Charlotte North Carolina Real Estate

Economist: Rebound in NC should come in 2Q 2009 The Business ... - Bizjournals.com

Economist: Rebound in NC should come in 2Q 2009 The Business ...
Bizjournals.com, NC - 7 hours ago
The state’s most vulnerable sectors are finance and real estate, manufacturing and mining. Connaughton’s latest quarterly forecast is in marked contrast to ...
Bleak economic forecast for Charlotte area WCNC (subscription)
2-year NC job outlook is bleak CharlotteObserver.com
Economic rebound forecast for spring WFAE.org
WRAL.com - CharlotteObserver.com
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BUSINESS DOINGS - News & Observer

BUSINESS DOINGS
News & Observer, NC - 13 hours ago
Lincoln Harris is a corporate real estate company with offices in Charlotte and Raleigh. Hosted Solutions will provide hosting and managed services for ...
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Keeping up in SouthPark - CharlotteObserver.com

CharlotteObserver.com
Keeping up in SouthPark
CharlotteObserver.com, NC - 18 hours ago
Speciality Shops on the Park (some of its storefronts are shown above) “gives shoppers a little more boutiquish alternative to the mall,” real estate ...
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Live Oak Capital to join Grandbridge Real Estate Capital - Bizjournals.com

Live Oak Capital to join Grandbridge Real Estate Capital
Bizjournals.com, NC - Dec 8, 2008
Charlotte, NC-based Grandbridge Real Estate Capital is the commercial mortgage banking subsidiary of Branch Banking and Trust Co., the principal subsidiary ...
Grandbridge to acquire Houston-based commercial mortgage banker ... MarketWatch
Grandbridge To Acquire Live Oak GlobeSt. com
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RealEstate.com buys New Homes Realty - Bizjournals.com

RealEstate.com buys New Homes Realty
Bizjournals.com, NC - Dec 8, 2008
RealEstate.com is based in Charlotte’s Ballantyne area. It is a division of Tree.com Inc. (NASDAQ:TREE), parent company of Charlotte-based LendingTree and ...
Real estate people Sarasota Herald-Tribune
RealEstate.com Acquires Assets of New Homes Realty, Inc. MarketWatch
RealEstate.com acquisition grows brokerage biz Inman.com
TechJournal South - Bizjournals.com
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Black gets an extension, pays half of $1 million fine

The Matthews Democrat is serving a sentence in federal prison in Pennsylvania for accepting illegal payments from campaign contributors, mostly in cash received in men's bathrooms.

In a release, attorney Allen Powell said Black paid the fine to the school system in Wake County, where he was convicted.

“I always intended to leave a portion of my estate to help secure the enhancement of North Carolina's public educational system,” Black said in a statement.

The fine originally was due last year. But his attorneys argued that Black was unable to sell real estate at a fair market value. A Superior Court judge then set a July 1 deadline, with one condition: Black had to put up property as a guarantee.

He chose his former optometry office in uptown Charlotte, valued for tax purposes at $1.2 million. The judge wrote that the property could be sold at foreclosure if needed.

Black has received another extension and must pay the remaining $500,000 by January. He also must pay by that time $54,000 in investigative costs to the state Board of Elections, said Wake County Assistant District Attorney David Sherlin.

It's unclear where Black got the money to pay the fine. Mecklenburg property records indicated he still owns the uptown property.

“The only legacy that Jim Black will leave the state of North Carolina is one of political corruption and personal shame,” said Joe Sinsheimer, a former Democratic campaign consultant who has criticized Black.
Read more [Charlotte Observer]

Peachtree Hills to get help from city

The City Council on Monday took its boldest step yet to address Charlotte's foreclosure problem: It agreed to spend almost half a million dollars to help rehabilitate a subdivision blighted by vacant, boarded-up homes.

The vote was unanimous, but it came after questions about the city's role. A real estate investor argued officials should let the market settle out rather than use tax dollars to intervene. And a council member wondered whether focusing on one neighborhood would shortchange others.

The city will spend $449,000 as part of an $3.4 million effort to encourage homeownership in Peachtree Hills, a northwest neighborhood where a glut of foreclosures has left remaining residents vulnerable to vandalism and other crime.

Self-Help, a Durham-based nonprofit organization, will pay for most of the project. It plans to buy as many as 25 properties in Peachtree Hills and start a lease-purchase program for new homeowners.

The idea is unusual, housing experts say, and seems tailored to Charlotte's specific type of foreclosure problem – relatively new subdivisions where foreclosures have snowballed. Of Peachtree Hills' 147 homes, at least 42 have gone through foreclosure or been owned by a bank since 2003, according to county property records.

The 5-year-old community is one in a swath of northwest Charlotte starter-home neighborhoods that have been hit hard by the mortgage crisis. Self-Help found Peachtree Hills suitable for its program, however, because the neighborhood is not too far gone – it still has enough homeowners to form a strong foundation.

The organization and city officials hope the program will be a model.

“We're looking at this as a pilot program,” said Stanley Watkins, Charlotte's neighborhood development director. “If it works, maybe we can replicate it.”

The city's contribution will include lighting, sidewalks and landscaping – standard public services. But the city also has agreed to spend as much as $10,000 per home rehabilitating the houses purchased by Self-Help.

Kevin Pfannes, a local real estate investor who spoke at the meeting Monday, argued against the city's participation in buying and rehabilitating homes. He said the city would be spending taxpayer money to compete in the private market.

“We've already got a private pool of people that are willing to do that,” he said, urging the city to focus on code enforcement and other more traditional roles. “It takes a little time.”

But Richard Payne, a project manager at Self-Help, said investors didn't seem interested in Peachtree Hills.

City Council member John Lassiter said private investors were not likely to increase homeownership in Peachtree Hills. He said they would only bring more renters, and could make the problems worse.

Watkins said the money that will go to Peachtree Hills is taken from other programs citywide, but wouldn't have a dramatic impact on neighborhood services.

On the other hand, he said, the surge of investment into Peachtree Hills could save it.

“Our intent is to get that neighborhood back to stabilization as quickly as possible,” he said.
Read more [Charlotte Observer]

Peachtree Hills could get face-lift money

The Charlotte City Council will consider a proposal tonight to spend nearly $449,000 to help rehabilitate a neighborhood hit hard by the foreclosure crisis.

Earlier this spring, a Durham-based community development organization announced plans to buy up to 25 vacant homes in Peachtree Hills as a way to boost homeownership in the neighborhood.

So far, Self-Help has purchased three homes in the subdivision and could have one ready for lease-purchase by early July, said Evan Covington Chavez, director of residential real estate development.

She said Self-Help also now has a representative on the homeowner association's board and has met with the group a couple times.

Peachtree Hills, in northwest Charlotte, is one of the city's highest foreclosure areas, according to an Observer analysis.

City and county records showed about 40 of the subdivision's 147 homes were vacant in January and at least 42 properties have gone through a foreclosure or been owned by a bank since 2003.

The subdivision also has seen spikes in crime.

In April, the City Council approved a foreclosure plan that includes the Peachtree Hills project, as well as efforts to better educate and reach out to other homeowners who may need help.

Tonight's proposal would spend money to upgrade some homes in Peachtree Hills, as well as repair lighting, sidewalks and streets and other landscape projects, said Stanley Watkins, the city's neighborhood development director.

