Metro Fitness opening south Charlotte gym

Metro Fitness plans to open its third Charlotte location next year, this one on Carmel Road in south Charlotte, in a location currently occupied by Two Pros Fitness.

The 6,000-square-foot gym has a targeted opening date sometime in January. The facility, called Metro 51, will offer CrossFit, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, self-defense, conditioning and youth classes. Personal training services will also be available.

"Metro 51 will offer the same high quality fitness experience that we are known for at our first two locations,” said Metro Fitness owner Denise Abood, in a statement. “From superior coaching to progressive training equipment to clean and upscale facilities, this location will look and feel Metro."

The gym is partnering with E.Z. Smith IV to open the new Metro location. Smith IV currently owns Two Pros, which is being upgraded to transition to Metro. Smith IV will oversee the gym's day-to-day operations.

There are currently Metro gym locations in Elizabeth and Myers Park.


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Charlotte H&M stores opening in November and December

The first two Charlotte-area H&M stores are set to open in November and December, with Northlake Mall's store opening first, followed by the Carolina Place location.

Northlake's grand opening is scheduled for noon on Thursday, Nov. 14. The event will feature giveaways and music, Northlake said. 

Rendering of the Northlake H&M

The Carolina Place store will open in early December, though an exact date hasn't been set, a mall representative said.

In terms of size, the Northlake store will be larger than the Carolina Place store, clocking in at 25,600 square feet. It's located in the former Borders bookstore at Northlake. The Carolina Place store will be 17,000 square feet.

Building permits show H&M is spending a substantial amount to upgrade and renovate both stores. At Northlake, permits show H&M is spending about $2 million on the new store. And at Carolina Place, the fast-fashion retailer is investing about $2.5 million.

I.C. London at the Village at SouthPark

There's a new option for upscale lingerie at the Village at SouthPark, with a 1,262-square-foot I.C. London store that opened earlier this month.

The store joins I.C. London locations in Dilworth and Ballantyne. Here's their description, if you're not familiar with the company:

"Known for providing the largest selection of bras in the Charlotte metro area, I.C. London offers women bra sizes ranging from A-M cup and band sizes of 30-46. Owner Shelly Domenech initially brought the family business to Charlotte and opened the first I.C. London location in Historic
Dilworth."

And here's a story from December about the I.C. London's success, written by my excellent colleague Caroline McMillan Portillo. An excerpt:

"As the lingerie and fine sleepwear boutique I.C. London celebrates 20 years in Charlotte, owner Shelly Domenech, 43, remembers when she almost handed over the keys.
It was 1996. The boutique – a play on the “I see London, I see France” rhyme – was 7 and Domenech was 30. It was the only job she’d ever had.

Her parents had bought the store in 1989, when it was named “Illusions” and located in their hometown of Hendersonville, about 100 miles west of Charlotte.
Domenech, a recent college graduate and an MBA student at UNC Charlotte became the sole owner at 23, moving the store to its current location off East Boulevard in Dilworth.
She dropped out of the master’s program and signed the lease. Ten days later, her 52-year-old father died.
“I said, ‘This is one of the last things my dad did on this earth. I’m going to make it work,’ ” Domenech recalls."

 

 

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Longboards bites the dust on East Blvd.

In another round of the disappearing restaurants at Kenilworth Drive and East Blvd. saga, Longboards Tap and Taco is no more.

I learned of the closure Friday night, when I had arranged to meet some friends there after work. When we showed up - whoops, no Longboards. Even most of the furniture in the darkened building had been removed. No one answered the restaurant's phone on Monday.

The restaurant lasted for about six months, in a troubled spot that has now been Picasso's, Sutton House and Longboards in the mere three years I've lived in the neighborhood. So what's wrong with the location? Here's Charlotte Restaurant Traffic's take: 

"What went wrong? I don’t think you can open a restaurant in Charlotte without one parking space? Maybe you don’t need parking in New York City to run a successful restaurant but here you are dooming yourself to failure. Throw in Longboards mediocre food and you have a recipe for disaster. I drove by Longboards on Saturday and it looked like buzzards had picked the place clean, even the booths are gone. We give credit to groups that take it upon themselves to try to open restaurants and feel bad when they don’t make it. Longboards tried and failed."

While I agree with Charlotte Restaurant Traffic that the food was "meh," I'll miss Longboards' good, fairly-priced local beer selection. The atmosphere, while at times a bit loud and confusing, was also a step up over Longboards' predecessors.

So long, Longboards. We hardly knew ye.

What do you think could make it in that spot? Anything?

Bonus question: Do you think the huge mural on the side of the Longboards building should stay or go?

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Nana's Soul Food opening second location

Nana's Soul Food Kitchen, which has won praise for its down-home buffet meals featuring favorites such as collard greens and mac and cheese, is opening a second location next month in Indian Trail.

