The Official Charlotte, NC Discussion Thread
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Bryan Danielson
Jmare007 x Bryan Danielson x JLova = King Ghidorah
You ain’t right for that
im joking. Charlottes the goat. You going to CIAA events or games Bryan?
Bryan Danielson
Jmare007 x Bryan Danielson x JLova = King Ghidorah
yea.... I think this year I may take a day off since one of my old roommates gonna be in town
Some old Aggie flames hitting me up too.
That may be trouble
Aggie Pride
Bryan Danielson
Jmare007 x Bryan Danielson x JLova = King Ghidorah
You bringing your big tiddy coalition out @CarmelBarbie ?
I’ll be doing work at CIAA that week not attending as a guest, so nah.
Bryan Danielson
Jmare007 x Bryan Danielson x JLova = King Ghidorah
Oh,
Ok so you bout to be out on the scene with the red bottoms, fitted body dress with the back out and thigh high like them sport reporter chicks
Nice
Bryan Danielson
Jmare007 x Bryan Danielson x JLova = King Ghidorah
Carolina Panthers get a big tax break on their stadium following county review
Carolina Panthers get a big tax break on their stadium following county review
By Katie Peralta | February 2, 2020
Most property owners experienced sticker shock last year following Mecklenburg County’s tax revaluation. And many appealed it. But few appeals were quite as dramatic as the one from the Carolina Panthers.
Last spring, the county assessed the tax value of the stadium to be $572 million, a staggering increase from the 2011-assessed value of $135 million. The Panthers appealed that valuation, and following an informal review, the county slashed the valuation to $472 million last fall. In January, the county staff recommended another revised valuation of $384 million.
On Friday, following a five-hour-long hearing, the county’s Board of Equalization and Review determined the stadium’s new tax value to be $215 million — a reduction of $357 million from the original 2019 assessment. That means the Panthers will save nearly $3.5 million per year on taxes on the stadium.
In dollar terms, the Panthers received the biggest reduction in their valuation this cycle, says Mecklenburg County tax assessor Ken Joyner.
Zoom out: The revaluation was for the stadium building itself, not the 35 acres it sits on. The city owns that land, and the Panthers rent it for $1 per year. Thanks to a new law that took effect in 2018, the team no longer pays taxes on that public land they lease. That saves them roughly $350,000 per year.
As the Panthers have noted in their arguments for a lower tax value, Bank of America Stadium is one of the oldest stadiums in the NFL. In 1993, the team, under then-owner Jerry Richardson, sold $150 million in permanent seat licenses (PSLs) to help finance construction of the stadium.
Over the years, the city pitched in millions in public funds to pay for stadium renovations.
The most recent round, which was done from 2013-2018, included $87.5 million from the city. Upgrades included new video and ribbon boards, new escalators, and concourse improvements.
What the team argued: Yvonne Broszus, who has studied NFL stadiums such as the one in San Francisco, said stadium renovations do not extend the “economic viability” of the facilities. The upgrades are simply to keep up with NFL standards, she added.
“If you’re going to compare the (Bank of America Stadium) property to new modern stadiums, you have to recognize that there’s a lot of functional obsolescence,” Broszus told the board Friday.
Overall, she said, the Panthers’ stadium is “in average condition.” She cited a number of reasons:
Contrary to what the Panthers say, Joyner said, the county believes the stadium to have about 17 years left.
“It is more modern today than it was in 1996,” Joyner said.
Is it finished now, or will the Panthers want an even bigger reduction? The Panthers entered Friday’s session saying the stadium should be valued at $87.5 million. So even though the $215 million is a significant drop from the original valuation, Panthers chief operating officer Mark Hart would not say whether the team plans is through with its appeals.
“We have made very good progress today,” Hart told reporters. “We just want the opportunity, like other homeowners and taxpayers in the county, to have a fair hearing, a fair assessment, and we got that today. We’ve got a little bit more work to do.”
Looking ahead: In December, Major League Soccer officials awarded Charlotte the league’s No. 30 expansion team. As part of the agreement, the city is committing $110 million, in part for Bank of America Stadium renovations to accommodate MLS.
Panthers owner David Tepper has said his goal is to get a new retractable-dome stadium within the next decade. Such a facility could draw Final Fours and other large-scale sporting events.
The cost of new stadiums is mounting, though. Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, which opened in 2017, cost about $1.6 billion. And like other pro sports owners, Tepper would likely seek public funding for such a project.
“The economy’s big enough for a revenue tax, a hotel revenue increase that would go a long way to help pay for a new stadium,” Tepper told the Sports Business Journal last summer.
Carolina Panthers get a big tax break on their stadium following county review
By Katie Peralta | February 2, 2020
Most property owners experienced sticker shock last year following Mecklenburg County’s tax revaluation. And many appealed it. But few appeals were quite as dramatic as the one from the Carolina Panthers.
Last spring, the county assessed the tax value of the stadium to be $572 million, a staggering increase from the 2011-assessed value of $135 million. The Panthers appealed that valuation, and following an informal review, the county slashed the valuation to $472 million last fall. In January, the county staff recommended another revised valuation of $384 million.
On Friday, following a five-hour-long hearing, the county’s Board of Equalization and Review determined the stadium’s new tax value to be $215 million — a reduction of $357 million from the original 2019 assessment. That means the Panthers will save nearly $3.5 million per year on taxes on the stadium.
In dollar terms, the Panthers received the biggest reduction in their valuation this cycle, says Mecklenburg County tax assessor Ken Joyner.
Zoom out: The revaluation was for the stadium building itself, not the 35 acres it sits on. The city owns that land, and the Panthers rent it for $1 per year. Thanks to a new law that took effect in 2018, the team no longer pays taxes on that public land they lease. That saves them roughly $350,000 per year.
As the Panthers have noted in their arguments for a lower tax value, Bank of America Stadium is one of the oldest stadiums in the NFL. In 1993, the team, under then-owner Jerry Richardson, sold $150 million in permanent seat licenses (PSLs) to help finance construction of the stadium.
Over the years, the city pitched in millions in public funds to pay for stadium renovations.
