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Can landmark Excelsior Club overcome foreclosure, back taxes to survive?
Can landmark Excelsior Club overcome foreclosure, back taxes to survive?
Over 73 years Charlotte's historic Excelsior Club has survived economic downturns, racial upheaval and changing ownership. Now it not only faces foreclosure, but nearly $200,000 in federal taxes. Davie Hinshaw The Charlotte Observer
By Jim Morrill
jmorrill@charlotteobserver.com
For 73 years, Charlotte’s historic Excelsior Club has survived economic downturns, racial upheaval and changing ownership.
Now it faces not only foreclosure, but more than $174,000 in unpaid taxes and an uncertain future.
On Wednesday, the owner and the deed holder pledged to do what they can to save the Excelsior, one of the country’s oldest African-American clubs and a landmark of black Charlotte.
“My family and I remain committed to doing all that we can do to preserve the club as an asset for the community, whether under our ownership or that of another,” owner James Ferguson told reporters outside the Beatties Ford Road club.
And the deed holder, state Rep. Carla Cunningham, said it’s her intent “to do all I can” to preserve the club.
Their statements come a week after Cunningham began foreclosure proceedings against HKL Inc., Ferguson’s corporation. Ferguson bought the club in 2005 from Cunningham’s husband, the late Rep. Pete Cunningham, who died in 2010.
[Foreclosure latest setback for venerable Excelsior Club]
The Excelsior’s latest chapter involves Charlotte’s most prominent African-American attorney and a black legislator who says she’s trying to do right by her late husband.
“I’m disappointed and I’m hurt because I feel there’s a level of disrespect,” Cunningham told the Observer Wednesday. “I don’t know whether it was because I was a woman.… I feel some entities have taken advantage of me and I didn’t like it.”
Ferguson declined to take questions. But in a statement, he alluded to financial problems that he said began when the club closed last June for remodeling.
“Unfortunately the challenges of renovation and upgrading proved to be too great for the resources available,” he said. “With our doors closed, we were unable to meet the club’s financial obligations, including mortgages, taxes and other obligations.”
Records show HKL and the Excelsior face more than $166,000 in federal tax liens, and nearly $8,000 in unpaid Mecklenburg County taxes and judgments. Most of the unpaid taxes date from June 2015, a year before the club closed.
And in February 2016, four months before the club closed for remodeling, city inspectors found an extensive list of code violations, including a falling ceiling, unsafe wiring and structural problems. On Jan. 20, the club faces civil penalties of $12,800.
Cunningham suggested financial problems may have started earlier. She said she agreed in 2014 to lower HKL’s monthly mortgage payments from around $6,000 a month to $4,000. Since then, she said, payments have been late and calls sometimes not returned.
“It is unfortunate that a business decision of this nature had to be made in order to restore some stability back to the business and community of the property,” she said in a statement.
Taj Ferguson, James Ferguson’s son and the club’s general manager, declined comment.
Jimmie McKee transformed the art moderne building into the Excelsior in 1944. For years it catered to a black professional class who came to listen to entertainers such as Nat King Cole and Louis Armstrong. It became a mecca for politicians, white and black. Bill Clinton and Al Gore campaigned inside.
Ken Koontz, a former broadcaster, bought the Excelsior from McKee in 1984 and later sold it to Pete Cunningham. He said there are many reasons for its decline.
“A tremendous amount of it has to do with demographic and social change,” he said Wednesday. “Progress hurts sometimes, and this is a prime example. Once those (racial) barriers were removed, that demographic moved also.”
Lifestyles changed too. “When you came into the Excelsior Club, you took your hat off,” Koontz said. “You had some self respect when you came to the Excelsior.”
On Tuesday night, county commissioner Vilma Leake led her board to direct the Historic Landmarks Commission to pursue preservation of the Excelsior.
“Here we are in Black History Month,” she said. “And here we are almost losing history in the heart of the black community.”
Can landmark Excelsior Club overcome foreclosure, back taxes to survive?
Over 73 years Charlotte's historic Excelsior Club has survived economic downturns, racial upheaval and changing ownership. Now it not only faces foreclosure, but nearly $200,000 in federal taxes. Davie Hinshaw The Charlotte Observer
By Jim Morrill
jmorrill@charlotteobserver.com
For 73 years, Charlotte’s historic Excelsior Club has survived economic downturns, racial upheaval and changing ownership.
Now it faces not only foreclosure, but more than $174,000 in unpaid taxes and an uncertain future.
