CityFair
Carley Capital Group
From the time the Carolina Theatre closed in November
1978, Bryant Cutter (right), grandson of J. H. Cutter who built the theatre,
tried to find parties interested in using the now vacant theatre. After several
years of no offers, he sold the property in November 1985 to Carley Capital
Group, a development company. One of their other projects was University
City, the shopping center and hotel complex located at E Harris Boulevard
and N Tryon Street. Carley Capital's idea for the land behind the Carolina
was to build an uptown marketplace that surrounded a parking deck. It was
to be three stories high and would be called CityFair. It consisted of various
retail shops and a food court in an urban mall setting. Before CityFair opened
in October 1988, Carley Capital announced in May 1988 that they would be
working with Crown Leisure, a company based in Jacksonville FL, to make the
theatre into a restaurant/bar/discotheque. Their motto of "Where the good
times roar" was designed to show that their new Carolina Theatre Entertainment
Complex had something for everybody. Carley Capital was to have borne about
75% of the project expense of more than $5 million.
Carley Capital never imagined that CityFair could succeed on its own,
since the disadvantages of difficult driving, expensive parking, and full
retail prices were not likely to lure shoppers away from outlying malls and
shopping centers. They hoped that, with the draw of nearby
Belk's, the draw of the downtown lunch
crowd into the food court, and the people attending their modified Carolina
restaurant/bar/discotheque that CityFair
would catch on. They actually estimated the draw to be around 10,000 people
per week. This was the largest mistake they made in their planning, and this
poor judgment is what ultimately brought them to
bankruptcy.
They didn't know Belk's was closing its downtown location and donating
the land for a downtown performing arts center. Shortly after beginning their
renovations in the theatre, most of which began with demolition, it was
discovered that Carley Capital had major financial problems and could not
complete the project. Before its financial problems became apparent, Carley
Capital demolished the lobby and retail space citing plans to rebuild in
the style. They did this, supposedly with permission from someone (the city?),
and supposedly because of rotten timbers (none were ever found). This demolition
caused the Carolina to be removed from the
National Register of Historic
Places.
Also, sealing CityFair's doom, Belk's closed its downtown store before
CityFair opened in October 1988. Carley Capital filed for bankruptcy, due
only in part to its losses in Charlotte. Chemical Bank of New York, which
lent money to Carley Capital, took over ownership of its newly-acquired asset,
and did nothing with it. Chemical Bank deeded the property to the City of
Charlotte in 1989.
American Fidelity
After the city tried for a few months to run CityFair (unsuccessfully),
it sold CityFair (without the parking deck or the Carolina Theatre) in May
1990. American Fidelity Property Company of Oklahoma City paid $3.5 million
for it and also received as part of the package an option (which was to run
through 1998) to buy the parking deck and the Carolina Theatre. American
Fidelity paid $500,000 and agreed to pay the remaining $3 million if and
when American Fidelity cleared $1.3 million above its expenses. American
Fidelity's people ran long-distance until September 1991, when they closed
it due to declining revenues and lack of tenants.
The Keith Corporation
After two years of vacancy,
The Keith Corporation, a local
real estate development company, bought CityFair -- not including the parking
deck or the theatre -- in 1994 for a little less than $2 million. (Graeme
M Keith, left) For an additional $10 (that's right only $10), they got
the option to buy the Carolina Theatre for $1.2 million through 1998 with
a first rights-of-refusal clause until 2008. Also, they were to have paid
$100,000 per year for 3 years to the City of Charlotte as a kind of rent.
While The Keith Corporation owned CityFair, they leased most of it to small
retail clients, to
NationsBank as offices, and
to the University of NC at Charlotte as classrooms.
The Keith Corporation was frustrated that they could
not realize enough profit from this facility because of its inherently bad
design and also because they didn't own the parking deck. They couldn't find
any interested parties or commitments for the theatre space and so did not
exercise their option. (Graeme M "Greg" Keith Jr, right)
In August 1998, NationsBank announced a
45-story tower to be built on the site
of CityFair. This, of course, meant the demolition of CityFair and its ancillary
parking deck. CityFair was closed in mid-December 1998 and demolition
began. The implosion of CityFair and the parking deck took place June 3,
1999. Watch CityFair being imploded.
The Option
The option which had been created for American Fidelity and then passed
to The Keith Corporation was amended to remove the parking deck which was
retained by the City of Charlotte. As part of the agreement with NationsBank
to build the 45-story tower, The Keith Corporation gave its option to buy
the Carolina Theatre to the Arts
and Science Council on September 22, 1998. As the end of this year expiration
date approached, the "new" option became the basis for heated discussion
by several parties.
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First, there was the Carolina Theatre Preservation Society who argued
that the City Council should extend the option for one year (until January
15, 2000) so that studies could be done to determine what should be done
with the theatre.
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Second, there was the Arts and Science Council, which also wanted the
option extended but had a different perspective and reason to be involved.
NationsBank had pressured The Keith Corporation to give their option to the
Arts and Science Council because NationsBank felt that the Arts and Science
Council could best act on the interests of NationsBank which was to own the
45-story tower sitting all around the Carolina Theatre.
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Third, Michael Vance and his Phoenix Group wanted the City Council NOT
to extend the option so that they could buy the property and develop it
themselves as a home for his theatre company and a large venue for travelling
shows.
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Fourth, the City Council members wanted to unload the property, which
had been shown on the previous year's tax record as having no buildings(!),
to incur as little expense as possible to the city. They didn't want to be
responsible for adding more debt to the city. They were willing to listen
to everyone who wanted to speak.
Everyone who wanted to speak was given the chance on December 14, 1998.
The City Council unanimously voted to extend the option. As a result of this
decision, the Carolina Theatre Task Force, made of members from Carolina
Theatre Preservation Society, Arts and Science Council, NC Blumenthal Performing
Arts Center, the City of Charlotte, and NationsBank, began meeting monthly
in April 1999 to discuss the possibilities available. In October 1999, the
Carolina Theatre Task Force asked the City Council to agree to another year-long
extension of the option for additional time for even more studies and plans.The
decision to extend was made unanimously on December 13, 1999.