The most recent round, which was done from 2013-2018, included $87.5 million from the city. Upgrades included new video and ribbon boards, new escalators, and concourse improvements.
What the team argued: Yvonne Broszus, who has studied NFL stadiums such as the one in San Francisco, said stadium renovations do not extend the “economic viability” of the facilities. The upgrades are simply to keep up with NFL standards, she added.
“If you’re going to compare the (Bank of America Stadium) property to new modern stadiums, you have to recognize that there’s a lot of functional obsolescence,” Broszus told the board Friday.
Overall, she said, the Panthers’ stadium is “in average condition.” She cited a number of reasons:
- The rubber membrane that holds together sections of the concrete stadium has become brittle and need repairs.
- The stadium lacks storage for large-scale non-NFL events. A Beyoncé concert, for instance, could require 100 truckloads of equipment. The Panthers don’t have space for that now, Broszus noted, so they’d rely on offsite storage.
- The seats are the original ones from the 1990s.
- The stadium lacks certain elements common in new stadiums that enhance the fan experience. For instance, fans in field-level club seats in newer stadiums can watch players up close as they enter the field.
Contrary to what the Panthers say, Joyner said, the county believes the stadium to have about 17 years left.
“It is more modern today than it was in 1996,” Joyner said.
Is it finished now, or will the Panthers want an even bigger reduction? The Panthers entered Friday’s session saying the stadium should be valued at $87.5 million. So even though the $215 million is a significant drop from the original valuation, Panthers chief operating officer Mark Hart would not say whether the team plans is through with its appeals.
“We have made very good progress today,” Hart told reporters. “We just want the opportunity, like other homeowners and taxpayers in the county, to have a fair hearing, a fair assessment, and we got that today. We’ve got a little bit more work to do.”
Looking ahead: In December, Major League Soccer officials awarded Charlotte the league’s No. 30 expansion team. As part of the agreement, the city is committing $110 million, in part for Bank of America Stadium renovations to accommodate MLS.
Panthers owner David Tepper has said his goal is to get a new retractable-dome stadium within the next decade. Such a facility could draw Final Fours and other large-scale sporting events.
The cost of new stadiums is mounting, though. Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, which opened in 2017, cost about $1.6 billion. And like other pro sports owners, Tepper would likely seek public funding for such a project.
“The economy’s big enough for a revenue tax, a hotel revenue increase that would go a long way to help pay for a new stadium,” Tepper told the Sports Business Journal last summer.
Cuzzo's Cuisine announces plans for University City opening - Q City Metro
Cuzzo’s Cuisine announces plans for University City opening
Chef Andarrio Johnson and Anglee Brown to open second location in partnership with Black franchise owners.
By William Dawson
January 16, 2020 | Updated Feb 4, 2020
It was back in 2014 when cousins Anglee Brown and Chef Andarrio Johnson decided to start a gourmet food truck specializing in Southern fare. The name of the truck? Appropriately, Cuzzo’s Cuisine. Two years later, the family took the next step, opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant of the same name off of Tuckaseegee Road in west Charlotte.
Now, four years later, the cousins have expanded once again with the Feb. 1 scheduled opening of another Cuzzo’s location in University City.
“Establishing a franchise was always the plan,” according to Chef Johnson, who started as a caterer before teaming up with Brown. “Opening the first restaurant let us know what was possible. Being able to expand to University gives us even more reach to our customers, a lot of whom were coming from that area to Smallwood [neighborhood] to see us.”
Chef Andarrio Johnson, the man behind the menu at Cuzzo’s Cuisine. Photo courtesy of Cuzzo’s Cuisine
The cousins will open in The Terraces at University Place, with plaza neighbors including Caribbean Hut and Press Box Bar and Grill. Cuzzo’s will move into the former Black-owned franchise location of Burgerim, a fast-casual gourmet burger restaurant that found it difficult to gain traction in the area.
Burgerim’s former location in University City.
Shiniqua Lee, who operated Burgerim with her husband Jay, said the partnership with Cuzzo’s came right on time.
“After running Burgerim for a while, my husband and I realized that it was not thriving as expected,” said the 27-year-old, first-time franchise owner. “We considered closing the business for good and walking away but didn’t want to lose all of the hard work we put into it. We prayed on it and asked God for a solution.”
Those prayers led them to connect with Cuzzo’s, a place they’d loved from previous visits.
“It fell on our heart to reach out in hopes of partnering. When we approached Cuzzo’s, we didn’t know what to expect, but the support and the welcoming with open arms were beyond words,” she continued. “Imagine these two Black-owned businesses coming together to uplift one another. We were seriously ready to close our doors, but God had other plans.”
A sign on the window announcing upcoming plans.
For Johnson, the feeling was mutual.
“It felt good to make it happen with another Black-owned business,” he said. “It’s always important to keep it in the family, so to speak.”
Cuzzo’s proximity to UNC Charlotte allows the students and area residents to see more representation in successful businesses. University City is a majority-minority area of residents, according to data from University City Partners. Black residents make up 40% of the University City market area, followed by 9% Hispanic and 8% Asian.
Lee summed it up by saying that “it’s critical to show and encourage a younger generation being told they can do anything they set their minds to. That becomes a reality when our youth and others see a striving business and are able to support this business with their own dollars.”
Cuzzo’s Cuisine – University is scheduled to open Feb. 1, at 9601 N. Tryon St., Suite F.
Cuzzo’s Cuisine announces plans for University City opening
Chef Andarrio Johnson and Anglee Brown to open second location in partnership with Black franchise owners.
By William Dawson
January 16, 2020 | Updated Feb 4, 2020
It was back in 2014 when cousins Anglee Brown and Chef Andarrio Johnson decided to start a gourmet food truck specializing in Southern fare. The name of the truck? Appropriately, Cuzzo’s Cuisine. Two years later, the family took the next step, opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant of the same name off of Tuckaseegee Road in west Charlotte.
Now, four years later, the cousins have expanded once again with the Feb. 1 scheduled opening of another Cuzzo’s location in University City.