The city would reallocate money for the project from existing funds.

Watkins said Self-Help is contributing about $2 million towards the Peachtree Hills project.

Self-Help is targeting a variety of homeowners through its program in Peachtree Hills, Covington Chavez said, including first-time homeowners or those who have gone through foreclosure. Tenants would receive counseling to prepare them to take over the mortgage for their home.

She said tenants would pay a rent higher than their mortgage, but the extra money would cover the counseling, and contribute towards the down payment and other costs when a person is ready to close on the property.

The Peachtree Hills project is considered a pilot effort, but officials said they could expand the program to other neighborhoods if it is successful.
Read more [Charlotte Observer]

Run for judge is rich in drama

Bill Belk hasn't had much luck with judges.

In a marathon divorce case, one denied him custody of his children. Another awarded his ex-wife a majority of their $5 million joint estate. And in February, a third found him in contempt and threatened to slap him in jail.

On the day Belk got the contempt order – for failing to give his ex-wife tickets to a North Carolina football game – he went to Raleigh and filed to run for judge. His fall opponent: Ben Thalheimer, the Mecklenburg County judge who presided over the long and costly property phase of his divorce.

District Court seems an unlikely career move for a scion of Charlotte's most prominent retail family, a millionaire socialite who lives in a gated community and enjoys foreign travel and fine wine. The workload is heavy and complex, even tedious. The starting pay is $106,445.

“I'm not running just for District Court,” Belk says. “I'm running to reform the system.”

Critics call it sour grapes. Some warn his bid could have a chilling effect on judges who rule in cases involving rich litigants who could threaten their careers.

It's one of more than a dozen contested court races facing Mecklenburg voters. All are nonpartisan and relatively obscure, certain to be eclipsed by higher-profile campaigns and more likely to be decided by name recognition than issues.

“There are no safe District Court seats anymore,” says retired Judge Chase Saunders. “All one can hope for is an informed electorate.”

Belk, 58, got his law degree in 1983 but rarely practiced until representing himself during part of his divorce case. He says the court system treated him unfairly, and he details complaints about all three judges in his case.

“What they did to me was educate me on the system,” he says. “And the system needs to be changed.”

Thalheimer, 55, suggests Belk's motives are more personal.

“Strongly contested hearings … tend to exacerbate the emotional trauma that comes with the dissolution of a marriage,” he says. “The real focus in (November) is who is best qualified to handle the demanding responsibility of ruling in critical domestic cases.”

At 6-feet-5, Belk is almost a foot taller than Thalheimer. The contrasts go beyond appearances.

Belk is the first-born grandson of the founder of Belk's department stores and the nephew of former Charlotte mayor John Belk. He has a master's degree in business in addition to his law degree. He spent more than a decade running the family store in Columbia. A one-time rugby player, he's garrulous and hard-charging.

In 1986, at 36, he ran for U.S. Senate. After boasting that former Gov. Terry Sanford would drop out of the Democratic primary and support him, he finished far behind with less than 5 percent of the vote. He went on to lose a 1994 race for Mecklenburg commissioner, and has since become a Republican.

Thalheimer, earnest and serious, has bounced between business and law.

With a degree in industrial management and a masters in business administration, he worked for Procter & Gamble before taking over his father's cable TV business in Boone. He went on to law school and worked three years with Charlotte attorney Bill Diehl. Then he bought a business that did paramedical exams for insurance companies.

He returned to law as a part-time criminal magistrate in 1993 and later became a small claims magistrate. Named to the district bench in 2003, he was elected a year later.

“I love it,” Thalheimer says of family court. “It's my niche. It's very intellectually challenging. I like hearing the stories.”

By the time Thalheimer got to district court, Bill and Suzanne Belk were already there.

The two had met long before, at a debutante affair on Long Island. After a 24-year marriage, they separated in 2001.

Overseeing the early part of their case was Judge Lou Trosch who, in December 2002, gave Suzanne full custody of their three children. Belk, he wrote, “voluntarily abdicated his role” in their lives.

“I walked out of there shocked that just because I'm active in various civic organizations that I had abdicated my role,” Belk says.

Property distribution fell to Thalheimer.

And according to court records, there was a lot of property to split.

The couple lived in Morrocroft in a 10,000-square-foot house that took two years to build. It had a swimming pool, wine cellar, clay tennis court and movie theater with leather chairs bolted to the floor. Art and antiques filled the house.

The Belks sent their kids to private school. They took ski trips. Belk often traveled alone to places such as Europe or Africa, one year spending a total of six months on the road, court documents say. The couple, Suzanne's attorney told the court, “maintained a lavish lifestyle to which (she) became accustomed.”

A property trial started in late 2003. It included 900 exhibits, some running to hundreds of pages, detailing financial and other holdings. It wasn't until 2006, after navigating 24 years of complex stock sales and splits, that Thalheimer finally ruled.

His 79-page order divided the stuff of a quarter-century marriage, including the Chippendale doll house, zebra skin rug, mounted heads of an antelope, eland and two “foreign goats,” and even a high-back, antique chair with its seat cut out. It was used over a toilet.

Thalheimer noted that Belk's wealth came mainly from family gifts and inheritances.

“(He) did not have to struggle in the workplace to provide economic support for his family,” the judge wrote. “(He) also traveled extensively, effectively diminishing his contribution to the social structure of the family.” Suzanne, the judge added, “shouldered a disproportionate partnership burden.”

He awarded her 52 percent of the $4.9 million in divisible assets, including $1.6 million in cash.

Belk says his situation was typical of families with a working husband and a stay-at-home mom. He disputes the way Thalheimer calculated assets before dividing them.

Three months earlier, Belk had tried to get Thalheimer off the case.

Representing himself at the time, he sought the judge's recusal. Among other things, he noted that Thalheimer once worked with Diehl, who had briefly represented Belk's wife. He also said the judge dated a woman who worked with one of Suzanne's attorneys.

A year before, in 2005, Belk had gone after Diehl.

He ran an Observer classified ad saying he had been “the victim of (Diehl's) inappropriate use of our court system.” He solicited “others who feel they have had similar experiences” for a possible lawsuit. No suits materialized.

Thalheimer refused to remove himself.

In a response, he said he hadn't worked for Diehl's firm for 13 years and that although he dated a paralegal in the office of Suzanne's lawyer, the relationship had ended and posed no conflict.

After Thalheimer's 2006 distribution ruling, the case was transferred to Judge Christy Mann.

In February, she listened to the couple bicker before finding Belk in contempt. His offense? Failing to give his ex-wife tickets to a football game between North Carolina and Miami.

Suzanne said she never got the tickets, which were in possession of a third party. Belk maintained that he offered her the tickets but she refused.

“Y'all stop arguing,” Mann said impatiently at one point.

“Folks, I've got serious stuff I deal with here,” she went on. “I take babies away from their mamas and … I have little 8-year-olds being raped by 12-year-olds … and for me to have to spend an hour going after these tickets, it's just God-awful.”

Mann ordered Belk to jail unless he paid his ex-wife's attorney fees and gave her four tickets to the North Carolina-Duke basketball game.

He did.

Belk talks of conspiracy, and says case records have mysteriously disappeared. He claims he was “set up” on the contempt charge.

“Obviously, Christy Mann was trying to influence this election right before I was filing,” he says.

