NEWS
Sadler Square Sold, Full Extent of Impact on Local Business Unknown
The Sadler Square property was sold in February, and the impact is starting to be felt.
Thursday morning, local Davidson business owner Kim Hankins Founier, posted the following on social media:
“Our Town Cinema is closing because there’s new ownership in the strip mall and they raised their rent so high it wasn’t feasible to remain open & I don’t know that I’ve ever been more upset about a business closing ever. I’m sick of seeing how painful it is for small business to survive, it feels impossible some days and this small town is losing a gem of a business and I don’t want to be dramatic but I’m heartbroken. I can’t count the amount of memories I’ve had with my friends & family because of Our Town.”
Fournier and her husband are the owners of Knotty and Board. She gave News of Davidson permission to use her comments and added “I am so upset about this for Davidson.”
Screenshot from Polaris 3G, modified to show all the parcels sold as part of the recent sale.
The responses to her post started flooding in. Many sharing similar family experiences at Our Town Cinemas Cafe and Taphouse.
One family made it even more personal, noting that their child is a current employee and was moved to tears when told by her employer that the business would close. Another suggested that the Town and businesses with larger profit margins should subsidize the rent gap, sharing an example from a commercial venue in Philadelphia.
This comment seemed to spur a “call to action,” as others talked about rallying around the existing tenants and communicating community support to the new owners of the property.
An employee at Our Town Cinemas Cafe and Taphouse confirmed that they expect to close as of April 18.
The building diagram on the county’s property tax site.
And while News of Davidson will continue to follow this story with important implications in our community, here are some of the details about the property.
The property is known as Sadler Square. The primary parcel of land is 3.74 acres and includes the structure that is home to: Our Town Cinemas Cafe and Taphouse, The Egg at Davidson, BK Custom Cleaners dry cleaning, Davidson Nail Spa, International Kitchen and Bath, The Beach Tanning and Beauty Spa, and the currently vacant food store space.
The building was built in 1979 and has a footprint of 45,559 square feet, with 37,368 square feet of finished space. The food store, acting as the anchor, used to be Food Lion, but they moved out in the mid-1980’s. Since then, there have been various tenants, including Healthy Home Market and Earth Fare, most recently.
In addition to the main parcel, there are four additional parcels. Two of the parcels front Watson Street, while the others front Depot. They are each much smaller than the main parcel, and are listed as .16, .21, .21, and .15 acres, respectively. The five parcels combined are 4.47 acres.
Those five parcels collectively sold for $6.1 million on February 12, 2024. And that is actually lower than the current property valuation, according to Mecklenburg County tax records.
Values for each parcel are as follows:
Primary 3.74-acre parcel: $6,220,400. That includes the land value of $3,614,500 and the building value of $2,409,600.
.16-acre lot on Watson: $166,500
.21-acre lot on Watson: $193,700
.21-acre lot on Depot: $93,200
.15-acre lot on Depot: $156,600
Those tax records also reflect that the previous owner paid $45,974.97 in taxes on the main parcel in 2023, and a combined $4508.50 on the other four lots.
New owners are listed as: Sadler Square Property Owner LLC, c/o Piedmont Capital Real Estate LLC, 4539 Hedgemore Drive, Suite 104, Charlotte, North Carolina 28209
This property was once the site of a well-known and well-used sandlot baseball field. According to this article by Nancy Griffith, it was the site of the 1958 tryouts for Davidson’s first organized baseball teams. This was the effort that also included the creation of McEver Field on South Street.
The baseball field as seen from a 1978 aerial image.
Because of public concern about the sale of Sadler Square and potential loss of some much-loved shops, we had to move quickly to publication. This is a developing story and we hope to interview the new owners in the coming days about their plans for the property. When we contacted the town’s communication department, we were told that “as a policy, Town Staff does not comment on private real estate deals where the Town of Davidson is not an involved party.”