“Establishing a franchise was always the plan,” according to Chef Johnson, who started as a caterer before teaming up with Brown. “Opening the first restaurant let us know what was possible. Being able to expand to University gives us even more reach to our customers, a lot of whom were coming from that area to Smallwood [neighborhood] to see us.”
Chef Andarrio Johnson, the man behind the menu at Cuzzo’s Cuisine. Photo courtesy of Cuzzo’s Cuisine
The cousins will open in The Terraces at University Place, with plaza neighbors including Caribbean Hut and Press Box Bar and Grill. Cuzzo’s will move into the former Black-owned franchise location of Burgerim, a fast-casual gourmet burger restaurant that found it difficult to gain traction in the area.
Burgerim’s former location in University City.
Shiniqua Lee, who operated Burgerim with her husband Jay, said the partnership with Cuzzo’s came right on time.
“After running Burgerim for a while, my husband and I realized that it was not thriving as expected,” said the 27-year-old, first-time franchise owner. “We considered closing the business for good and walking away but didn’t want to lose all of the hard work we put into it. We prayed on it and asked God for a solution.”
Those prayers led them to connect with Cuzzo’s, a place they’d loved from previous visits.
“It fell on our heart to reach out in hopes of partnering. When we approached Cuzzo’s, we didn’t know what to expect, but the support and the welcoming with open arms were beyond words,” she continued. “Imagine these two Black-owned businesses coming together to uplift one another. We were seriously ready to close our doors, but God had other plans.”
A sign on the window announcing upcoming plans.
For Johnson, the feeling was mutual.
“It felt good to make it happen with another Black-owned business,” he said. “It’s always important to keep it in the family, so to speak.”
Cuzzo’s proximity to UNC Charlotte allows the students and area residents to see more representation in successful businesses. University City is a majority-minority area of residents, according to data from University City Partners. Black residents make up 40% of the University City market area, followed by 9% Hispanic and 8% Asian.
Lee summed it up by saying that “it’s critical to show and encourage a younger generation being told they can do anything they set their minds to. That becomes a reality when our youth and others see a striving business and are able to support this business with their own dollars.”
Cuzzo’s Cuisine – University is scheduled to open Feb. 1, at 9601 N. Tryon St., Suite F.
Starting at 396 square feet, Charlotte’s first micro-apartments buck amenities and space for cheaper rent
Starting at 396 square feet, Charlotte’s first micro-apartments buck amenities and space for cheaper rent
By Emma Way | February 4, 2020
When David Furman designed Centro RailYard in South End, he set a lofty goal for the complex: the 400-square-foot apartment homes would rent for less than $1,000 a month.
“Well,” Furman sighs, leaning back in an armchair in his Third Ward office. “Construction costs have gone up 10 percent a year since (2017, when the project broke ground). And land cost has gone up. … And there’s this huge shortage of labor.”
All of those factors add up, the Charlotte architect explains.
By the time the units, which are still under construction, opened up for leasing last month, $1,000 became $1,183 — or $1,092 with a one-month-free promotion — just missing Furman’s goal. “It troubles me. It really does,” he says. “But as long as it’s cheaper (than other options), I think that’s what most people care about.”
Centro RailYard, a new property on Winnifred between Winona and Bland streets, is Charlotte’s first micro-unit development. Two-thirds of its 91 units measure at around 400 square feet, or about the size of a two-car garage.
Furman’s urban housing firm, Centro Cityworks, partnered with Ascent Real Estate Capital to develop the South End community. And next-door is another huge development: The RailYard, a mixed-use space that’s home to companies like Allstate and WeWork, plus Rhino Market & Deli, North Italia, Orangetheory Fitness, and more retailers to come.
After years of planning, architect David Furman (left) will see his latest development, Centro RailYard, open this year. (Courtesy of Caci Cambruzzi Jaeger.)
Even though the complex fell short of Furman’s initial target price, the apartments are still renting for well below the average for the neighborhood.
In a Zillow search within the 28203 zip code, which includes Wilmore, South End, Brookhill, and Dilworth, I find two units for rent in the $900s. The rest of the 63 results are $1,100 and up.
Camden South End, an apartment complex a quarter-mile from Centro RailYard, listed a 435-square-foot studio for $1,279. Post South End had a slightly better deal: a 525-square-foot studio for $1,270.
New luxury complexes like Camden and Post flaunt state-of-the-art fitness centers and “resort-style” pools as selling points.
But at Centro RailYard, Furman says, those add-ons aren’t needed because of everything available off the property in South End. With the exception of a sky deck and club house on the fifth floor, the complex keeps the rent lower than surrounding competitors by offering few amenities.
On the top of the five-story building is a sky deck, which will provide some outdoor space for residents. Below, a rendering for the completed sky deck. (All renderings are courtesy of Axiom Architecture, an architectural firm that Furman has a partnership share in.)
While on a hard-hat tour of the property, Caci Cambruzzi Jaeger, asset manager at Ascent, explains to me that the building is still a luxury one, even without a gym or a pool or a full-size dishwasher.
Every unit comes with a bathtub, a walk-in closet, and a washer and dryer. (Or at least they will once construction is done in April.) Studios, which range from 396 to 418 square feet, feel spacious, with floor-to-ceiling windows and a slender kitchen that utilizes every centimeter. In the sole living area, Jaeger motions where a bed could fit and still leave room for a small table and a loveseat couch.
Two-bedroom units, which start at $1,845, sacrifice some in closet space, but the bedrooms don’t feel cramped. Seven of the larger units also have balconies.
A studio in Centro RailYard under construction. (Below) A rendering of a completed two-bedroom unit.
On the ground floor of the five-story building, 15 micro-retail spaces will serve like a small business incubator.
Right now, the storefronts are only open to local businesses and are available for less than $2,000 a month.
So far, Glory Days Apparel, Cactus Club, and olpr. Leather Goods Co. have signed on. Centro RailYard’s team is also talking with a local coffee company and a natural wine brand, among other local businesses. “We really wanted to add to the character of the neighborhood and provide opportunities for local entrepreneurs … by reducing barriers to entry,” Jeager says.