Jody Yetti, director of operations for the restaurant, said the 3,500-square-foot location will be in the Carolina Courts basketball facility on Chestnut Parkway in Indian Trail. Shawn and Kiana Morrison started the original Nana's near Yorkmont and West Tyvola roads after moving to Charlotte from New York five years ago.

Some of the soul food available at Nana's

"Mr. Morrison would always say, 'You can't get good soul food here," said Yetti. "He would say, 'My wife can cook better.'"

Expansion had always been the plan, Yetti said. The grand opening for the Indian Trail location is set for Nov. 15 (updated from Nov. 8).

This is Nana's second attempt to branch out. Nana's did try to open a fine-dining uptown restaurant last year, but it closed after eight months. Yetti said there wasn't enough parking to make the location in Gateway Village on Trade Street work.

At the Indian Trail location, Yetti said they will try to continue many of the things that made the original Nana's a hit, such as its family feel.

"We have a big church following on Sundays," said Yetti. "That's probably our biggest day."

One thing they'll definitely have plenty of is the soul food. Yetti has trouble picking her favorite dish.

"I love chef's bread pudding," she said. "I would say that, and the mac and cheese." Then she paused.

"I take that back. The yams are my favorite. The yams are so good."

American Girl store coming to SouthPark

American Girl fans, get excited: The company said Tuesday it plans to open a 12,000-square-foot store in SouthPark mall next year that will include a small restaurant and a doll hair salon.

The store will be the doll company's only North Carolina retail outlet. The American Girl store will open in fall 2014, in the Macy's wing of SouthPark.

"As a leader in experiential retail, American Girl has found a great partner in SouthPark Mall, a well-established premium retailer with an upscale mix of stores and restaurants," said said Wade Opland, American Girl’s vice president of retail, in a statement. "It's an ideal location to introduce American Girl to the area and we look forward to opening our doors next fall."

The SouthPark store will carry the full line of American Girl dolls and many of the associated books, clothes for girls, doll outfits and accessories. In addition, it will also have a selection of other services:

"American Girl fans will be able to enjoy a meal and a delicious dessert or celebrate a birthday in the store’s fun and casual 25-seat Bistro, treat their dolls to a new hairdo in the Doll Hair Salon, or design a cute doll-sized T-shirt in the “Creativi-Tees” boutique."

There are currently 16 American Girl retail stores, with its first and flagship retail store opened in Chicago in 1998. The closest to Charlotte are in Atlanta and Washington, D.C. American Girl is a division of toy maker Mattel, Inc.

Simon Property Group owns SouthPark mall, the region's largest shopping center at 1.6 million square feet. The mall is more than 94 percent occupied, according to Simon's most recent annual report.

"We're delighted to welcome American Girl to SouthPark," said Randy Thomas, general manager
at SouthPark, in a statement. "We strive to continuously evolve as a shopping destination and American Girl further enhances our property’s list of retailers."

Check out the trailer for the American Girl movie about doll/girl Kit Kittredge. She wants to be - what else? - a reporter.

 

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Update: J.C. Penney, Kohl's to open Thanksgiving Day

Kohl's and J.C. Penney joined the crush of stores breaking down the wall between Thanksgiving and commerce, with their announcements that they plan to open at 8 p.m. Thanksgiving Day.

Granted, it was already a pretty leaky wall, with Toys 'R' Us, Target, Walmart, Sears and Kmart all opening on Thanksgiving Day last year. But with the announcements from Macy's last week and Kohl's Monday that they'll also open on Thanksgiving, the last bastions of retail resistance are crumbling.

J.C. Penney will also open at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. The suffering retailer had held out for a 6 a.m. Friday opening in years past, meaning it was one of the last stores in line for customers to shop.

"Obviously, we were one of the last to open (last year)," Tony Bartlett, J.C. Penney's executive vice president of stores, said in USA Today. But this year: "We're all in."

"As many customers are eager to get a jumpstart on their shopping, we are opening our stores at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day as a convenience to our customers who want to make Kohl’s their first stop," said Michelle Gass, Kohl's chief customer officer, in a statement.

"Shopping over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend has become a much-anticipated tradition enjoyed with friends and family," said Gass.

All of which means more people than ever before will likely be bolting from the Thanksgiving meal to wait in lines outside shops, or skipping dinner altogether. And more workers will miss their holiday, because they'll be prepping the sales floors for our arrival.

But, as Gass hints, perhaps no retailer can afford to stay closed on Thanksgiving anymore. If your customers are spending all their money at your competitors, they might not have any left for you if you wait until midnight or even (as stores did just three years ago) 4 a.m. Friday to open.

The early shopping rush still begs the question: Why go out and freeze your tail off on Thanksgiving day when you can shop online with your feet propped up in front of the fire, or football game? That's where I'll be with Amazon.com and my iPad. What do you think?