Mann declined comment.

Belk saves his sharpest criticism for Thalheimer, who he calls “the worst.” He points to questionable decisions in his case as well as the four times the state appeals court faulted Thalheimer's rulings and sent other cases back.

“When the Court of Appeals remands you, they're saying you made a major mistake,” Belk says. “The question is not whether he should be judge. It's whether he should be disbarred.”

According to Mecklenburg's Family Court administrator, Thalheimer has been assigned over 2,100 cases in five years and heard hundreds more originally assigned to other judges. Thalheimer estimates he has handled more than 10,000 in all.

“To have only four cases sent back from the Court of Appeals for further consideration is a record I am happy to stand behind,” he says. “I do not want to get into a mud-slinging match with Mr. Belk.”

Belk, who remarried last year, has not appealed his case.

If elected, he says he would try to persuade legislators to change laws involving judges. He wants to speed up cases, prevent judges from ruling on their own recusals, and mandate regular drug testing of court officials. If an appeals court remands a ruling, he says, the case should go to another judge in a different county.

“The system is broken,” he says. “It destroys people. It destroys kids. It creates meanness.”

Belk said he'll raise money for the race – and spend his own.

Thalheimer raised $3,578 through mid-April.

Asked if he would serve an entire four-year term, Belk says, “Probably.”

Belk says he has filed a complaint with the N.C. Judicial Standards Commission, where such complaints are confidential. Executive director Paul Ross says Thalheimer has never been the subject of disciplinary hearings.

Several Charlotte lawyers who regularly appear in family court declined to discuss the race or the candidates. But most describe Thalheimer as hardworking and fair.

The Rev. Carol “Pinky” Bender, a longtime friend of Belk's, says Belk sees his campaign as a way to give back.

“He sees this as a way to improve the community,” she says. “I think he sees this as an extension of his desire to see Charlotte be the best it can be.”

Tom Bush, a former Mecklenburg commissioner who practices in family court, says he's troubled.

“You don't want to ever be in a position where our judges are fearful of ruling because they're afraid of being challenged by an unhappy litigant who may have power in the community,” says Bush, whose law partner represented Suzanne Belk in the earliest stage of the case.

Retired District Court Judge Jane Harper says she would be concerned if Belk is running just because of his experience in court.

“Sometimes everybody leaves the courtroom unhappy, both the lawyers, both the litigants,” she says. “It's not the job of a District Court judge to make people happy. It's his job or her job to do the right thing in the case.”

In shift, panel to address bonuses

N.C. regulators, reversing course, have called a special meeting later this month to address a proposed rule that would ensure homebuyers are aware of their real estate agents' financial interests in selling a home.

The nine-member N.C. Real Estate Commission had voted Wednesday to table the proposal, which required real estate agents to provide written disclosure of bonuses and other extra incentives they receive from sellers before their clients make a decision to buy a home.

The rules change proposal was prompted by an Observer report, published in September, that revealed millions of dollars in bonuses paid by homebuilders to Charlotte-area company Realty Place. The investigation found that Realty Place potentially violated state rules and federal law by not disclosing those bonuses properly to customers.

At Wednesday's meeting, some commissioners questioned the necessity of the new rule and said real estate colleagues had expressed concern about having to reveal to clients what they make beyond the standard commission that's recorded on a buyer's agency agreement. The commission scheduled no new discussion on the issue.

Commission chairman Skip Alston now says, however, that commission members were concerned that an Observer story about Wednesday's delay would give the impression that the commission was not inclined to act on the proposal.

"I think this is something that we should address sooner than later," said Alston.

The meeting is scheduled for May 28 at the commission's office in Raleigh.

In a letter sent to commissioners Friday, Gov. Mike Easley, who has authority to appoint and remove N.C. Real Estate Commission members, urged the commission to approve the new rule.

"It is, first and foremost, the Commission's duty to protect the public," Easley wrote. Of the proposal, he said: "Full disclosure, in writing and at the earliest appropriate time, protects the integrity of the real estate sales process, and of all individual agents. It serves everyone's interests."

The new rule, initially discussed by the commission last October, was designed to let consumers know early in the homebuying process if their real estate agents had financial motivation in showing them a home.

Real estate brokers are typically paid a commission, or a percentage of the sales price. Some sellers, particularly homebuilders, also pay agencies a bonus for finding buyers. Such extra incentives, which come in the form of cash or gifts, are legal.

State rules currently require agents to tell customers of bonuses before an offer for purchase is made, but that disclosure only needs to be oral, making the rule difficult to enforce.

Alston, who has previously advocated for the rules change, said again Friday that he believed bonus disclosures should be written. The commission, which is made up mostly of real estate professionals, was not putting their colleagues interests' ahead of consumers by initially delaying a vote on the proposal, he said.

"I want to make sure that it's a meaningful effort and that the public is protected," he said.

Realty Place agreed last month to permanently close its doors in the face of a subsequent Real Estate Commission investigation that has found at least 300 to 400 transactions in which bonuses paid to Realty Place by builders were not included on the settlement statement. Failure to disclose any payments on the settlement statement is a violation of federal law.

The Real Estate Commission investigation has expanded to include other Charlotte-area real estate companies. Investigators are currently examining a substantial number of bonuses paid by builders and will determine which agents and companies to pursue, said Tom Miller, the commission's director of legal services.

Miller, whose staff drew up the new rule on bonuses, said to commission members Wednesday: "The principles behind this rule are good principles."

Phillip Fisher, executive director of the commission, said his staff will research how other states have addressed the bonus disclosure issue. An Observer report last December found that North Carolina would be among just a few states nationwide requiring written disclosure of bonuses before a purchasing decision. Most don't require any disclosure of bonuses beyond including them on the HUD settlement statement at closing.

In the Southeast, only Tennessee requires the type of disclosure pending approval in North Carolina.

Fisher said that, if adopted later this month, the new rule could go into effect in September or October.
Read more [Charlotte Observer]

Environment offers new kind of green

As a 13-year-old Boy Scout, helping shut down pollutants illegally dumped in a stream led Rick Gaskins to a career in environmental law in Charlotte.

But it took a horrific car crash, three decades later, to steer Gaskins to the job he really wanted: executive director of the Catawba Riverkeeper Foundation.

This Earth Day finds many such career shifts among the leaders of Charlotte's environmental and conservation groups. As the groups mature, they're luring established professionals -- lawyers, bankers, business owners -- to a different kind of green.

The career-changers say they like the chance to make lasting differences. They bring sharp skills, fresh perspectives and credentials that landowners, government agencies and foundations respect.

Gaskins' trajectory: Duke University mechanical engineering degree; Harvard law degree, cum laude; 23-year career that earned him recognition as one of the top lawyers in his field.

Then the crash, three years ago, during a business trip in Colorado. An oncoming SUV crossed the center line. With both vehicles traveling at 70 mph, his tiny, rental Dodge Neon was crushed.

"I'm the titanium man," Gaskins, 49, wryly joked about the surgeries that put him back together. It would be a year before he could return to work.

He had always wanted to advocate for a nonprofit group. "When something like (the accident) happens, it forces you to slow down enough to think about it," he said, "and to do something about it."

Gaskins had experience in community service, including advisory leadership of the Salvation Army in Charlotte. He believed that the problem-solving skills he honed as an engineer and lawyer could help solve thorny environmental problems.