The storefronts are also a plus to residents, she adds. “(There are) three parts: It’s interesting for the city. Interesting for the people that live here. And also helpful for the business community.”
Micro-retail space is located on the ground floor of Centro RailYard in South End.
In a city that’s in the midst of an affordable housing crisis, Centro RailYard’s high price-per-square-foot has drawn criticism.
A 400-square-foot unit’s rent starts at $2.73 per square-foot per month, if you include the month free discount. That’s just less than a renter would pay in Washington, D.C.
“I’m catching a lot of shyt about how it’s not affordable,” Furman says, “but it’s like I’m trying to deliver something that’s less than the mainstream apartments.”
Every since Furman founded Centro Cityworks 20 years ago, his housing designs have gotten smaller and smaller.
“I thought there was a revolution happening in housing. … There was this conventional thinking about condominiums — two bedrooms, two bathrooms, crown molding, fireplaces. And I just thought that there was a generation that didn’t really care about that.”
So far, this bet has paid off.
On the first day of leasing at Centro RailYard, Stephanie Garris of RKW Residential says three leases were signed. It’s only been a week since then, and they have 120 leads who want to go on a hard-hat tour. “There’s definitely a demand for smaller units, so we’re just meeting that demand,” Garris says.
David Furman in his Uptown office
Centro RailYard’s goal was to add something different to the market, to fill a need for housing that’s slightly smaller, more affordable, and more contemporary than what’s currently available in South End.
Furman’s style has always been to design urban properties that go against the norm.
While some developers look for more space out in Ballantyne or SouthPark, Furman, who lives Uptown and doesn’t own a car, is set on urban areas.
“The people in the office kid me that if I can’t see the site from the top of this building then I don’t care,” he says and cracks a smile. We’re on the second floor of his 28-story office building. “It’s pretty accurate.”
Starting at 396 square feet, Charlotte’s first micro-apartments buck amenities and space for cheaper rent
By Emma Way | February 4, 2020
When David Furman designed Centro RailYard in South End, he set a lofty goal for the complex: the 400-square-foot apartment homes would rent for less than $1,000 a month.
“Well,” Furman sighs, leaning back in an armchair in his Third Ward office. “Construction costs have gone up 10 percent a year since (2017, when the project broke ground). And land cost has gone up. … And there’s this huge shortage of labor.”
All of those factors add up, the Charlotte architect explains.
By the time the units, which are still under construction, opened up for leasing last month, $1,000 became $1,183 — or $1,092 with a one-month-free promotion — just missing Furman’s goal. “It troubles me. It really does,” he says. “But as long as it’s cheaper (than other options), I think that’s what most people care about.”
Centro RailYard, a new property on Winnifred between Winona and Bland streets, is Charlotte’s first micro-unit development. Two-thirds of its 91 units measure at around 400 square feet, or about the size of a two-car garage.
Furman’s urban housing firm, Centro Cityworks, partnered with Ascent Real Estate Capital to develop the South End community. And next-door is another huge development: The RailYard, a mixed-use space that’s home to companies like Allstate and WeWork, plus Rhino Market & Deli, North Italia, Orangetheory Fitness, and more retailers to come.
After years of planning, architect David Furman (left) will see his latest development, Centro RailYard, open this year. (Courtesy of Caci Cambruzzi Jaeger.)
Even though the complex fell short of Furman’s initial target price, the apartments are still renting for well below the average for the neighborhood.
In a Zillow search within the 28203 zip code, which includes Wilmore, South End, Brookhill, and Dilworth, I find two units for rent in the $900s. The rest of the 63 results are $1,100 and up.
Camden South End, an apartment complex a quarter-mile from Centro RailYard, listed a 435-square-foot studio for $1,279. Post South End had a slightly better deal: a 525-square-foot studio for $1,270.
New luxury complexes like Camden and Post flaunt state-of-the-art fitness centers and “resort-style” pools as selling points.
But at Centro RailYard, Furman says, those add-ons aren’t needed because of everything available off the property in South End. With the exception of a sky deck and club house on the fifth floor, the complex keeps the rent lower than surrounding competitors by offering few amenities.
On the top of the five-story building is a sky deck, which will provide some outdoor space for residents. Below, a rendering for the completed sky deck. (All renderings are courtesy of Axiom Architecture, an architectural firm that Furman has a partnership share in.)
While on a hard-hat tour of the property, Caci Cambruzzi Jaeger, asset manager at Ascent, explains to me that the building is still a luxury one, even without a gym or a pool or a full-size dishwasher.
Every unit comes with a bathtub, a walk-in closet, and a washer and dryer. (Or at least they will once construction is done in April.) Studios, which range from 396 to 418 square feet, feel spacious, with floor-to-ceiling windows and a slender kitchen that utilizes every centimeter. In the sole living area, Jaeger motions where a bed could fit and still leave room for a small table and a loveseat couch.
Two-bedroom units, which start at $1,845, sacrifice some in closet space, but the bedrooms don’t feel cramped. Seven of the larger units also have balconies.
A studio in Centro RailYard under construction. (Below) A rendering of a completed two-bedroom unit.
On the ground floor of the five-story building, 15 micro-retail spaces will serve like a small business incubator.
Right now, the storefronts are only open to local businesses and are available for less than $2,000 a month.
So far, Glory Days Apparel, Cactus Club, and olpr. Leather Goods Co. have signed on. Centro RailYard’s team is also talking with a local coffee company and a natural wine brand, among other local businesses. “We really wanted to add to the character of the neighborhood and provide opportunities for local entrepreneurs … by reducing barriers to entry,” Jeager says.
The storefronts are also a plus to residents, she adds. “(There are) three parts: It’s interesting for the city. Interesting for the people that live here. And also helpful for the business community.”
Micro-retail space is located on the ground floor of Centro RailYard in South End.
In a city that’s in the midst of an affordable housing crisis, Centro RailYard’s high price-per-square-foot has drawn criticism.
A 400-square-foot unit’s rent starts at $2.73 per square-foot per month, if you include the month free discount. That’s just less than a renter would pay in Washington, D.C.
