It’s the end of an era in South Park. After more than 25 years, the Regal Phillips Place movie theater screened its final movie over the past weekend. There are plans to put a 10-story office tower on the site. That’s according to the Charlotte Ledger Business Newsletter. For more, WFAE's Marshall Terry talks to the Ledger’s Tony Mecia.
Marshall Terry: Tony, like many other people, I have fond memories of going to the movies there. I remember seeing Adam Sandler in the classic "The Waterboy" in the '90s among others. So what’s going on? Are folks just not going to the movies anymore?
Tony Mecia: Yeah, I've got fond memories of watching movies there, too, Marshall. And you know, when it opened in 1996, it was kind of a high-tech movie theater. You know, it had this new thing called "surround sound, stadium seating."
You'll recall that before COVID, there was this question of the future of movie theaters. You know, we've started streaming more things, and really COVID, I think, exacerbated that. And so, movie theaters are still having a hard time. The other piece of it here is this particular movie chain, Regal, is in bankruptcy protection. Now, we know that at this particular site, their lease was to expire in 2025. And when you're in bankruptcy protection, you can void your leases.
So they might have just said, "well, we only have a couple of years left to run this lease. We're not really making any money on this location at the moment. Let's just cut our losses here and get out of it."
Terry: Let’s stay with the end-of-an-era theme for a moment. The oldest Dairy Queen in North Carolina, which happens to be on Wilkinson Boulevard in Charlotte, is up for sale. It opened in 1947. Tony, why are the owners selling, and any idea what might become of the site?
Mecia: We don't really know why the owners are selling. We do know that it appeared in a real estate listing last month for $1.4 million.
You know this is an area that is in a corridor that's not that far from uptown — there's a lot of redevelopment going on in that area. The Historic Landmarks Commission has looked at this site and said, "well, this is an example of art deco architecture."
It has some historical significance — you might not always think of a Dairy Queen as being historically significant, but this is, as you mentioned, one of the older ones. So, you know, we don't know what's going to happen. It could be redeveloped.
You know, we've seen the Dairy Queen over in Plaza Midwood has been redeveloped into a different restaurant. Obviously, there are a lot of apartment complexes in town as well.
Terry: OK. Switching gears over to some banking news now. Bank of America and others are reporting third-quarter earnings that have beaten expectations. Doesn’t that go against the fears of a recession we keep hearing about?
Mecia: It does a little bit. You know, economists tend to believe that we are headed toward a recession sometime in the next six to 12 months or so. But from what the banks are seeing, as they've said on their earnings calls in the last week, they're not really seen it yet. Their earnings have dropped. They're not making as much money as they did a year ago, but they're doing better than analysts thought they were going to do.
Wells Fargo's earnings fell 30%, Bank of America's fell 8%, Truist fell 5%. But these are still profitable companies — they are still making a bunch of money, and they are doing better than analysts thought they were going to do.
Brian Moynihan, the CEO of Bank of America, said he thinks that their customers, and their financial situation, that it's resilient. Charlie Scharf, the CEO of Wells Fargo, said on the earnings call that he sees strong finances from his customers.
And so, you know, the signs of a recession that everybody keeps waiting for, the banks aren't really starting to see that yet, although they are taking some moves to guard against that in the future.
Terry: Like what?
Mecia: Well, they're putting aside money. I'm anticipating that some of the loans that they have are not going to be repaid. Preparing for creditworthiness to get worse. Preparing for people to borrow more. All these are things that you would tend to see as you move into a recession. But we're still looking like we're at the very early stages of that.
Terry: Alright. Let’s move now to an update on a story you brought us a few weeks ago. A parent is suing Charlotte Latin over what he says is political activism in the classroom. What’s the latest with that?
Mecia: Yeah. There was a ruling this week by a Mecklenburg County judge, Lisa Bell. You'll recall, Marshall, that a parent at Charlotte Latin named Doug Turpin suing Charlotte Latin after the school kicked out his two children.
He had been complaining, advocating against what he thought was inappropriate political activism in the classroom and in the culture at Charlotte Latin — things like selections of books that were read in the classrooms, unisex bathroom signs, and what they considered to be inappropriate artwork and politically slanted classroom instruction.
He had a testy meeting with the head of school, and at that meeting, the head of school said, "OK, we're getting rid of the enrollment of your children. We're kicking your children out."
And so he sued.
The judge, in the last week, came out and said, "OK, you've asserted nine different claims about why you think this was wrong." She dismissed eight of them, but she left one of them intact. And so what that means is the case is going to continue.
The Turpins are appealing to the Court of Appeals about the dismissals of those eight claims, but it does look like it's not over yet. And so, this is going to continue.
Terry: Tony, let’s end this week with fireworks. The Ledger reports stores in South Carolina are gearing up for Diwali. What is that exactly?
Mecia: Diwali is an Indian festival of lights. And we sent Christina Bolling, our very capable managing editor, out to a fireworks store on U.S. 521 — Indian Land. And they said they're really gearing up for it.
In the Ballantyne area, there is a high percentage of Indian Americans who live there who celebrate Diwali — they celebrate oftentimes with fireworks. She went to a fireworks store there and they said that of the 75 stores in their chain, the one on U.S. 521, in Indian Land, is the No. 2 best-selling store in the Diwali season.
They usually have two people working there. They've ramped up to 20 people. They expect that this coming weekend is going to be a big weekend for Diwali fireworks sales in South Carolina.
