Keep Plaza Midwood Weird?

You might have first heard something was brewing when the Charlotte Agenda wrote about it in March. And technically, the location of our planned hotel is in Belmont, just bordering on Elizabeth and Plaza Midwood. Whatever you want to call it, it’s a fluid area where so many diverse communities coexist to offer a one of a kind environment in Charlotte.

When looking for just the right part of the city to bring our flavor of hospitality, we knew it couldn’t be anywhere else. That’s why we landed here.

We find it interesting to have the Charlotte Country Club and the Salvation Army both be neighbors. The Asian markets and services in the strip malls further east on Central pull at our heart strings. The walkability and eclectic vibe is the perfect energy we were seeking.

As we dip our toes into the neighborhood, we notice there’s a bit of discontent about plain vanilla development destroying the character of the place and turning it into another Southend. Lots of chatter on the social channels that is concerned about how things will evolve. Lots of mention about yuppies, capitalist greed, and gentrification.

I’m sure there are many other points of view that haven’t made it into these digital spaces, and so many people whose diverse experiences will matter here too.

We hope to see and hear all of that.

It’s a tall order to try to do something meaningful and not fuck up a good thing. But we’re still going to try.

*************

As a family business, we have been straddling generational and ideological divides. Our challenge now is to better understand the broader impact of our choices, and rethink how we do our work. This will be a lifelong journey in examining our past choices and undoing what has been problematically at odds with the way we want to coexist with the world around us.