“I’m catching a lot of shyt about how it’s not affordable,” Furman says, “but it’s like I’m trying to deliver something that’s less than the mainstream apartments.”
Every since Furman founded Centro Cityworks 20 years ago, his housing designs have gotten smaller and smaller.
“I thought there was a revolution happening in housing. … There was this conventional thinking about condominiums — two bedrooms, two bathrooms, crown molding, fireplaces. And I just thought that there was a generation that didn’t really care about that.”
So far, this bet has paid off.
On the first day of leasing at Centro RailYard, Stephanie Garris of RKW Residential says three leases were signed. It’s only been a week since then, and they have 120 leads who want to go on a hard-hat tour. “There’s definitely a demand for smaller units, so we’re just meeting that demand,” Garris says.
David Furman in his Uptown office
Centro RailYard’s goal was to add something different to the market, to fill a need for housing that’s slightly smaller, more affordable, and more contemporary than what’s currently available in South End.
Furman’s style has always been to design urban properties that go against the norm.
While some developers look for more space out in Ballantyne or SouthPark, Furman, who lives Uptown and doesn’t own a car, is set on urban areas.
“The people in the office kid me that if I can’t see the site from the top of this building then I don’t care,” he says and cracks a smile. We’re on the second floor of his 28-story office building. “It’s pretty accurate.”
Hook Shot Charlie is spreading hope throughout Charlotte. If you want some of it, just try The Hook
Hook Shot Charlie is spreading hope throughout Charlotte. If you want some of it, just try The Hook
By Michael Graff | February 6, 2020
He’ll keep shooting until he makes one, then until he misses one, and then …
“Hold on, Michael. I got this one,” he tells me.
He’s shooting basketball at the Johnston YMCA in NoDa. Actually, he’s shooting hook shots. Actually, he’s shooting hook shots from half-court. Actually, he’s shooting hook shots from half-court at 62 years old.
Another clang.
“Alright, alright,” he says. “I’m feeling it now.”
Then it happens.
Swish.
Swish.
Here we go.
Swish.
Over and over and over. Around the gym, heads start turning. Balls stop bouncing. Kids start hollering and moving closer.
Ohhhhhh!
Hook Shot Charlie is on. He spins the ball on his finger, down his arm and across his back, and lets another one fly.
Swish.
There’s something about the sound of a basketball going through a hoop that invites others to join in. But when that sound comes at the other end of a rainbow from half-court, the response is kind of like what happens when “Cha Cha Slide” comes on at a wedding. They all join in.
Every-body shoot your hooks.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
“It’s OK,” Hookshot Charlie tells the kids. “Keep trying.”
Soon the whole floor is hopping with The Hook.
Charlotte’s issues are visible just outside the YMCA’s doors. Apartments are popping up near the gym, on land once occupied by lovable music venues or family businesses. Parking’s gotten worse. Old-timers worry about preserving the neighborhood’s artsy character. Old-old-timers still tell stories of when this was a mill village. A block away, the city’s highest-profile homicide of 2019, the shooting of Scott Brooks of Brooks’ Sandwich House, shattered any sense of safety in the neighborhood.
But in here, with Hook Shot Charlie leading the dance, you’re reminded how smiles and kindness can rule the world.
“People just want to be a part of something that’s good,” Charlie tells me as basketballs fly. “Look, when people do a hook shot, the corner of their mouth turns up. There’s something that connects the arm to the mouth.”
He’s been coming here for a dozen or so years to fire up these shots from the free-throw line, then the three-point line, then half-court. When he makes a bunch, kids want to know how he does it. They want to know what grip he uses, or when his eyes catch the basket. They ask how he makes so many.
They want to know how. Few people, though, ever ask why.
Why is he here? And why would anybody in their 60s become great at something like this?
Hook Shot Charlie helped paint a couple of the faces on the mural at the Johnston YMCA.
Hook Shot Charlie was once a boy named Phillip Currence. His family thought he looked like his uncle Charlie, so they called him that.
Charlie graduated from high school in Gaston County and went off to Wingate College, back in the 1970s when it was a two-year school. He was one of only a few black men on campus. He didn’t drink. Didn’t smoke. Just played basketball.
The game became elusive after graduation. He worked in mergers and acquisitions for First Union. He and his wife started a family in the early 1980s. Four kids came: Boy, girl, boy, girl. They lived in north Charlotte, in a neighborhood called Newell that used to be the country but now is very much in the city.
He worked all week, made a mighty fine suburban lawn on Saturdays. On Sundays, he shot basketball to clear his mind.
“I would just feed him rebounds,” his son, Jeremy, now 30, tells me.
One summer, he gave his kids a project: Move dirt.
They slumped their shoulders and piled the wheelbarrows high, then dumped the dirt in a designated spot 50 feet away. Pile, dump. Pile, dump. After a few hundred trips, they asked him why — why were they spending their summer hauling one bit of earth to another?
“It builds character,” he told them.
One day he told them to stop. They’d done enough. Then he had all that dirt flattened and smoothed, and he built a playground for them on the platform they’d made.
Around 2006, though, something broke in their family. He and his wife weren’t getting along anymore. They weren’t talking. One weekend while their oldest was off at college, they sat the other three down on a Saturday. Jeremy remembers it well — he was 16 and had his SATs that day. He sat with his two sisters and listened to his parents tell them that their marriage was over. Mom would move into an apartment, and Dad would stay in the home.
They all spent the next few years in a daze.
Charlie felt aimless. First Union had become Wachovia. Each time the company snatched up another smaller bank in his two decades there, he helped make the transition happen. He’d change the letter heads and forms. He’d go into branches and make sure the signs were swapped out. If it’s this easy to change the identity of a building, Charlie would think, to take it from one bank to another bank, maybe he could change his own.
One Thursday in November 2007, after 23 years with the company, as the global economy was on the brink of collapsing and not long before Wells Fargo bought Wachovia, he quit.
The next day, Friday, he went to the store and bought a Wilson basketball and started shooting again.
