- [Narrator] This is a production of PBS Charlotte.

- Just ahead on Carolina Impact.

- I'm Sheila Saints.

The former Park 'N Shop on Wilkinson Boulevard is becoming the Park and Workshop.

We'll take you inside.

- [Amy] Plus, we'll show you what you probably never knew about Lake Norman, what it looked like before there was a lake, and the movie stars and sports heroes who lived on it.

Also, hard work pays off for two up and coming Charlotte entrepreneurs.

How their winning idea could help keep your cell phone batteries charged.

Carolina Impact starts right now.

- [Narrator] Carolina Impact, covering the issues, people and place that impact you.

This is Carolina Impact.

(upbeat music) - Good evening, thanks so much for joining us.

I'm Amy Burkett.

Charlotte's west side has seen a renaissance recently.

Developers have been creating new apartments, restaurants and businesses.

One unique project is transforming the old Park 'N Shop on Wilkinson Boulevard into office space.

As Carolina Impact Sheila Saints reports, the idea is to save an iconic building while breathing new life into the corridor.

(upbeat guitar music) - [Sheila] Construction workers repair a vacant parking lot on Wilkinson Boulevard that years ago was bustling with people visiting the Park 'N Shop.

The grocery store closed in 2004.

Today it's getting a new lease on life.

Red Hill Ventures and Roby Family of Companies are redeveloping the 2.4 acre site into 30,000 square feet of office space called the Park and Workshop.

- [Trent] I've always lived on the west side of Charlotte.

Our construction business allows us to invest in properties.

I really love this property.

When I saw it come back up on the market a couple years ago, I got with some buddies and partners, and I said, "Hey, I think this could be a wonderful office property if we redevelop it."

- [Son] My mother and father have been working together as a team since the day after they got married.

They think alike.

- [Sheila] Charles Reid and wife LaRue owned Park 'N Shop in the 1950's, when highway 74 was the only main road into Charlotte.

(upbeat trumpet music) (sirens ringing) Late one night, fire broke out.

Charles Reid was the chief of the volunteer fire department.

They responded, but the store was a total loss.

- [Charles] Everything my wife and I had worked so hard for was gone.

Would we quit, or get out there and bounce back?

- [Neal] He had a truck in the parking lot with a load of apples in it, and he said, "Let's open the truck.

Let's start selling apples."

Told the bread man, "Unload the bread.

We'll sell bread."

- [Sheila] Charles, known for his work ethic and loyalty, sold groceries from a shack, until the new store was built in 1958.

Park 'N Shop was known for its promotions and its produce.

Through the years, the chain grew to 10 grocery stores.

- What they've uncovered is this little trench that the buggy wheel would stop in to keep it from rolling on out.

- [Sheila] Neal Reid is one of their four children.

- [Neal] I tell people I did what he couldn't find anybody else to do.

But mostly produce.

That was his baby.

The storefront was here, and the cars drove through here.

The cash registers, the registers were going this way.

The snack bar was over that way.

At one time, in just a different era, there was actually a restaurant here.

You could pick out a steak in the meat department, and bring it over here, and they would cook it for you.

So the meat department was along here.

Here to the back wall is basement underneath.

- [Sheila] Neal keeps artifacts, mementos and stories, like the one from the 1960s.

His father hired Daisy and Violet Hilton, conjoined twins and Vaudeville performers, abandoned in Charlotte by their agent.

- If anybody was willing to work, he would find a job for you.

I'm guessing my wife and I met probably right about here.

(laughs) - [Sheila] Neal and his wife Emily both worked in the store as young adults.

- [Emily] We're just grateful, so grateful that it's being preserved with the history of Charlotte and Neal's father, and all that he has done in the grocery business and along the way.

- While saving an iconic Charlotte structure is a good idea, preserving an old building comes with some challenges.

(upbeat music) LaBella Associates manages the project's architecture and engineering.

They're creating a modern workspace with skylights.