But he worried about the leap from a busy law practice, representing lenders, developers and industries, to a job that pays $30,000 a year.

His family, which includes five children, embraced the idea. Fellow environmental lawyers called to offer their services to the foundation. Gaskins went to work for the group March 1.

He looked happy a few days ago, standing by Lake Wylie in jeans after his first news conference defending the Catawba.

"I feel fortunate to be able to have this kind of job," he said, "and that's the beauty of it."

Sense of reward

That sense of reward is common among green professionals, said Reid Wilson of the Conservation Trust of North Carolina, a statewide group that works with the 25 local land trusts.

Wilson himself was once chief of staff of the Environmental Protection Agency.

"EPA had 18,000 employees and we have 13," he said. "But the job is very rewarding because we do accomplish tangible, lasting land protection that will protect drinking water and forests forever."

After her recent marriage and 23 years at Bank of America making and managing private equity investments, Ann Hayes Browning decided it was time for new challenges.

"Doing something closer to home," she said. "Doing something for my community."

As project director of the fledgling Carolina Thread Trail, she has traded air travel for the Subaru she drives through 15 Charlotte-area counties. The Thread Trail, under the lead of the Catawba Lands Conservancy, will be a regional network of trails and greenways that links communities and attractions.

Browning found similarities between launching the project she joined in 2006 and researching investments -- she works just as hard, for one. But a revelation was learning how unique each community is, and how welcoming.

"People are really good," she said, "at saying, `Thank you.' "

Charlotte real estate lawyer Saxby Chaplin had always hoped he could someday work for the good of his community -- maybe by his 60s. But when the Trust for Public Land offered him a job at 54, deciding to leave a prestigious firm "really took some soul searching."

Seven years later, as the Trust's state counsel for the Carolinas, Chaplin has learned to print his own letters and put toner in the office copier. He has also weathered the financial storms that batter nonprofits.

On balance, he said, his job satisfaction has been worth the risk.

"One of the things I really enjoy is working with and meeting so many people who care about the environment and want to conserve it," he said.

And it's nice to help make that happen, he said.
Read more [Charlotte Observer]

Strollers, toys, a skyline view: More young families call uptown home

Back when Shelley and Shawn Wilfong had only themselves to take care of, they plunked down a deposit on an uptown Charlotte condo and waited.

While workers built their condo, time renovated their lives. They got married. A year later, their son Carter was born. And then the condo was ready.

So the Wilfongs did what few with young kids would dare: They moved out of their house in the Elizabeth neighborhood and up to the 26th floor of TradeMark. They discovered that skyline views offer a breathtaking backdrop for a crib and toy trains. And when you're 1 1/2 years old, an elevator offers a sweet ride home.

"When we first moved in, I knew it would be fun," Shelley Wilfong said. "But I loved it even more than I originally thought."

In a city where young families often heed the call of the suburbs, the Wilfongs see an urban future. They expect more families to get in on the residential building boom that will push uptown's population from about 10,000 today to 21,000 by 2012.

While there's no count of how many families with young kids live uptown, residents see unmistakable signs: More moms and dads pushing strollers. More toddlers riding tricycles. More kids playing in parks.

The city estimated a few years ago that nearly 1,500 children lived uptown, and those numbers have likely grown.

Uptown leaders hope that when young professionals filling the high-rises start families, they'll consider sticking around. Enticements in the works include new parks, minor-league baseball, a NASCAR Hall of Fame and a $32 million Discovery Place renovation.

Still needed, they say, are better public school options and affordable housing.

"A lot of people living downtown in the next 10 years will turn from 20-something partiers into 30-something parents of young children," said Rob Cummings, who moved his family to Fourth Ward four years ago. Since then, the number of young children in his neighborhood has jumped from 15 to about 55. "We do feel strongly that it's a viable city to raise children in."

Newcomers from other cities

In Third Ward, John Schwaller and his wife, Jennifer, count at least 20 youngsters in their area of former mill houses that includes older residents and young professionals like themselves who moved into homes before children and stayed after.Especially encouraging, Schwaller says, is watching whole families move uptown.

"It's a complete change in mentality, that people are willing to move in with children," said Schwaller, whose daughter, Sarah, is almost 2.

Uptown is particularly popular for newcomers who moved from urban areas. Charlotte offers more affordable (though not cheap) options to transplants shut out by astronomical housing prices in cities such as New York, Washington and San Francisco.

Prices vary

Housing costs and styles vary greatly. The range runs from low-income apartments to tiny urban lofts that start in the mid-$130s to the high-rise penthouses and historic Victorian homes in Fourth Ward that command prices in the low millions.

A 3,000-square-foot townhouse in Fourth Ward might fetch $600,000 to $800,000 or more, while smaller townhomes would start in the $200,000s.

In the high-rises such as TradeMark where the Wilfongs live, a two-bedroom, two bathroom condo about half that size could fall into the $400,000s to $700,000s range, depending on how high up it is and what amenities the building offers.

Cummings said he always wanted to live in Manhattan when he worked there but commuted to a New Jersey suburb. He and his wife, Lana, settled in a south Charlotte neighborhood, then saw they could lead an urban life in Fourth Ward. Their daughter, Kameron, is 8, and son, Cole, 6.

`Biggest backyard'

Sarah and Jamie Pou loved city life in Philadelphia, where he went to graduate school and she worked as a banker. In 2004, careers moved them to Charlotte, where they bought a Fourth Ward townhouse. At playtime, they walk across the street to the park with their daughter, Katie, 5, and her baby sister, Julia."With the park, you have the biggest backyard in the world," Sarah Pou said. "It's very comfortable and very safe. We know all of our neighbors. There's always stuff to do. Living in the center city is just more convenient."

The lifestyle gives many the gift of more family time. Instead of fighting traffic on the interstates, uptown workers can walk home or stop at the day care center at lunch. They walk to Discovery Place, ImaginOn and Spirit Square, as well as restaurants and children's shows.

Sports fans have the Panthers, Bobcats and Checkers.

There are downsides.

Some families find themselves waiting years for spots in uptown day care centers. And most middle- and upper-middle-income families living uptown don't send their children to their neighborhood's public schools.

Schools a concern

Uptown's elementary schools (Irwin and First Ward), like many in close-in neighborhoods, have a high percentage of students from low-income homes. High school students are assigned to either West Charlotte, one of the city's lowest performing, or sought-after Myers Park.

Some uptown residents try to get their children into magnet programs and if they don't, they turn to private schools or move.

Residents formed an education committee and have met with CMS leaders. Charlotte Center City Partners wants the district to consider uptown a single neighborhood and assign students to the same schools.

Residents say that would attract more families, diversify the student mix and let children go to school with their neighbors instead of being scattered.

"There is a huge children's population moving to center city, and we want to be prepared," said Cummings, a former Fourth Ward neighborhood association president who sends his children to Providence Day and says most of their neighbors go to private school.

Need for affordability

Another component needed to attract more families is affordable housing. A versatile housing mix to accommodate everyone from the working poor to teachers, government workers and bankers is essential, says Michael Smith, president of Charlotte Center City Partners.

"I picture a growing number of urbanites who decide to move here with their families or grow here with their families," Smith said. "Having lived in Chicago, I saw many families that took great pride in the fact that they raised their children in urbanity. Their children were cultured and had great understanding of the fabric of society."