A few years later, in 2010, the kids reserved a room at UNC Charlotte and called a family meeting. They let their parents know the things they’d kept silent. That they’d been sad, confused, all the things kids go through during a divorce but hardly ever say. Everyone had a chance to say how the divorced affected them.
Their parents didn’t get back together after that, but on the other side of the unsaid, the family was close again.
“It was just time for us to reconcile,” says Jeremy, a web developer and producer. “We were able to start to rebuild with each other.”
Charlie usually warms up from the three-point line, then moves back to half-court.
For Charlie, hook shots are better than therapy.
He lived off savings for some time. Now he finds work through a temp agency, just to pay bills. He downsized. He lives in Brightwalk off of Statesville Road.
His kids take videos and post them online. They built a website for Hook Shot Charlie, through which people can contact him and book him for events. That’s how I met him.
A couple years ago, my friend Lewis Donald of Sweet Lew’s was serving barbecue at a neighborhood event at St. Paul Baptist Church in Belmont. Inside the gymnasium, while everybody ate, a skinny man with silver hair was making every hook he shot.
“Is he a Globetrotter?” I asked.
“Nah, that’s Hook Shot Charlie,” Lewis said. “You don’t know Hook Shot Charlie?”
Charlie gets around. He’s performed at halftime of high school games and Hornets games. Once, he shot in the Chick-fil-A cow’s costume.
He’s still never had a drink, he says. Never a cigarette, either. Recently he’s found himself drawn to the stories of Mr. Rogers.
“One-four-three,” he says, a reference to how Mr. Rogers kept his weight at exactly 143. Then he holds up his fingers to go along with the number of letters in the words. “I l-o-v-e y-o-u.”
His friends and family want him to find a way to do this full-time. Harry Workman, a former associate vice president at Wingate, met Charlie a few years ago when Wingate was starting an African-American alumni group.
Workman hopes to see Charlie’s skills turned into a nonprofit — a hook shot ministry, of sorts.
“It’s magic,” Workman says. “And maybe you can’t bottle it. It may be that he’s an artist more than a business. He’s the Van Gogh of the court. And he can paint the story over and over and over again from mid-court.”
Whatever happens, Charlie doesn’t want it to feel like work. That’s not how it started. He would never want to lose what’s pure about it.
Like when people send him pictures of themselves holding a hook pose, as if they’ve just released the ball. He keeps a video montage of folks doing that, one after the other, telling him how much they love the shot, and him.
People who’ve done The Hook pose include Grammy winner and Charlotte native Anthony Hamilton (clockwise from top left), Hugo the Hornet, the staff at Chick-fil-A, and city council member Braxton Winston. (Photos from the Hook Shot Charlie Facebook page)
Charlie hopes it spreads, hopes to be tagged in more posts for The Hook. It’s not a nod to basketball, or athleticism, or even about him going viral. No, in each picture, Charlie sees a person who’s been through something and persevered.
The Hook is more than a pose. It’s a statement of hope.
“It’s not even about the hook shot anymore,” he says. “It’s about uniting people in a way to say we have more in common than we do that’s different.”
In the gym that day with all the kids around, I wonder if we’ll ever leave. Musicians can’t end with missed notes and golfers can’t end on bad swings, but Hook Shot Charlie can’t end on a good note or a bad note. He can’t stop, either way.
Jeremy says his father will “miss ’til he hits, and hit ’til he misses,” and when that’s your mantra, there is no beginning and there is no end, no good and no bad.
There is only next.
Hook Shot Charlie is spreading hope throughout Charlotte. If you want some of it, just try The Hook
By Michael Graff | February 6, 2020
He’ll keep shooting until he makes one, then until he misses one, and then …
“Hold on, Michael. I got this one,” he tells me.
He’s shooting basketball at the Johnston YMCA in NoDa. Actually, he’s shooting hook shots. Actually, he’s shooting hook shots from half-court. Actually, he’s shooting hook shots from half-court at 62 years old.
Another clang.
“Alright, alright,” he says. “I’m feeling it now.”
Then it happens.
Swish.
Swish.
Here we go.
Swish.
Over and over and over. Around the gym, heads start turning. Balls stop bouncing. Kids start hollering and moving closer.
Ohhhhhh!
Hook Shot Charlie is on. He spins the ball on his finger, down his arm and across his back, and lets another one fly.
Swish.
There’s something about the sound of a basketball going through a hoop that invites others to join in. But when that sound comes at the other end of a rainbow from half-court, the response is kind of like what happens when “Cha Cha Slide” comes on at a wedding. They all join in.
Every-body shoot your hooks.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
“It’s OK,” Hookshot Charlie tells the kids. “Keep trying.”
Soon the whole floor is hopping with The Hook.
Charlotte’s issues are visible just outside the YMCA’s doors. Apartments are popping up near the gym, on land once occupied by lovable music venues or family businesses. Parking’s gotten worse. Old-timers worry about preserving the neighborhood’s artsy character. Old-old-timers still tell stories of when this was a mill village. A block away, the city’s highest-profile homicide of 2019, the shooting of Scott Brooks of Brooks’ Sandwich House, shattered any sense of safety in the neighborhood.
But in here, with Hook Shot Charlie leading the dance, you’re reminded how smiles and kindness can rule the world.
“People just want to be a part of something that’s good,” Charlie tells me as basketballs fly. “Look, when people do a hook shot, the corner of their mouth turns up. There’s something that connects the arm to the mouth.”
He’s been coming here for a dozen or so years to fire up these shots from the free-throw line, then the three-point line, then half-court. When he makes a bunch, kids want to know how he does it. They want to know what grip he uses, or when his eyes catch the basket. They ask how he makes so many.
They want to know how. Few people, though, ever ask why.
Why is he here? And why would anybody in their 60s become great at something like this?
Hook Shot Charlie helped paint a couple of the faces on the mural at the Johnston YMCA.
Hook Shot Charlie was once a boy named Phillip Currence. His family thought he looked like his uncle Charlie, so they called him that.
Charlie graduated from high school in Gaston County and went off to Wingate College, back in the 1970s when it was a two-year school. He was one of only a few black men on campus. He didn’t drink. Didn’t smoke. Just played basketball.
