NoDa building home to Neighborhood Theatre, popular restaurants, sold for $10 million
A Nashville-based investment and development firm bought a retail block this week in the heart of one of Charlotte’s most popular neighborhoods — although exact plans for the site are unclear.
AJ Capital Partners closed on the deal at 3306 N. Davidson St. in NoDa for $10.3 million, according to Mecklenburg County property records. A number of businesses call the building home, including the live music event venue Neighborhood Theatre. Sun glass shop Johnny Fly Co., the bar Sanctuary and restaurant Boudreaux’s also have businesses there.
Salud Cerveceria, the James Beard-nominated brewpub, and its sidekick Salud Beer Shop, also are on the site.
AJ Capital purchased the building from Ascent Real Estate Capital, a Charlotte-based real estate investment company, records show. Ascent purchased the retail block in September 2016, according to its website.
Officials from AJ Capital Partners and Ascent could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.
Jason Glunt, co-owner of Salud, said he’s known about the sale for months. “They’ve kept us in the loop the whole time,” he told The Charlotte Observer Friday.
Salud has a long-term lease and has no plans to leave its current space, he said.
A history of the NoDa block
The building at the corner of E. 36th and North Davidson dates back to the 1940s, according to Ascent’s website. It has about 28,000 square feet of space, according to Ascent’s website.
Neighborhood Theatre was originally built as a movie theater named Astor in 1945 but closed in the late 1970s, according to Neighborhood Theatre’s website.
The theater underwent restoration in 1997 and was converted into a live performance venue that has a 956-person capacity.
Cerveceria opened in 2017 by expanding to a second-floor space. The beer shop opened in 2012.
The building that holds Boudreaux’s and Sanctuary was built in 1946 by Charles Sears, according to NoDa’s neighborhood website. Sears used the building to run his business, Charlotte Motor Company.
Sears later added what is now the Neighborhood Theatre and the Astro Soda Shop, what is now Sanctuary, according to the site.
About the new NoDa owner
The NoDa project appears to be AJ Capital’s first major investment in Charlotte.
Its website doesn’t list any active projects in the area.
The company has more than $5 billion in real estate investments in more than 50 markets, including the United Kingdom, according to its website. The company was founded in 2008 and has offices in Chicago, San Francisco, New Orleans and Miami.
It primarily works in mixed-use developments, hotel, office, multifamily and retail.
Charlotte Observer staff writer Hannah Lang and editor Melissa Oyler contributed to this report.
This story was originally published February 17, 2023 at 6:30 PM.