The Wilfongs like life on the 26th floor, which is vastly different from their suburban childhoods. Shawn, 30, a commercial real estate developer, grew up in Matthews. Shelley, 29, a graphic designer who stays home with Carter, lived in Myers Park.

Shelley Wilfong says watching a toddler is easier in the 1,300-square-foot condo with its open floor plan. And theirs is perhaps the only unit in the building where toys fill the bathtub in a bathroom decorated in a monkey theme.

Carter spends hours playing with his toys by the wall of windows, looking down as passing trains, construction cranes and buses -- looking like little Matchbox cars from his view -- offer constant entertainment.

So far, the Wilfongs haven't found any other neighbors with children, but Shelley sometimes pitches the idea to couples she meets on the elevator. Carter shouldn't be lonely for too long, though. A new Wilfong baby, due in August, is expected to double the population of children on the 26th floor.
Read more [Charlotte Observer]

Charlotte law firms feeling the downturn

After decades of booming growth, Charlotte's biggest law firms are encountering something new: layoffs.

At least four have cut staff or threatened to do so, a fifth has rescinded job offers -- and some experts say more pink slips could be on the horizon.

It's a nationwide problem. And while the numbers in Charlotte are small so far, they're another sign of how real estate-related deals involving big banks are drying up in a slowing economy, attorneys and experts say.

The lawyers most at risk are those who deal with the legal side of complex transactions such as commercial mortgage-backed securities and other real estate investment deals. Lawyers in some other practice areas have felt less impact.

"It is unusual for law firms to reduce their staff, particularly in Charlotte, as there's been continual growth here for 30 years," said John Lassiter, president of Carolina Legal Staffing.

But like other businesses, law firms have to look at their expenses and revenue, and when revenue is down, cut expenses. Losing staff is often the easiest way to do that, he said.

The latest-hit: Chicago-based Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, which rescinded two job and two summer associate offers in Charlotte last month to law students, the firm said last week.

The students had accepted the offers last year and had planned to start in the capital markets practice area -- working with mortgage bankers and other investors on real estate loans and other complex transactions -- this summer and fall.

"Capital markets work has slowed considerably," firm spokeswoman Linda Butler said. "It's a step we would have preferred not to have taken, but we felt it was necessary."

Sonnenschein also has asked its existing capital markets attorneys -- 17 of the 23 lawyers in its Charlotte office -- to take on different kinds of work, she said.

National law firms have flocked to Charlotte in recent years, largely for business from Wachovia and Bank of America, leaving some lawyers and experts wondering how long the banks could sustain the rush.

A Wachovia spokeswoman declined to comment for this story, and Bank of America officials did not return phone calls.

The county's legal community has grown steadily, to nearly 4,000 practicing attorneys this year from about 1,500 two decades ago, according to the Mecklenburg County Bar.

The firms that perform the complicated legal work for the banks employ just a small number of the county's lawyers. The firms are typically based uptown and tend to be regional or national in scope.

The mortgage crisis began pinching national law firms late last year, with layoffs and buyouts at major firms in New York and London. The cuts were mainly in real estate, capital markets and structured finance, where complicated debt and equity products are sold to investors, according to the Legal Intelligencer, a trade publication.

Nationwide, about 100 attorneys have lost their jobs or been offered buyouts during the current downturn, the publication reported last month.

In Charlotte, the affected firms include:

• Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, which laid off nine global finance and capital markets attorneys in January, part of a wave of layoffs across the New York-based firm.

• Dechert, which issued layoff notices in February to three finance and real estate associates and 10 others across the firm. Later, the Philadelphia-based firm offered those attorneys positions in divisions that handle other kinds of law, the Legal Intelligencer reported.

• Kennedy Covington, one of Charlotte's oldest firms, which laid off about a dozen support staff after larger firms hired away many of its lawyers, the firm said in February.

• Winston-Salem's Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, which laid off four or five staff members recently, officials there said.

It's not uncommon for the economy to put pressure on law firms, said Vedia Jones-Richardson, a Durham lawyer and chairwoman of the American Bar Association's law practice management section.

After the dot-com boom of the 1990s ended, for instance, some law firms moved or cut associates who'd dealt solely with that kind of business, she said.

At UNC Chapel Hill's law school, the job market for recent graduates has been steady, said Brian Lewis, assistant dean of career services. But because there's a lag time of up to two years before economic problems reach law firms, the market could wither in the future, he said.

"I'm hopeful that we're going to come out of it pretty quickly," Lewis said. "I'm cautiously optimistic. But I'm keeping an eye on it."
Read more [Charlotte Observer]

An idea to help residents 'hang on'

A nonprofit group wants to buy as many as 25 vacant houses to help build homeownership in Peachtree Hills, a Charlotte neighborhood that is one of the worst-hit by the foreclosure crisis.

Self-Help, a nationally recognized, Durham-based community development organization, hopes to use the neighborhood as a pilot program that, if successful, could be replicated in other states. The goal: to stabilize a community where foreclosures have left scores of homes empty -- either boarded-up, for sale or abandoned to vandals and thieves.

"Peachtree Hills is in desperate need of attention, no doubt about it," said Evan Covington Chavez, Self-Help's director of real estate development. But it also has a foundation to build on.

"You can see there are homeowners that are trying to hang on," she said. "And we'd like them to be able to stay."

Self-Help would buy the homes for a lease-purchase program, Covington Chavez said. The tenants would go through homeownership counseling while they prepare to take on mortgages. The organization is still working with city staff on details of the plan, including the city's possible role.

As cities across the country face similar foreclosure problems, governments and housing organizations are using a host of strategies to mitigate community damage, ranging from educating homeowners to partnering with nonprofit organizations that can bail out borrowers.

In Massachusetts, the governor has encouraged lenders to sell foreclosed properties, even at a loss. Wisconsin is promoting a foreclosure help hot line. Toledo, Ohio, has nonprofit organizations buying foreclosed homes and helping existing residents through lease-purchase.

But using a lease-purchase program to revitalize a single community could be a unique approach. It's new for Self-Help, which, over two decades, has provided about $5 billion in assistance to N.C. homeowners, small-business owners and nonprofit organizations.

It is "a creative and fairly original idea," said Chris Estes, executive director of the N.C. Housing Coalition. And it's suited to Charlotte's specific brand of foreclosure, he said: the clustering of bank-owned homes in isolated communities with little interconnection to other neighborhoods or business districts.

"If you don't do something kind of dramatic," Estes said, "the overall effect is kind of dominating."

Peachtree Hills is part of a crescent-shaped area of new subdivisions in Charlotte's northwest that have been decimated by foreclosures in recent years. Forty of the community's 147 houses were vacant in January, according to city data. County property records show at least 42 properties have gone through a foreclosure or been owned by a bank since 2003.

It's a condition that police say has led to vandalism, rising violent crime and further exodus by residents. Last year, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police logged 360 calls for service. In July, a 14-year-old was shot to death there, to the astonishment of residents who thought they had moved to a quiet, suburban neighborhood.

The boarded-up homes in Peachtree Hills, like their neighbors, are neat, neutral-colored, vinyl-siding houses on postage-stamp lawns. On a sunny afternoon last week, children were biking and running along quiet streets.