The game became elusive after graduation. He worked in mergers and acquisitions for First Union. He and his wife started a family in the early 1980s. Four kids came: Boy, girl, boy, girl. They lived in north Charlotte, in a neighborhood called Newell that used to be the country but now is very much in the city.
He worked all week, made a mighty fine suburban lawn on Saturdays. On Sundays, he shot basketball to clear his mind.
“I would just feed him rebounds,” his son, Jeremy, now 30, tells me.
One summer, he gave his kids a project: Move dirt.
They slumped their shoulders and piled the wheelbarrows high, then dumped the dirt in a designated spot 50 feet away. Pile, dump. Pile, dump. After a few hundred trips, they asked him why — why were they spending their summer hauling one bit of earth to another?
“It builds character,” he told them.
One day he told them to stop. They’d done enough. Then he had all that dirt flattened and smoothed, and he built a playground for them on the platform they’d made.
Around 2006, though, something broke in their family. He and his wife weren’t getting along anymore. They weren’t talking. One weekend while their oldest was off at college, they sat the other three down on a Saturday. Jeremy remembers it well — he was 16 and had his SATs that day. He sat with his two sisters and listened to his parents tell them that their marriage was over. Mom would move into an apartment, and Dad would stay in the home.
They all spent the next few years in a daze.
Charlie felt aimless. First Union had become Wachovia. Each time the company snatched up another smaller bank in his two decades there, he helped make the transition happen. He’d change the letter heads and forms. He’d go into branches and make sure the signs were swapped out. If it’s this easy to change the identity of a building, Charlie would think, to take it from one bank to another bank, maybe he could change his own.
One Thursday in November 2007, after 23 years with the company, as the global economy was on the brink of collapsing and not long before Wells Fargo bought Wachovia, he quit.
The next day, Friday, he went to the store and bought a Wilson basketball and started shooting again.
A few years later, in 2010, the kids reserved a room at UNC Charlotte and called a family meeting. They let their parents know the things they’d kept silent. That they’d been sad, confused, all the things kids go through during a divorce but hardly ever say. Everyone had a chance to say how the divorced affected them.
Their parents didn’t get back together after that, but on the other side of the unsaid, the family was close again.
“It was just time for us to reconcile,” says Jeremy, a web developer and producer. “We were able to start to rebuild with each other.”
Charlie usually warms up from the three-point line, then moves back to half-court.
For Charlie, hook shots are better than therapy.
He lived off savings for some time. Now he finds work through a temp agency, just to pay bills. He downsized. He lives in Brightwalk off of Statesville Road.
His kids take videos and post them online. They built a website for Hook Shot Charlie, through which people can contact him and book him for events. That’s how I met him.
A couple years ago, my friend Lewis Donald of Sweet Lew’s was serving barbecue at a neighborhood event at St. Paul Baptist Church in Belmont. Inside the gymnasium, while everybody ate, a skinny man with silver hair was making every hook he shot.
“Is he a Globetrotter?” I asked.
“Nah, that’s Hook Shot Charlie,” Lewis said. “You don’t know Hook Shot Charlie?”
Charlie gets around. He’s performed at halftime of high school games and Hornets games. Once, he shot in the Chick-fil-A cow’s costume.
He’s still never had a drink, he says. Never a cigarette, either. Recently he’s found himself drawn to the stories of Mr. Rogers.
“One-four-three,” he says, a reference to how Mr. Rogers kept his weight at exactly 143. Then he holds up his fingers to go along with the number of letters in the words. “I l-o-v-e y-o-u.”
His friends and family want him to find a way to do this full-time. Harry Workman, a former associate vice president at Wingate, met Charlie a few years ago when Wingate was starting an African-American alumni group.
Workman hopes to see Charlie’s skills turned into a nonprofit — a hook shot ministry, of sorts.
“It’s magic,” Workman says. “And maybe you can’t bottle it. It may be that he’s an artist more than a business. He’s the Van Gogh of the court. And he can paint the story over and over and over again from mid-court.”
Whatever happens, Charlie doesn’t want it to feel like work. That’s not how it started. He would never want to lose what’s pure about it.
Like when people send him pictures of themselves holding a hook pose, as if they’ve just released the ball. He keeps a video montage of folks doing that, one after the other, telling him how much they love the shot, and him.
People who’ve done The Hook pose include Grammy winner and Charlotte native Anthony Hamilton (clockwise from top left), Hugo the Hornet, the staff at Chick-fil-A, and city council member Braxton Winston. (Photos from the Hook Shot Charlie Facebook page)
Charlie hopes it spreads, hopes to be tagged in more posts for The Hook. It’s not a nod to basketball, or athleticism, or even about him going viral. No, in each picture, Charlie sees a person who’s been through something and persevered.
The Hook is more than a pose. It’s a statement of hope.
“It’s not even about the hook shot anymore,” he says. “It’s about uniting people in a way to say we have more in common than we do that’s different.”
In the gym that day with all the kids around, I wonder if we’ll ever leave. Musicians can’t end with missed notes and golfers can’t end on bad swings, but Hook Shot Charlie can’t end on a good note or a bad note. He can’t stop, either way.
Jeremy says his father will “miss ’til he hits, and hit ’til he misses,” and when that’s your mantra, there is no beginning and there is no end, no good and no bad.
There is only next.
Indoor miniature golf course named Stroke now open in Plaza Midwood
Indoor miniature golf course named Stroke now open in Plaza Midwood
By Ted Williams and Katie Peralta | January 16, 2020
An indoor miniature golf course and midcentury-modern lounge named Stroke is now open. The 5,100-square-foot facility is located Plaza Midwood near the new Bohemian Wine Bar.
“We’re most excited about creating a country club environment without the country club price for a fully inclusive space,” said Ashleigh Gadd, who owns Stroke with her husband, Scott. The couple also created Axe Club.