On Wednesday, the owner and the deed holder pledged to do what they can to save the Excelsior, one of the country’s oldest African-American clubs and a landmark of black Charlotte.
“My family and I remain committed to doing all that we can do to preserve the club as an asset for the community, whether under our ownership or that of another,” owner James Ferguson told reporters outside the Beatties Ford Road club.
And the deed holder, state Rep. Carla Cunningham, said it’s her intent “to do all I can” to preserve the club.
Their statements come a week after Cunningham began foreclosure proceedings against HKL Inc., Ferguson’s corporation. Ferguson bought the club in 2005 from Cunningham’s husband, the late Rep. Pete Cunningham, who died in 2010.
[Foreclosure latest setback for venerable Excelsior Club]
The Excelsior’s latest chapter involves Charlotte’s most prominent African-American attorney and a black legislator who says she’s trying to do right by her late husband.
“I’m disappointed and I’m hurt because I feel there’s a level of disrespect,” Cunningham told the Observer Wednesday. “I don’t know whether it was because I was a woman.… I feel some entities have taken advantage of me and I didn’t like it.”
Ferguson declined to take questions. But in a statement, he alluded to financial problems that he said began when the club closed last June for remodeling.
“Unfortunately the challenges of renovation and upgrading proved to be too great for the resources available,” he said. “With our doors closed, we were unable to meet the club’s financial obligations, including mortgages, taxes and other obligations.”
Records show HKL and the Excelsior face more than $166,000 in federal tax liens, and nearly $8,000 in unpaid Mecklenburg County taxes and judgments. Most of the unpaid taxes date from June 2015, a year before the club closed.
And in February 2016, four months before the club closed for remodeling, city inspectors found an extensive list of code violations, including a falling ceiling, unsafe wiring and structural problems. On Jan. 20, the club faces civil penalties of $12,800.
Cunningham suggested financial problems may have started earlier. She said she agreed in 2014 to lower HKL’s monthly mortgage payments from around $6,000 a month to $4,000. Since then, she said, payments have been late and calls sometimes not returned.
“It is unfortunate that a business decision of this nature had to be made in order to restore some stability back to the business and community of the property,” she said in a statement.
Taj Ferguson, James Ferguson’s son and the club’s general manager, declined comment.
Jimmie McKee transformed the art moderne building into the Excelsior in 1944. For years it catered to a black professional class who came to listen to entertainers such as Nat King Cole and Louis Armstrong. It became a mecca for politicians, white and black. Bill Clinton and Al Gore campaigned inside.
Ken Koontz, a former broadcaster, bought the Excelsior from McKee in 1984 and later sold it to Pete Cunningham. He said there are many reasons for its decline.
“A tremendous amount of it has to do with demographic and social change,” he said Wednesday. “Progress hurts sometimes, and this is a prime example. Once those (racial) barriers were removed, that demographic moved also.”
Lifestyles changed too. “When you came into the Excelsior Club, you took your hat off,” Koontz said. “You had some self respect when you came to the Excelsior.”
On Tuesday night, county commissioner Vilma Leake led her board to direct the Historic Landmarks Commission to pursue preservation of the Excelsior.
“Here we are in Black History Month,” she said. “And here we are almost losing history in the heart of the black community.”
Bryan Danielson
Jmare007 x Bryan Danielson x JLova = King Ghidorah
This blackout uptown!!!
Martha
Martha
Last edited:
Bryan Danielson
Jmare007 x Bryan Danielson x JLova = King Ghidorah
I hope none of yall got caught in that traffic no lights....
They let us out early but saw some cats wildin Uptown. Breh had a brick and was about to hit this chick with it at the 7th Street Station and Google Fiber parking lot
Martha
They let us out early but saw some cats wildin Uptown. Breh had a brick and was about to hit this chick with it at the 7th Street Station and Google Fiber parking lot
Martha
Bryan Danielson
Jmare007 x Bryan Danielson x JLova = King Ghidorah
Wooooo like 2 weeks ago I got Google Fiber internet..... been loving it and just finally said fukk it and got their cable too
Official.... and I got El Ray again
Martha
Official.... and I got El Ray again
Martha
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Thu Mar 30, 2017 | 6:40 AM EDT
North Carolina lawmakers reach deal to repeal transgender bathroom law
A sign protesting a North Carolina law restricting transgender bathroom access, May 2016.
REUTERS/JONATHAN DRAKE
North Carolina Republican lawmakers said late on Wednesday they had reached a deal to repeal the state's controversial law prohibiting transgender people from using restrooms in accordance with their gender identities.