But on one block, two next-door neighbors were preparing to move because a bank had foreclosed on their landlord. Tanika Davis, one tenant, said she was taken by surprise when a sheriff's deputy served the foreclosure papers.

Newly unemployed, she now must look for new work and a home that takes Section 8 vouchers, a government subsidy, for herself and four children. With gas prices high and day care to consider, she worries about finding schools and employment close to home.

"It's just the pick-up-and-move," she said. "The relocating the kids."

Around the corner, homeowner Maranda Summers has seen a lot of turnover in the neighborhood. When she arrived in 2003, many of the homes weren't yet built. Now kids knock out the streetlights at the park across from her, and people break into a nearby vacant house.

But she's proud of her grassy lawn among others showing red clay. She said her street is the quietest, and she loves her home.

"To me, it's what you put into it," she said.

Summers is the type of homeowner that Self-Help and city leaders hope to keep in Peachtree Hills. On a tour of the neighborhood and other similar subdivisions last week, Mayor Pat McCrory said the city should focus on helping the neighbors of foreclosed homes.

City leaders in general, from council members to police, were heartened to hear about the Self-Help proposal. Mayor Pro Tem Susan Burgess said she has been impressed by the organization's work in Grier Heights, where Self-Help is building homes for low-to-moderate-income homeowners.

"That's fabulous," Burgess said. "They're a wonderful organization."

From a crime perspective, the neighborhood is at a key threshold, said police Capt. Andy Leonard, whose district includes eight of the city's 13 high-foreclosure subdivisions, including Peachtree Hills. He believes the Self-Help program could save it.

"Homeownership in Peachtree Hills could turn that neighborhood around," he said.

Peachtree Hills neighborhood fraught with foreclosures
Read more [Charlotte Observer]

Indictment alleges web of mortgage fraud

A federal indictment alleges mortgage fraud schemes in Mecklenburg and surrounding counties involving appraisers, lawyers, mortgage brokers, builders and investors and at least $15 million in loans on 270 properties.

The indictment, charging six people and listing others as unindicted "co-conspirators," alleges a web of players, from companies accused of lying about homebuyers' income to builders who allegedly paid kickbacks. A subsidiary of Atlanta builder Beazer Homes and a local builder are included as unindicted co-conspirators. The indictments refer to them only by code names; the Observer used public records to identify them.

The indictment, which details transactions from 2000 to 2004, elaborates on four alleged scams. The allegations, with names such as the "Flip Scheme" and the "Builder Kickback Scheme," are detailed through 19 home sales.

Fraud has helped fuel the nation's foreclosure crisis. More than half of the 19 properties listed in the indictment fell into foreclosure. One lender, nBank of Georgia, was ruined, the indictment says.

The FBI opened 462 such cases of mortgage fraud last year, up 56 percent from 2003, according to its Web site. Estimates of annual losses run as high as $6 billion nationwide.

Two of the six defendants were indicted last year in this same mortgage fraud case. Victoria Sprouse and broker Michael Pahutski face previous charges of bank fraud conspiracy, mail fraud and money laundering. Sprouse and Pahutski, both of Charlotte, now face new charges. Sprouse, the only one charged in all four alleged schemes, was the closing attorney in many of the 19 transactions, and has been under FBI investigation since 2003, the indictment says.

Her attorney, Peter Anderson, a former federal prosecutor, said Sprouse has cooperated with authorities. She "absolutely denies the charges" and "was victimized by mortgage fraudsters who ... kept her in the dark about their improper practices," Anderson said.

The new defendants are a Mooresville appraiser R. Michael Gee, Charlotte mortgage broker Jules A. Springs and two Charlotte real estate agents, Gregory A. Mascaro and Gregory D. Rankin.

Prosecutors won't comment on the case beyond the 53-page indictment unsealed last week.

"This is a full-blown fraud scheme," said Ralph McMillan, a Charlotte real estate attorney who reviewed the indictment at the Observer's request. "It doesn't happen a lot, but it's fairly typical of what happens."

McMillan was an expert witness in a civil mortgage fraud case against Sprouse.

Participants in the Mecklenburg case lied about buyers' income, provided fake bank statements and tax returns, paid bribes to local businesses for bogus verifications of employment, and paid kickbacks to real estate agents, investors and "straw buyers" who lent their names and credit to the schemes, according to the indictment.

The document cites unindicted co-conspirators and describes their roles in the alleged frauds. Some are named; some aren't.

Co-conspirators can be named only if they have been indicted in another case, according to federal rules. One, real estate investor Stephen Hawfield, pleaded guilty last year to one count of conspiracy in a mortgage fraud scheme. He has been cooperating with authorities, said his attorney, Chris Fialko.

The other unindicted co-conspirators are identified by codes, such as "Builder #1" and "Company C." Builders "joined in the schemes to unload their houses," according to the indictment.

Companies A and B, for example, are local companies that falsely verified employment and income for borrowers in one of the scams, according to the indictment.

In one of the alleged scams, a builder would agree to give back part of a buyer's purchase price disguised as a "decorator allowance" paid to a third party. That would give money to the buyer and artificially inflate the sales price of the house, which could enable a builder to sell other houses at a higher price.

Here's how the indictment describes a transaction:

Investor #1 is described as buying a house from Builder #1 for about $133,110, including a decorator allowance of $18,161. A closing document, called a settlement statement, "fraudulently and misleadingly" showed the $18,161 paid to "CRS," according to the indictment.

Builder #1, described as a national homebuilder with operations in Charlotte, is an unindicted co-conspirator. Public records indicate the house identified in the indictment was sold by Beazer Homes Corp., a subsidiary of Beazer Homes USA.

The buyers were Mickie Helms and her husband, Richard G. Ricozzi, the Observer determined after comparing addresses in the indictment with public records.

N.C. records also show Helms is president of Citywide Realty Services. The company's initials are CRS.

The indictment also cites four other transactions with checks written to CRS. They involve unindicted co-conspirator Builder #2, described as being acquired by Builder #1 in 2002. Public records show those houses sold by Crossman Communities, which Beazer bought in 2002.

The Observer reported in December that Helms and her brother, former N.C. judge William Helms, a Union County lawyer, bought about 50 properties in Charlotte. At that time, Mickie Helms didn't respond to requests for comment. Her brother could not be reached Tuesday.

Beazer said in an e-mail, "we continue to cooperate fully with the Government's on-going investigations, including in this specific matter." The statement also notes the indictment contains no charges against the company or employees.

The Observer wrote last year about an unusually high number of foreclosures in Beazer-built neighborhoods in the Charlotte area and problems with its mortgage-origination business. The paper found some of Beazer's actions violated federal lending rules. The report triggered multiple investigations.

The company has admitted employees violated federal housing regulations, exited the Charlotte market and ended its mortgage business.

The "builder kickback" scam described in the indictment involved properties sold by another unindicted co-conspirator, Builder #3, to several buyers. According to the indictment, their mortgage applications included lies about their employment and income and also claims that they would occupy the property as a primary residence.

Public records indicate nine properties in the alleged scam were sold by North Carolina Partners, listing its business as homebuilding.

In one case, the company sold a house in December 2002 -- for $150,000 to Bridget Boyd, according to Mecklenburg County records. About a week later, the builder wrote a check for about $36,900 to defendant Gregory Mascaro, according to the indictment. That payment is nearly 25 percent of the sale price.