Golf course: Inside and to the right, you’ll find Stroke’s 9-hole putt-putt course. It costs $10 for an annual membership, and that includes one round of golf. Every round after is $10. There are two ways to play each hole — a technical way and an easy way (good for kids or horrible golfers.) That way, you can customize your mini-golf experience. The Gadds worked with fabrication company 8Lincoln30 to design the space from scratch.
Food: “Our menu of small bites was created by Fresh Eats Catering and was designed to replicate a Masters Tournament dining experience, meaning easy but delicious foods for walking the green,” Gadd said. Stroke’s nine-item menu includes spinach and artichoke dip, pickled vegetables, pimento cheese sandwich, club sandwich, roast beef panini, and three speciality hot dogs. Order from a tablet in the back to the left of the bar, and then you’ll receive a text when your food is ready.
Booze: Stroke’s full bar includes nine signature craft cocktails, including the Tipsy Arnold – Method & Standard vodka, sweet tea, lemon juice, and Angostura bitters ($12). The lounge also has beer on draft and wine by the glass.
Hours: During its soft opening, Stroke is open from 6-9 p.m. $10 tickets can be purchased in advance here (and those include a free T-shirt, too!). Starting on Saturday, January 18, Stroke will be open its normal hours: 4 p.m. to midnight Wednesday through Friday and 11 a.m. to midnight on Saturday and Sunday (closed Monday and Tuesday). The exact address is 1318 Pecan Avenue, Suite 101.
Why it matters: These days, people want to do more than just drink when they go to a bar or brewery. A number of spots in Charlotte have recently opened that specialize in activities like duckpin bowling, ax throwing, sports simulators, and arcade games.
Queens Park Social opened in Lower South End in 2017 with bowling and shuffleboard. Pinhouse, which has duckpin bowling, opened last summer in Plaza Midwood, and Pins Mechanical, which has duckpin bowling and arcade games, opened in the fall in South End.
Pins is so popular that it generates lines out the door just to get inside.
Two other spots that have sports simulators, TopGolf Swing Suite in Uptown and Free Will Craft & Vine in NoDa, opened last year, too.
Fun fact: Putt-putt was invented in North Carolina in the early 20th century. A putting-only course called Thistle Dhu (pronounced “this’ll do”) opened in 1916 in Pinehurst, according to a USA Today story. In 1954, the Putt-Putt corporation was founded in Fayetteville, about an hour southeast of Pinehurst.
Okay, here’s a quick look around Stroke.
Birdie BBQ dog with barbecue pork, caramelized onions, and slaw served on a buttery roll.
Indoor miniature golf course named Stroke now open in Plaza Midwood
By Ted Williams and Katie Peralta | January 16, 2020
An indoor miniature golf course and midcentury-modern lounge named Stroke is now open. The 5,100-square-foot facility is located Plaza Midwood near the new Bohemian Wine Bar.
“We’re most excited about creating a country club environment without the country club price for a fully inclusive space,” said Ashleigh Gadd, who owns Stroke with her husband, Scott. The couple also created Axe Club.
Golf course: Inside and to the right, you’ll find Stroke’s 9-hole putt-putt course. It costs $10 for an annual membership, and that includes one round of golf. Every round after is $10. There are two ways to play each hole — a technical way and an easy way (good for kids or horrible golfers.) That way, you can customize your mini-golf experience. The Gadds worked with fabrication company 8Lincoln30 to design the space from scratch.
Food: “Our menu of small bites was created by Fresh Eats Catering and was designed to replicate a Masters Tournament dining experience, meaning easy but delicious foods for walking the green,” Gadd said. Stroke’s nine-item menu includes spinach and artichoke dip, pickled vegetables, pimento cheese sandwich, club sandwich, roast beef panini, and three speciality hot dogs. Order from a tablet in the back to the left of the bar, and then you’ll receive a text when your food is ready.
Booze: Stroke’s full bar includes nine signature craft cocktails, including the Tipsy Arnold – Method & Standard vodka, sweet tea, lemon juice, and Angostura bitters ($12). The lounge also has beer on draft and wine by the glass.
Hours: During its soft opening, Stroke is open from 6-9 p.m. $10 tickets can be purchased in advance here (and those include a free T-shirt, too!). Starting on Saturday, January 18, Stroke will be open its normal hours: 4 p.m. to midnight Wednesday through Friday and 11 a.m. to midnight on Saturday and Sunday (closed Monday and Tuesday). The exact address is 1318 Pecan Avenue, Suite 101.
Why it matters: These days, people want to do more than just drink when they go to a bar or brewery. A number of spots in Charlotte have recently opened that specialize in activities like duckpin bowling, ax throwing, sports simulators, and arcade games.
Queens Park Social opened in Lower South End in 2017 with bowling and shuffleboard. Pinhouse, which has duckpin bowling, opened last summer in Plaza Midwood, and Pins Mechanical, which has duckpin bowling and arcade games, opened in the fall in South End.
Pins is so popular that it generates lines out the door just to get inside.
Two other spots that have sports simulators, TopGolf Swing Suite in Uptown and Free Will Craft & Vine in NoDa, opened last year, too.
Fun fact: Putt-putt was invented in North Carolina in the early 20th century. A putting-only course called Thistle Dhu (pronounced “this’ll do”) opened in 1916 in Pinehurst, according to a USA Today story. In 1954, the Putt-Putt corporation was founded in Fayetteville, about an hour southeast of Pinehurst.
Okay, here’s a quick look around Stroke.
Birdie BBQ dog with barbecue pork, caramelized onions, and slaw served on a buttery roll.
Bryan Danielson
Jmare007 x Bryan Danielson x JLova = King Ghidorah
Damn @Responsible Allen Iverson
You put that work in.....
PUT YO WEIGHT IN IT
Glad Cuzzo is coming to QCU (university)
You put that work in.....
PUT YO WEIGHT IN IT
Glad Cuzzo is coming to QCU (university)
Tribal Outkast
Veteran
Yeah I’ve been meaning to go to Cuzzo’s. Now o can finally go since it’s closer to me. @Responsible Allen Iverson thank you brotherDamn @Responsible Allen Iverson
You put that work in.....
PUT YO WEIGHT IN IT
Glad Cuzzo is coming to QCU (university)
