West Charlotte brewery locked in eviction battle with its out-of-state landlord
Tucked into an 8,000 square-foot-warehouse-like building, Blue Blaze Brewing sits at the end of the Stewart Creek Greenway. The family-owned brewery is known for hosting regular “trail talks,” yoga and a hiking club.
In September, the west Charlotte business at the intersection of State Street and South Turner Avenue celebrated its six-year anniversary. “We are so grateful to be a part of this community in Charlotte,” the brewery posted on Instagram. “So cheers to many more years of craft brewing.”
But whether Blue Blaze can last that long is not clear — it’s now fighting to avoid eviction after facing a potential rent hike of 376%. The increasingly acrimonious dispute has spilled into public view in around 200 pages of court documents between the brewer and its out-of-town landlord, Atlanta-based Portman Holdings.
It also comes as Portman starts work on a 27-acre development of the historic Savona Mill, which includes the brewery site. Plans call for 651 apartments, close to 200,000 square feet of office and retail space, and building out other parts of the property with a walking trail and amphitheater.
The project, which will keep the historic mill on site, is expected to take three years to finish.
The property has sat largely vacant and unused for years, and has the potential to bring more businesses to this mostly quiet, residential corner of Charlotte.
Seversville, Wesley Heights and Biddleville-Smallwood are fast-changing neighborhoods that sit just a couple miles from uptown, and all are near the mill. Residents have been worrying about the fate of their small, local brewery.
“We’re trying to stay alive,” Craig Nunn, managing partner of Blue Blaze, told The Charlotte Observer.
About Portman
Portman has been active in the Charlotte area for the past 20 years, a company representative told community members during an update last week on the mill project.
Most recently, Portman developed The Line, a 16-story office building on Hawkins Street in South End where Sycamore Brewing will relocate. Next door, it’s starting work on a 24-story apartment tower.
Portman took over ownership of the Savona Mill property two years ago after the previous owner was struggling to get a development project off the ground, Portman representative Reid Scott said at last week’s meeting.
Portman purchased the property in December 2020 for $3.5 million, Mecklenburg County property records show. The company paid another $10.5 million for 7 additional acres close by.
Blue Blaze seeks long-term solution
In December 2021, Blue Blaze’s Nunn sent a letter to Portman stating that he wanted to renew his lease, court documents show. The lease was set to expire in June 2022.
Blue Blaze was interested in discussing a “long term solution,” Nunn wrote to Andrew Kroll in a Dec. 18, 2021, email, according to court documents. Kroll is Portman’s senior vice president of asset management.
Under the previous owner, Argos Real Estate Advisors, Blue Blaze was paying $5.25 a square foot, or $42,000 per year, documents show.
Portman surveyed surrounding market rates for rent, and sent a proposal to the brewery on New Year’s Eve for $25 per square foot — a 376% increase over the current rent. And the base annual rent of $200,000 would increase 2.5% over the course of the four-year lease, documents show.
A couple weeks later came the counter-proposal from Taylor Barnes, a broker representing Blue Blaze: A 10-year lease, with the first two years starting with a base rent of $9.37 a square foot, or about $6,246 per month, and steadily increasing. By year 10, the rent would be close to $15,000 per month, records show.
Attached to Barnes’ rent proposal were several bullet points detailing work for the landlord to improve the brewery, documents show. That includes a new facade to match the Savona Mill project and opening up a back wall area to add more retail seating and private event space.
Disagreements over market rate
But Portman and Blue Blaze couldn’t reach an agreement on what numbers dictated market rate for the brewer’s space.
Portman had provided the brewery with what it deemed was market rent, and did not agree with the broker’s terms. Blue Blaze said its lower rent proposal was an attempt to work with Portman while also keeping the business alive.
“Blue Blaze cannot afford market rate for their premises, unless improvements are made to increase their retail seating capacity,” Barnes wrote on Jan. 21 to Travis Garland, Portman’s executive director of leasing.
Garland responded that if they couldn’t agree to market terms, the brewer needed to say it wasn’t going to extend its lease and a new deal would have to be pursued.
In turn, Barnes asked Portman if Blue Blaze could make a counter offer on the renewal option.
That afternoon — Jan. 21 — Garland reiterated that Portman needed an official notice that the brewery was not exercising its right to renew the lease. Portman and Blue Blaze could then discuss negotiating a lease renewal, Garland wrote.
Portman was willing to give the brewer more time to look for other options too. “We appreciate he may need extra time to relocate, if that is the path that is ultimately chosen,” Garland wrote, documents show.
‘This is insane’
Communication between the two parties picked back up a month later, court documents show. It’s not clear if the two had been talking that month.
On Feb. 22, Barnes emailed that it would take the brewery up to 28 months to find a new location. “BB is happy to exit sooner if things end up landing sooner,” Barnes wrote.
But that time frame wouldn’t work for the landlord, Garland wrote in an email. “This is insane,” Garland wrote to Barnes that same morning. “We are designing and redeveloping the entire Savona Mill building in less than 28 months.”
Portman would give Blue Blaze one year to occupy the building. “I have never seen a situation where a relocation needs more than 12 months,” Garland wrote back.
Dispute leads to eviction filing
Portman also told Blue Blaze that the brewery had not exercised its right to extend its lease, and that it had until Jan. 31, 2023, to get out. That gave the brewery a year to find a new home.
But that offer was soon scrapped. In late April, Portman told the brewer its lease was now set to expire on June 30 because Blue Blaze hadn’t responded to a proposed lease amendment in March, court documents show.
The two sides argued about whether Blue Blaze had properly tried to extend its lease. The sides are also arguing over whether Blue Blaze paid the correct amount of rent for the last few months, documents show.
Those arguments ultimately led to Portman filing to evict the brewery over the extension of the lease and nonpayment of rent.
But in August, a magistrate dismissed the case. The dismissal was because the landlord accepted rent checks from Blue Blaze and so it couldn’t file to evict, according to Alicia Sessoms, Blue Blaze’s attorney.
Portman appealed the decision and the matter is pending in district court, even as Blue Blaze is seeking to have the case moved to Mecklenburg County superior court.
Next steps
At a community meeting last week, some Seversville residents asked Scott, of Portman, what will happen to the brewery. Scott, vice president of development, told the crowd of 22 people that discussions are ongoing but that there’s been no resolution.
Scott declined to answer questions from The Charlotte Observer after the meeting about the court case. The company later declined to comment.
One Seversville resident, Joseph McColley, feels powerless about what’s going on.
He attended another community meeting in the past couple of months, and heard a similar answer from Portman that discussions with Blue Blaze were “ongoing.”
It’s obvious to McColley that Portman doesn’t want Blue Blaze there. He wished he had asked the company another question at last week’s meeting: what is the company’s vision for that space?
“I would want their vision to include Blue Blaze,” McColley said. “I think most of us feel strongly about that.”
This story was originally published October 25, 2022 at 5:40 AM.