Mascaro said he represented North Carolina Partners, selling homes.

"Our intention is to cooperate fully, but I don't have enough information to discuss it," he said Tuesday.

Boyd could not be reached on Tuesday.

David Baulieu has submitted corporate reports as president of North Carolina Partners as recently as November. On Tuesday evening he said he wasn't aware of the indictment but wouldn't say whether he'd been contacted by investigators.

"I really probably shouldn't comment on anything," he said. "I know that N.C. Partners built houses on those streets," but said it was at a time when he wasn't involved with the company.

-- Sara Klemmer, Liz Chandler and Peter St. Onge contributed.

-- Stella Hopkins: 704-358-5173
Read more [Charlotte Observer]

Market not as bleak as many believe: Dunaway

Kemp Dunaway Jr.'s grandfather, Howard Yates Dunaway, founder of H.Y. Dunaway Co., stands among Charlotte's venerable real estate agents. Along with Eastover developer E.C. Griffith and others, Dunaway was among the first real estate brokers in Charlotte's oldest and most-admired neighborhoods. Two generations later, Kemp Dunaway Jr. continues as broker-in-charge of the real estate company founded by his grandfather, father and uncle.

Police want to hold landlords accountable

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police want landlords to be more responsible for their tenants' behavior.

Faced with escalating crime in rental property, police are studying the possibility of registering apartment owners or requiring all landlords to be licensed. Owners of crime-ridden properties could then be fined or have their rental licenses revoked if they do not cooperate with police.

Such rental ordinances exist in Houston, Minneapolis, Minn., and a number of other cities. Police expect to brief the city council on other cities' ordinances in May, and could ask council members to approve a similar measure here.

Neighborhood activists, especially those in areas struggling with crime, say they welcome any effort to keep absentee landlords accountable. Just having their phone numbers would help; it's information that's often hard to find when neighbors have problems, said Gordon Smith, who heads the crime watch in the Starmount neighborhood off South Boulevard.

"We, as residents, should not be in the position of enforcing their lease agreement," Smith said.

But many local landlords say evicting problem tenants is difficult and expensive, and not something the city should pressure them to do. Often, tenants undergoing the two- to four-month eviction proceeding will retaliate by tearing up the property, they said.

They would rather see police go after lawbreakers more aggressively.

"Don't put it on the landlords," said Daren Tietsort, who said his company owns about 100 properties around Charlotte. "Let's do something with the criminals."

Allon Thompson, president of the Charlotte Landlord Association, agreed. "Where are the ordinances that say parents have to control their kids?" he asked.

The foreclosure factor

Any ordinance must be approved by the City Council, something not expected to happen before this summer. The ordinance discussion has been fueled, in part, by a foreclosure problem in Charlotte. Starter-home subdivisions forming a crescent in the city's northwestern section have been plagued by boarded-up homes and a growing number of rentals.

An Observer investigation in December showed rising crime in those neighborhoods. And a recent Charlotte-Mecklenburg police study showed that rented single-family homes account for more property crimes and police calls per home than apartments or owner-occupied houses.

In general, violent crime is almost four times as likely to happen at rental properties than owner-occupied, single-family homes, the study found.

Four people were found dead this week at an apartment complex where police in the last year investigated more than 70 crimes. Police said they've had trouble getting the approximately 70 landlords who own the units to improve living conditions there.

"A lot of them, although they may be aware of those conditions, they haven't done anything or taken any steps to improve," said police Capt. John Williams.

Police have said that good management is vital for keeping crime away from rentals. But authorities now can't compel landlords to make their properties more safe. Landlords should do background checks on prospective tenants and enforce rules against loitering and noise, police have said.

Programs in other cities

Officials in Minneapolis and Houston -- two cities Charlotte is looking at -- said their rental programs help them keep track of landlords that otherwise might be evasive. In either city when a property owner is a company, a person must register and provide contact information.

The programs help authorities get in touch with the right people when there's a problem. They provide incentives for landlords to put money into safety improvements, such as lighting or fences. And they help keep areas surrounding rental property safer.

"Basically, the whole idea behind it is to maintain the integrity of neighborhoods," said Janine Atchison, who manages the Minneapolis program.

The two programs also have key differences. Minneapolis, which has a large number of single-family rentals, requires landlords to have licenses. If a property becomes a crime problem, the landlord must work with police to combat that crime or risk having that license revoked.

Atchison said the law began in 1991 because the city was experiencing a lot of crime at rental properties, and landlords were apathetic.

"As long as they were collecting the rent, they didn't care," she said. "And the neighbors were having to deal with a crack house."

Smith, in Starmount -- a 1960s neighborhood along the Lynx light-rail line -- said his area has had problems with overcrowded rental homes, noise and even a drive-by shooting at one house on Christmas morning. But often, the neighborhood association leaders can't even find contact information for a landlord, he said.

Houston only registers apartment complexes. Owners who do not cooperate with police to make safety improvements at crime-ridden properties can be fined as much as $2,000 per day.

The program has been in place for less than a year but has had some unexpected results, said Houston police Officer Douglas Anders, who oversees it. He said some owners have voluntarily made changes to avoid being on the city's list of bad landlords. And it's affecting real estate, he said: "Banks are calling us before they make loans."

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said all of the proposed programs include some kind of landlord registration and a way to determine what "tipping point" makes a property high-crime. Paul Paskoff, the department's director of research, said it would be up to the City Council to decide whether all landlords would be included in a program, or just apartment owners.
Read more [Charlotte Observer]

City aims toward Eastland renewal

Charlotte has taken a serious step toward reinventing Eastland Mall, a once-regional shopping center that has lost about a quarter of its tenants and gained a reputation for crime.

The city committed Tuesday to pay $75,000 for an option on the mall's Belk property, formerly one of the center's four anchors. The agreement means the city may purchase the property for $3.5 million anytime before Nov. 30.

It's the city's first real estate investment in a closely watched project that has, until now, mostly just been discussed and studied. But observers also say it's only the beginning of a solution that will take lots of work and many years.

"It's huge," said council member Nancy Carter, who represents the area. "I think it's the indication of the interest and the commitment on the part of the city staff and the council."

Nearby residents were pleased by the news, but also skeptical.

"This is something that we hoped the city would do a long time ago ...," said Darrell Bonapart, who lives behind the mall and is president of Charlotte East Community Partners. "Now it's a wait-and-see mode to see where they want to take this."

Over the next few months, the city must persuade the mall's other four owners to agree on a redevelopment proposal. City officials also must find a developer willing to reinvent the mall as a mixed-use shopping, living and gathering center. During that time, Eastland's stores will remain open.

"It's a key step and a strong signal that the city is serious," Mayor Pat McCrory said of the agreement with Belk. "But we're also going to need cooperation from the private sector."

The city's move sends a positive signal to developers who might be interested in the project, said Ray "Rip" Farris III of Charlotte's Tuscan Development, which is restoring old mill buildings in NoDa and has residential projects along Central Avenue.

But he said the city may have to offer tax breaks and build streets, sidewalks and otherwise help prepare the site for redevelopment.

"Otherwise, it probably wouldn't happen," he said.

