bern Light Rail Station 4/26 NAWIC Charlotte Annual Golf Tournament and Fundraising Event at Highland Creek Golf Club

CHARLOTTE FOLK SOCIETY YOUTH SHOWCASE

Great Aunt Stella Center 1/8/2022

1. Fiddle DeeDee 2. The Myers Park Bluegrass Band 3. Sophie Peace, Chris Peace 4. Olivia Lindquist, Nick Tutweiler 5. Joe Kline, Grace Beamis 6. Avery Harris

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STEPHANIE NEELY OPENING EVENT

Anne Neilson Fine Art 1/22/2022

1. Anne Neilson, Hudson 2. Jessie Knight Jr., Stephanie Neely, Anne Neilson 3. Stephanie Neely 4. Jessie Knight Jr. 5. Cassandra Richardson, Marcy Gregg 6. Tom Cauthen, Jean Cauthen

DREAMON3 DREAM GALA

Founders Hall 1/29/2022

1. Beth Troutman 2. Kevin Donnalley 3. Michael Wayne O’Neill 4. Brandon Lindsey, Elizabeth Lindsey 5. Sarah Riddle, Madison Harkey, Olivia Eudy, Cassidy Flowe, Jessica Ribelin 6. Jessica Ribelin, Cassidy Flowe

APRIL 2022 // CHARLOTTE

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BURNS NIGHT

1. Maurice McIntosh, Philip Diaz, Eric Ferguson 2. Jamie Pressley, Jack Pressley 3. Campbell Coxe, Forest Weir, Andrew Daley 4. Sarah Fleenor, Tonia Gregory

JAZZARTS CHARLOTTE CHARLIE PARKER TRIBUTE

Stage Door Theater 1/14/2022

1. LeRoy Barley 2. Dr. Will Campbell and his band 3. Dr. Will Campbell 4. String ensemble 5. Standing ovation 6. The full band

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Charlotte magazine (ISSN 1083-1444) is published monthly by Morris Communications at 214 W. Tremont Ave., Suite 303, Charlotte NC 28203-5161. Entire contents Copyright © 2022 by Morris Communications. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or otherwise reproduced without written permission from the publisher. Periodicals postage paid in Charlotte, NC and additional offices. To subscribe, renew, or change address, go to www.charlottemagazine.com or write to: Charlotte magazine, 214 W. Tremont Ave., Suite 303, Charlotte NC 28203-5161. Subscription rate $19.95 for one year (twelve issues). For renewal or change of address, include the address label from your most recent issue. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Charlotte, P.O. Box 433237, Palm Coast, FL 32143-9616. Unsolicited photographs, illustrations, or articles are submitted at the risk of the photographer/artist/author. Charlotte magazine assumes no liability for the return of unsolicited materials and may use them at its discretion.

Rural Hill 1/29/2022

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2/18/22 9:26 PM

JAZZ AT THE BECHTLER

Bechtler Museum 1/7/2022

1. The Ziad Jazz Quartet performs 2. Ziad Rabie, Andre Ferreri

DANIEL COSTON (3); COURTESY

CROSSWORD

BY ANDY SMITH

ANSWERS can be found online at charlottemagazine.com/crossword.

APRIL 2022 // CHARLOTTE

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YOU ARE HERE Each month, we throw a dart at a map and write about where it lands.

LOCATION: LYNX Blue Line New Bern Station 129 New Bern St.

129 NE W

BERN S T.

Old Growth

IT’S SATURDAY BRUNCH TIME at the New Bern light rail station in South End—a superb spot for people-watching. The bulk of the action comes from hungry 20-somethings, who spill out of nearby apartments to line up outside breweries and restaurants like Eight + Sand Kitchen.

Small groups board and exit trains. At the station, they pass the work of local artists in the etched glass of the shelter windscreens, the river rock benches, and the basin of the drinking fountain.

Welded into the steel fences between the tracks are metal leaf sculptures, and

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they’re complex and detailed in ways the riders may not register.

In 2006, a year before the first leg of the light rail line opened, the city invited artist Shaun Cassidy to install small sculptures at five stations. But he discovered, to his frustration, that he couldn’t find good places for them on the platforms. During a walk in Landsford Canal State Park in Catawba, South Carolina—not far from Rock Hill, where he’s a fine arts professor at Winthrop University—he found a tiny, eroded leaf with only its skeletal veins left intact. He brought it home, put it on his desk, and struggled for inspira-

tion. Finally, after several weeks, it hit him: The leaf resembled a map. “I got to thinking about cities and growth and decay,” he says.

Cassidy proposed sculptures of leaves from native trees, embedded into the fencing and with veins that depict the system of streets around each station. They were such a hit, Charlotte Area Transit System hired Cassidy to make steel leaves for five more stations. He’s designed fabric for train interiors and other projects, too.

“Finding that leaf at Landsford State Park,” he says, “was the most fortuitous thing of my career.” —Cristina Bolling

SHAW NIELSEN; CRISTINA BOLLING

Sculptor’s metal leaves add subtle, lasting color to the light rail line

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PLAN NOW FOR

SUMMER CAMP! FOR ADDITIONAL RESOURCES, VISIT OUR CAMP DIRECTORY ONLINE AT charlotteparent.com/camps

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