The real story behind that ‘shady’ Key Man Building on East Boulevard
It’s tough to find much information online about the Key Man building. You know the one: the white, older-looking building next to Fern and near Starbucks at 1409 East Blvd.
The office building’s Facebook page offers little insight into its tenant listing and its website doesn’t function.
Meanwhile, its Yelp page features scathing reviews of the building courtesy of disgruntled Starbucks customers hit with parking fines in the overlapping lot. Some examples: “This place is a complete joke and oversees a parking scam,” and “Evil company taking advantage of signage confusion to engage in predatory clamping and towing practices.”
Multiple times, the Key Man Building is referred to as “shady.”
But if you actually get off the internet and walk inside, you can find out that this building is the asset of a nonprofit foundation started by a real man who has left big marks on Charlotte.
The Key Man Building is owned by the Robert Haywood Morrison Foundation, which was established in 2001 by Robert Haywood Morrison, a late Charlotte real estate investor. The alumnus of Davidson College and UNC Chapel Hill passed in 2005.
He purchased the Key Man Building in the 1960s, and the name at the time was an expression of how it functioned as an office building.
“In other words it was turn key,” said foundation president Cynthia Tyson. “You lease an office here and at the time secretarial services were provided, people did typing if it was necessary for the tenants.”
When he died, the bulk of Morrison’s estate was left to the foundation, which operates in the Carolinas and Virginia, and funds higher education, the arts and culture, and the natural environment.
The Key Man Building is the last of the foundation’s assets in Charlotte, following a liquidation process. At this time there are no plans to sell the two-story building, which holds 125 offices with flexible, month-to-month leases. Tenants include Sparrow Systems, Blue Dot Medical, Boston Capital and the foundation itself. There’s even a giant key on the wall in the reception area as a tribute to the building’s name.
If you look beyond the building, Morrison’s marks are all over Charlotte.
The Robert Haywood Morrison Gardens were created near Levine Cancer Institute and the Little Sugar Creek Greenway to honor a $250,000 gift from the foundation, according to a 2012 Carolinas HealthCare System report.
You can find Morrison’s name living on in the Robert Haywood Morrison Atrium in the Mint Museum Uptown due to a $5 million grant from the foundation to support the construction of the facility.
The Charlotte Symphony’s timpani chair, known as the Robert Haywood Morrison Chair and held by musician Leonardo Soto, was funded by the foundation.
Over in Myers Park, the Queens University of Charlotte’s sciences and health building lobby is named for Morrison, thanks to his foundation’s lead gift of $1 million to construct the building.
“That’s just a smattering of it,” said Tyson of the foundation’s impact.
All you have to do is look beyond the Key Man Building to see it.
Photos: Katie Toussaint
This story was originally published May 1, 2017 at 10:00 PM with the headline "The real story behind that ‘shady’ Key Man Building on East Boulevard."