Targeted for improvement

The city has fretted for almost a decade about the struggling mall, which opened in 1974 at Central Avenue and Albemarle Road. It's about five miles from downtown and surrounded by older neighborhoods with strong homeowner associations. Residents are hoping to see Central Avenue's renewal reach them, as it spreads out from the city.City officials have commissioned at least two studies of the area, which is one of five business districts the City Council agreed last year to target for improvement.

The other districts are Rozzelles Ferry Road, Beatties Ford Road, Bryant Park and North Tryon Street.

The city has set aside $8.9 million to work on those areas. It estimates the Eastland site will need about $175 million in private investment and $25 million in road, sidewalk and other publicly funded infrastructure. The mall also is along one of the city's busiest bus routes and the last stop on a planned Central Avenue trolley line.

The city's latest study of Eastland was in 2006, after Belk shuttered its doors. Belk followed J.C. Penney's closure -- it is now occupied by tenants -- and Dillard's transformation into a clearance center. Other setbacks included a Christmastime shooting in 2006 that sent shoppers running for cover. Last spring, the mall's year-round ice-skating rink closed.

One reason for the city's agreement with Belk was to send a signal to the development community that officials are serious about changing the mall, said Economic Development Director Tom Flynn. It was also planned around a deadline: Glimcher Realty, which manages the mall and has been trying to sell it for three years, has a mortgage payment of between $36 million and $38 million coming due in September, Flynn said.

Marvin Snyder, the mall's general manager, confirmed the deadline but said he didn't know the amount of the payment. He said the company is supportive of the city's efforts.

Needing owners' agreement

City officials have hearty agreement from many neighborhood leaders, who would like to see a greenway and park, high-end housing and quality shopping. But not all of the 90-acre property's five owners agree. Along with Glimcher, the owners are Sears, J.C. Penney, Dillard's and Belk.

Sears, for one, wants to stay. The store is the company's only one within city limits.

"We're committed to staying in the (Eastland) area and continuing to serve our customers," Sears spokeswoman Kim Freely said Tuesday.

Flynn said the city would not purchase the property without a certain level of agreement among the owners.

"We want to ensure that the other owners of the mall would be willing to join with the city in some type of initiative or sell to a developer at an acceptable price," he said.

He said the city plans to organize a neighborhood meeting in April to answer questions about the project. He said the city also would work with existing mall tenants who want to stay in the area.

"This is a major undertaking," he said. "Both from a dollars and staff perspective."

Looking toward redevelopment

The City Council agreed last year to target five business districts for improvement:• Eastland Mall: Working with landowners to turn the mall into a town center. City contribution so far: $75,000 option on the Belk property, plus $3 million for streetscaping work to be done on Central Avenue between Sharon Amity and Albemarle Roads.

• Rozzelles Ferry Road: Working with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Development Corp. on a light industrial park. City contribution: $950,000 for land acquisition.

• Beatties Ford Road: Streetscaping work. City's estimated contribution: $1 million to $2 million.

• Bryant Park (includes Freedom Drive and Wilkinson Boulevard): Working with developers to do three projects: a 289-unit apartment complex, Wesley Village; a 600-unit mixed condo/single-family-home development; and a mixed office and residential project on the old Radiator Specialty site. City contribution: $4.85 million for road improvements.

• North Tryon: The city has studied the area, but hasn't decided how much to spend on redevelopment.
Read more [Charlotte Observer]

Still seeking clues in deaths

Before her house burned down last month, Kinshasa Wagstaff was stabbed to death, a medical examiner said Wednesday. Her boyfriend, Kevin Ashley Young, was shot multiple times in the abdomen and his neck cut.

Firefighters found the couple inside the charred two-story home at 6002 Patricia Ryan Drive the morning of Feb. 4. Wagstaff's niece, Jasmine Hines, also was found dead a few hours later on a secluded Huntersville Road.

She died from gunshot wounds, according to a preliminary autopsy.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police are still trying to determine whether the victims knew their killer or killers.

And they've gotten no help identifying the photograph of a man seen at a Charlotte gas station around the time of the murders, homicide Sgt. Lisa Mangum said. They are still trying to get the photograph aired on "America's Most Wanted," a TV show that appeals to a nationwide audience for tips in unsolved crimes.

Mangum declined to say whether the man is a suspect or to speculate on a motive in the triple homicide.

Wagstaff, 33, was a local real estate agent. She lived with Young, 34, who was a part-time DJ at a Charlotte reggae club. Hines, 18, also lived with them while studying to be a nurse at Central Piedmont Community College.

Police retrieved several red plastic gasoline containers from inside the house, garage and backyard. They collected duct tape, two knives and swabs of what appears to be blood on a pillow and part of a door frame, a search warrant said.

Two 911 calls were made from a cell phone inside the house. The first came at 11:43 p.m. Feb. 3. A caller asked for help. But police have said no one answered the door when an officer knocked and rang the doorbell. He left after dispatchers called the number back and got no answer, they said. The second 911 call came at 12:23 a.m. The caller breathed for 11 seconds and hung up. Police have said dispatchers were unable to determine where the call came from because the cell phone didn't have a tracking device and they had no information from the caller. No other information was released.

Neighbors reported the house on fire at 3:42 a.m.

Have you seen him?

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police are still trying to identify this man (above) photographed at a Charlotte gas station. They have not released the time or location.

Anyone with information should call Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600.
Read more [Charlotte Observer]

Rain delay: Ballpark stuck idling

The Charlotte Knights still hope to play in uptown during the 2009 season. But extensive construction on its planned stadium in Third Ward may not start for another couple months.

That's because the county has not yet secured the rights to a nearby tract of land for a new park, and the Knights haven't closed on a financing deal to pay for building the stadium. Those were two conditions of a lease agreement approved by Mecklenburg County commissioners earlier this year.

Tonight, commissioners could vote to amend parts of the lease and allow the Knights to do more work near the stadium site until the financing and park land deals are complete.

The changes, if approved, also would let the team and county formally sign the stadium lease.

But the team won't be able to demolish the Virginia Paper Building that stands at one end of the planned stadium site. It also won't be able to close a portion of Third Street or start other construction on the stadium.

The Knights are planning a nearly 10,000-seat stadium on county land between Mint, Fourth and Graham streets and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The Triple-A team currently plays in Fort Mill, S.C.

The stadium was part of a deal that also would add the Third Ward park, and a mixed-use development in the old Brooklyn neighborhood.

Commissioners originally approved the lease agreement for the Knights stadium in January. But the deal wasn't to be signed and executed until the county and team met nine conditions.

Seven of those have been met, but officials did not think they could satisfy the remaining two over the next couple months, said County General Manager Bobbie Shields.

The park land deal has been challenged by a local real estate attorney, Jerry Reese, who has fought plans to build the minor-league baseball stadium. His lawsuits have delayed the county from purchasing the park land.

Shields said the Knights have their financing lined up for the stadium, but aren't ready to close on the deal.

Once both steps happen, construction on the stadium can begin.

Shields said the proposed changes in the lease agreement show the county does "not want to hold up the Knights from moving ahead" on the stadium.

The Knights already have started some preliminary sitework on the project.

But the team hasn't had the chance to let its architect and design team evaluate the construction schedule, said Dan Rajkowski, the Knight's vice president and general manager.

He said every day is critical in the timing of the project, but "our goal is still to be in downtown Charlotte sometime in 2009."
Read more [Charlotte Observer]