And now a closer look at how Charlotte's urban core is expanding outward. The Charlotte Ledger Business Newsletter this week reports on how new apartments, restaurants and retail have become common in areas that were single-family subdivisions and suburban strip mall shopping centers a few years ago. The Ledger's Tony Mecia joins WFAE's Marshall Terry for more on that, and other business stories, in our segment, BizWorthy.
Marshall Terry: So the latest area of this kind of development is happening is the former Asian Corner Mall on North Tryon. What's going there? And, who's building it?
Tony Mecia: Marshall, this week development company called Beauxwright announced it's building 186 townhomes on a portion of the Asian Corner Mall site on 11 acres. It's a development that they're calling Sugar Yards. And, so, this is just the latest direction some of the development is heading. You've got a number of new restaurants opening there. There's The Independent Picture House, there's a new cocktail bar and music lounge.
Terry: And we're also seeing these denser urban developments on Wilkinson Boulevard, farther down South Boulevard, down Central Avenue. What's driving it? Just no more space uptown?
Mecia: Well, there's just not a lot of developable space closer into town, so developers are looking a little bit farther out. The urban core of Charlotte has a lot of nice neighborhoods. You're seeing a lot of people moving, certainly into South End, NoDa. You're seeing a lot of apartment complexes, and so this is just sort of a different direction that the growth is taking.
Terry: Let's go now to an update on a story you've been following for the past year — financial troubles at Charlotte's Aldersgate retirement community. You report regulators who have been overseeing Aldersgate's finances are set to make a decision soon on the future of the company. Remind us of what have they been looking at?
Mecia: Yeah. Regulators with the North Carolina Department of Insurance have been looking at Aldersgate's finances for the last year or more after Aldersgate had a series of operating losses, had trouble paying back some of its residents and paying vendors. The state was unprecedented — kind of came in and really started supervising those finances. And they're starting to turn things around, they say. Regulators are saying that they expect Aldersgate to what's called "affiliate" with another company. That can be a merger, some kind of combination partnership that could help further stabilize Aldersgate's finances. Regulators also say that they've learned a bunch from this episode in working with Aldersgate, and that they're going to propose some legislative changes that make disclosures to residents a little bit more clear.
Terry: Finally, another longtime Charlotte restaurant is closing. Village Tavern in SouthPark. Did they say why they're calling it a day?
Mecia: Marshall, a sign posted on the outside of Village Tavern confirmed that they were closing after 35 years — thanked their customers, their employees. It said that while their landlord was very accommodating, that their lease was expiring, and that the space that they were in couldn't really fit very well with some of the new concepts that they wanted to do. They didn't really give a lot of specifics on that. They do say that they would like to come back to Charlotte. This is a small chain. They've got it started in Winston-Salem. There are several other Village Taverns in the Southeast, and they say they'd like to come back to Charlotte at some point if they can find a suitable space.
Terry: Well, SouthPark is one of those places we're seeing move from suburban to denser urban development. There's more competition like Suffolk Punch and Reid's Fine Foods. Is that part of what's going on with these longtime restaurants closing like Village Tavern and Harper's nearby?
Mecia: I think there is a lot of competition out there. There's something like 4,000 restaurants, I believe, in Mecklenburg County. You always read about the new ones that are opening up. And people like going to the new ones and seeing the hot new thing. And some of the older ones, they do have their longtime loyal customers. But you sometimes don't see, maybe the enthusiasm for the old-time places as much as you do for the new places. Although, each of these restaurants also they have their own particular reasons for why they're closing. Sometimes the owners get tired of it, they don't want to do it anymore or the lease doesn't work out. So there's a variety of reasons.
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