A well-known family in North Carolina textiles is taking legal action to try and prevent Charlotte’s Atrium Health from receiving millions of dollars as part of an inheritance. Descendants of Charles A. Cannon, who served as president of Cannon Mills in Kannapolis, filed the petition earlier this month.
We turn now to Tony Mecia of the Charlotte Ledger Business Newsletter for our segment BizWorthy.
Marshall Terry: So walk me through it, Tony. How significant is the Cannon family in local textiles, and how did Atrium end up on the receiving end of their inheritance?
Tony Mecia: Marshall, the Cannon family is one of the best-known names in North Carolina textiles. They pretty much built the city of Kannapolis and they had thousands and thousands of workers. They dominated the market in sheets and towels. Anybody that's been in the Carolinas for any period of time would remember the Cannon names, Cannon Mills, later bought by Pillowtex. And when it closed in 2003, it was thousands of workers laid off. So it's a very significant family and the family created a trust in the 1960s for the benefit of their grandson, Charles A. Cannon III. He passed away a few months ago, and it turns out that the trust directed whatever was left in the trust account to go to Cabarrus Memorial Hospital. It is now a part of Atrium Health, so the question is: Is directing money toward Cabarrus Memorial Hospital the same as directing the money toward Atrium Health?
Terry: OK, so that’s the how. Now the why. Why does the Cannon family not want that money to go to Atrium?
Mecia: Well, they say that that entity doesn't exist anymore. They say that Atrium is now a large corporation and that it was intended for the benefit of Cabarrus County and the Cabarrus County institution. They say that instead they should be allowed to donate that money to a religious, charitable, scientific, literary or educational purpose that was also mentioned in the trust. The court filings don't say exactly how much money we're talking about, but it's believed to be millions of dollars.
Terry: So what happens next?
Mecia: Well, they filed court papers in Cabarrus County asking for a judge to help resolve the issue about this identity of Cabarrus Memorial Hospital, whether that exists anymore or whether it doesn't, and so probably like most court filings, it would either be determined by a judge or there would be a settlement. It's going to have to be worked out because Atrium is saying it believes it deserves that money because it is the successor to Cabarrus Memorial Hospital. But the family has a different view. We reached out to Atrium Health and they said in a statement that they believe the law is clear on this matter and that they are the successor to Cabarrus Memorial Hospital.
Terry: Over to the housing market now. You report that after two years of decline in home sales in Mecklenburg County we may start to see that number go up. Why is that?
Mecia: For the last couple of years, the number of homes sold in Mecklenburg County has declined by double digits year over year — 20% declines in some cases. This is because interest rates and mortgage rates are higher than they have been previously. People are not selling their homes as much, so you're not seeing as many closed sales. But according to Canopy Realtor Association, which tracks that data, in January it was just a single-digit decline. So it could be the case that those number of closings are sort of stabilizing a little bit. The optimistic view would be that we're going to see the number of closings increase again off of that floor.
Terry: All right. Let’s finish this week with an update to an update you had last year, and that is: What is going on with the now legendary Quail Hollow pit? First, remind us. What that is exactly?
Mecia: So this is a 19-acre site park in Gleneagles Road in the Quail Hollow area. It's officially called Quail Hollow Village. A lot of people sort of call it ‘the pit’ or the ‘DD Harris pit.’ It's owned by Harris Land Company. There was some interest last year in September. The Business Journal reported that there were multiple offers on the property. It said that the company that was screening the offers was hoping to figure it all out by the end of September. Since then, it's been complete crickets. It sounds like, actually, it's going back to the status quo ante, where nothing seems to be going on there. I reached out to the company that was marketing that land, First & Early [Partners]. They didn't really want to talk about it. It does sound like it's kind of quieted back down again.
Support for WFAE's BizWorthy comes from Sharon View Federal Credit Union, The Original Mattress Factory and our listeners.
