Jeff Feemster, owner of E-Z Parking, dies of heart attack

Jeff Feemster, president of E-Z Parking and former business partner of ex-Charlotte Mayor Patrick Cannon, died Friday of a heart attack, several of his friends confirmed to Qcitymetro. He was 52 years old.

As word of his death spread, friends and acquaintances took to social media to express their condolences.

“Today I lost my childhood Friend and Brother and my own personal basketball Hero,” Joshua N. King Sr. wrote on his Facebook page. “Words are so inadequate right now to really express how I feel.”

As of late Sunday, the family had not released any information about Feemster’s death.

Cannon founded E-Z Parking after longtime Bank of America CEO Hugh McColl approached him in 1996 to find minority contractors in the parking and security businesses. Cannon recruited Feemster, an Appalachian State University graduate who had been a senior project manager with Central Parking. The company ran three properties for the bank and gradually expanded.

According to its website, E-Z Parking manages 20 lots, which together account for more than 10,000 spaces.

In December 2014, after Cannon was sent to federal prison on public corruption charges, Feemster told the Observer that Cannon no longer had any ownership of the company and that E-Z Parking would move past Cannon’s misdeeds, which investigators did not say involved his company.

Feemster, who said he co-founded E-Z Parking with Cannon, had previously owned 50 percent of the company.

“Patrick Cannon is no longer part of this company, and he played almost no role in the business over the past five years,” Feemster said in a statement at the time.

“Although our company has been negatively impacted by his actions, I am doing everything possible to retain the confidence our clients have placed in us for more than 16 years by continuing to provide excellent service and value, “ Feemster said.

Material from the Observer archives was used in this story.

This story was originally published March 29, 2015 at 10:15 PM with the headline "Jeff Feemster, owner of E-Z Parking, dies of heart attack."