They run one of Charlotte’s hottest restaurants. Now they aim to save a Dilworth landmark
Jamie Brown and her husband Jeff Tonidandel have some experience converting older buildings into restaurants.
They’ve done it in Plaza Midwood with the popular Supperland — recently named one of the best new restaurants in America by Esquire — that’s found a home in an old church. They’re working on plans to bring another restaurant to a 1915 church building in Dilworth.
While their latest project involves yet another historic building, this time the couple is venturing down a new path.
The couple just kick-started a plan to pick up and move a historic 26-foot-by-61-foot building about 750 feet to a parking lot they own.
The building in question is the Leeper & Wyatt store at 1923 South Blvd.
Built in 1903, it’s one of nearly 400 historic landmarks designated across the county. It’s the oldest surviving retail brick commercial buildings in Dilworth, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission.
It served Charlotte as a grocery store for more than 50 years, but now sits vacant.
The future of the Leeper & Wyatt building was looking like it’d fit into a familiar narrative in Charlotte.
Despite its historical significance, the building has faced the threat of demolition over the past year due to development. Nashville developer Southern Land has been inching closer to starting construction on a high-rise luxury apartment building at the corner of East Tremont Avenue and South Boulevard.
Southern Land has said it wasn’t feasible to keep the Leeper & Wyatt building on site given future city plans to widen South Boulevard. The company has been examining ways to relocate the building, saying it wasn’t the type of developer that seeks to tear down buildings.
One plan to move the building to a nearby property recently fell through. Brown and Tonidandel decided to step in.
“We knew there weren’t a lot of spaces for that building to go,” Tonidandel told The Charlotte Observer. “If it were going to be saved, there were very few spots that could house it.”
Turns out, a parking lot they have next to the 1915 church building is a good choice.
Restoring old buildings is ‘what we do’
The Tonidandel-Brown restaurant group runs a few other spots you may have heard of: Haberdish and Ever Andalo in NoDa. Their latest restaurant, Leluia Hall, eventually will be housed in a former Dilworth church at East Worthington and Cleveland avenues.
Brown and Tonidandel have been working alongside developer Andrew Rowe, who had been attempting to move the Leeper & Wyatt building to property he owns nearby. When his plan fell through, the trio floated the idea of moving the building to the parking lot beside Leluia Hall.
“This is what we do,” Tonidandel said. “We put restaurants in old spaces. We love restoring them. We love the authenticity.”
To be clear, the couple will first need City Council approval to move the building to their parking lot. Even if that gets approval, the couple admits they have no idea how they’d use the Leeper & Wyatt structure. It could be a restaurant or event space.
The plan is to move the top two floors of the building — it has a basement but that’s too difficult to move.
They want the move to happen sooner rather than later. The couple realizes Southern Land has a lot at stake with its development project in terms of time and money. It makes sense for their financial picture to get it done sooner, too.
Southern Land appreciates the couple’s efforts to move the building, a company spokeswoman said in an email this week. The company is working with the couple on timing of the relocation as it relates to starting its project.
The company said in March it was anticipating a groundbreaking between July and September.
A sacrifice in the move
With the decision to move the Leeper & Wyatt comes a sacrifice.
If the building is moved to the parking lot, the couple would be sacrificing all of its parking spots for Leluia Hall and whatever concept they decide for Leeper & Wyatt, the couple said.
They are working on ways to solve that problem, including creation of a drop-off zone for folks coming by car.
It comes down to saving a parking lot or an early 1900s building. Saving the building, the couple said, was an easy decision.
This story was originally published May 22, 2023 at 6:30 AM.