The compromise, reached with Democratic Governor Roy Cooper and set to go before the legislature for a vote Thursday morning, would still ban local municipalities, schools and others from regulating bathroom access.
It would also effectively forbid cities from offering their own job and restroom protections to vulnerable groups for nearly four years.
“Compromise requires give and take from all sides, and we are pleased this proposal fully protects bathroom safety and privacy,” the state's top Republican lawmakers, Senate leader Phil Berger and House of Representatives Speaker Tim Moore, said in a statement released late Wednesday.
The pair announced the deal at an impromptu news conference.
The compromise with Cooper, a staunch opponent of the bathroom law, was reached hours before the state was reportedly set to lose its ability to host any NCAA basketball championships.
The college athletic association is one of numerous organizations to sanction or boycott North Carolina in the wake of the law's passage last year.
Cooper said earlier this week that the measure could end up costing the state nearly $4 billion.
He said he supported the compromise. "It's not a perfect deal, but it repeals House Bill 2 and begins to repair our reputation."
But it remained unclear whether the compromise would be acceptable to those who believe North Carolina was unfriendly to the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
In an impassioned news conference before the deal was announced, several leading LGBT activists decried its provisions, including the bar on municipalities regulating employment practices and "public accommodations".
"This is a dirty deal," said Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign. He vowed to continue fighting North Carolina in court and in the public sphere if the new measure passes and is signed by Cooper.
On Twitter Wednesday night, San Francisco-based Levi Strauss & Co., which has publicly opposed North Carolina's transgender bathroom law, urged lawmakers to reject what it called a "backroom" deal.
Thu Mar 30, 2017 | 6:40 AM EDT
North Carolina lawmakers reach deal to repeal transgender bathroom law
A sign protesting a North Carolina law restricting transgender bathroom access, May 2016.
REUTERS/JONATHAN DRAKE
North Carolina Republican lawmakers said late on Wednesday they had reached a deal to repeal the state's controversial law prohibiting transgender people from using restrooms in accordance with their gender identities.
The compromise, reached with Democratic Governor Roy Cooper and set to go before the legislature for a vote Thursday morning, would still ban local municipalities, schools and others from regulating bathroom access.
It would also effectively forbid cities from offering their own job and restroom protections to vulnerable groups for nearly four years.
“Compromise requires give and take from all sides, and we are pleased this proposal fully protects bathroom safety and privacy,” the state's top Republican lawmakers, Senate leader Phil Berger and House of Representatives Speaker Tim Moore, said in a statement released late Wednesday.
The pair announced the deal at an impromptu news conference.
The compromise with Cooper, a staunch opponent of the bathroom law, was reached hours before the state was reportedly set to lose its ability to host any NCAA basketball championships.
The college athletic association is one of numerous organizations to sanction or boycott North Carolina in the wake of the law's passage last year.
Cooper said earlier this week that the measure could end up costing the state nearly $4 billion.
He said he supported the compromise. "It's not a perfect deal, but it repeals House Bill 2 and begins to repair our reputation."
But it remained unclear whether the compromise would be acceptable to those who believe North Carolina was unfriendly to the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
In an impassioned news conference before the deal was announced, several leading LGBT activists decried its provisions, including the bar on municipalities regulating employment practices and "public accommodations".
"This is a dirty deal," said Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign. He vowed to continue fighting North Carolina in court and in the public sphere if the new measure passes and is signed by Cooper.
On Twitter Wednesday night, San Francisco-based Levi Strauss & Co., which has publicly opposed North Carolina's transgender bathroom law, urged lawmakers to reject what it called a "backroom" deal.
Bryan Danielson
Jmare007 x Bryan Danielson x JLova = King Ghidorah
Aight.... can we get that MOVIE money back and get shows filmed in Charlotte again!!!
Martha
Martha
- Joined
- Dec 2, 2015
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- 25,049
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- 14,868
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- Charlotte - Washington D.C.
Erykah Badu is gonna be in Charlotte in August...already bought my tickets.
Tribal Outkast
Veteran
Yeah I'm going
Tribal Outkast
Veteran
How the fukk did I miss this thread? Man I've missed so much shyt! I got to catch up now.
Bryan Danielson
Jmare007 x Bryan Danielson x JLova = King Ghidorah
For what it's worth, Charlotte Jazz Festival is gonna be here in 2 weeks. From April 17-23
Gonna be a Bunch of shyt going on for this event
Martha
Gonna be a Bunch of shyt going on for this event
Martha
