Excelsior Club renovation project on the verge of collapse

PHOTO | KEN KOONTZ

The Excelsior Club, an entertainment, social and political hub for Black Charlotte before foreclosure, has fallen into disrepair. A restoration plan proposed by California developer Darius Anderson has stalled, City Council member Malcolm Graham said.

A California developer’s restoration plans for Charlotte’s historic Excelsior Club are on life support.

The former social club’s future is in doubt a year after Darius Anderson bought the foreclosed property for $1.3 million. The Excelsior was founded 80 years ago by Black entrepreneur Jimmie McKee, who operated the club on Beatties Ford Road for 40 years with a target audience of Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s Black professionals. Since then, ownership exchanged hands three times before the club, which was an entertainment, social, and political hub for Black Charlotte, was foreclosed.  

The decaying building had been shut down for several years and became an eyesore before Anderson bought the property from state Rep. Carla Cunningham. Anderson, owner of Sonoma, California-based Kenwood Investments and a self-proclaimed advocate of historic site preservation in Black communities, secured financial support from the City of Charlotte, Knight Foundation and Foundation For The Carolinas as investment partners to support redevelopment.

Charlotte City Council member Malcolm Graham, chair of the panel’s Economic Development Committee and representative of the district that includes the Excelsior, said Anderson presented a general site plan without other specifics. While Anderson said zoning rules, especially parking restrictions, limited his ability to proceed, no requests were filed for changes that would allow the project to move forward.

Graham said he believes Kenwood Investments’ plans are “not going to come to fruition.”

“The City of Charlotte, Foundation For The Carolinas and The Knight Foundation are still on board to support redevelopment of The Excelsior Club site,” Graham said. “However, there are as many as three other new parties interested in securing that site and developing it as a social outlet similar to the original Excelsior.”

Graham said the project will likely have new ownership within four months. Charlotte-based Neighboring Concepts, the lead architectural firm on the Excelsior project, had no comment on the development except that it has been responsible for landscape maintenance, which some neighbors contend has not been done.

The site has often been overgrown with weeds and its perimeter fencing in disrepair.

Graham said Kenwood Investments “participated in good faith and just made a business decision to put it up for purchase.”

“The city still has a chance and wants to be supportive at the appropriate time with a new owner,” he said. “This one just never got off the ground. We bought into the deal, but the devil is always in the details, and we just couldn’t get our hands around it.”

Editor’s note: Ken Koontz bought The Excelsior Club from Jimmie McKee in 1984. Koontz sold his stake in 1987.

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