- [Timothy] It was something that you could easily pass by, driving down Wilkinson, and not even know it was here.

Just a relic from a bygone time.

And what we wanted to do was shift that to be a catalyst project, to be a lantern out speaking to that corridor, saying, "Come on in.

We're open for business.

We're attracting new businesses."

In this case, the appetite involves people appreciating buildings with stories, and this one certainly had one.

We had an opportunity to wipe the slate clean here and put up something shiny and new, and that just didn't feel right.

Sometimes the play is to celebrate what you have.

It's to let these buildings continue to be a part of the fabric of the neighborhood that's unique.

- [Sheila] Simonini Homes will be the main tenant, with room for others.

- [John] And this whole area is just going to turn over as well.

So we're trendsetters, right?

And people want your builders to be trendsetters, right?

That's what we do is we have to set the trend of the new market for new homes.

What a better place to come with it, revive the old Park 'N Shop grocery store.

- This is like in our backyard, so this is kind of like home.

- [Sheila] Professional artist Jax Jackson grew up in the Westerly Hills neighborhood behind the store.

- But I think it's real cool that they're keeping the original infrastructure of the building, as far as that distressed look, because that's becoming more popular now.

Honestly, I feel like it's gonna make people want to do more things to their homes in order to be able to match the transition that's happening up here.

I think it's gonna be just the beginning.

- [Trent] It's just neat to be able to carry on a tradition, and get another run out of this building, and hopefully create more memories.

- [Sheila] In a city known for tearing down its old buildings, developers are preserving one that is so uniquely Charlotte.

For Carolina Impact, I'm Sheila Saints reporting.

- Thank you, Sheila.

It's always nice to see a little bit of our history preserved.

The firms redeveloping the Park 'N Shop property are using the Opportunity Zone Program, a federal tax incentive designed to spur economic growth in distressed areas.

While many of the Opportunity Zones are in west Charlotte, some include north Charlotte and the Eastland area.

Next, we meet local entrepreneurs who created kiosks to charge our cell phones.

Within weeks they were able to raise $125,000 from family and friends.

Carolina Impact's Jason Terzis tells us more.

(upbeat music) - [Jason] At one time or another, it's happened to just about all of us, a dead phone battery.

And it always seems to happen at the most inconvenient of places, an airport, sporting event, concert, some place where access to a charger or even an outlet can be hard to find.

- We live in a day and age where anything can happen at any time.

85% of Americans don't leave their home with a charger.

- [Jason] But thanks to a pair of Winston Salem State University fraternity brothers, having a dying phone battery just might be the thing of the past.

- So you see the bikes around, around Charlotte.

You see the scooters.

You see Uber, you see your Lyfts.

So we're another element of that, that's providing this on-the-go solution.

- [Jason] Desmond Wiggan and Aubrey Yeboah co-founded the Charlotte based tech startup Battery Xchange.

Think of it like a vending machine or a Redbox video rental, but for phone batteries.

- Never thought an idea or a piece of paper would turn into something that is bigger than what we envisioned.

- [Jason] The guys created a way for people to charge their phones while on the go.

No need for an outlet, or to be tethered to a charging cable.

- It charges really fast, works really well.

It's really convenient for when we're going to football games, or if you're just out.

You know you can charge your phone.

- 'Cause I'm always on the go, and a lot of my classes are spread out.

So it's like I don't have my charger on me, but I can grab that real quick, and then go to class.

And then I'm in class, and then bring it back.

- [Jason] Funny thing is, the creation of Battery Xchange happened kind of by accident.

In 2018, Aubrey and Desmond were in China, working towards their masters degrees in business administration.

- So we went from Beijing to Shanghai to Hong Kong to Suzhou, all these big cities.

And we took the train, we took the bus, and we even flew sometimes.

And with that, you're in constant use of your phone.

- [Jason] One night, the guys were out late.

Their phone batteries died, and they didn't have a charger.

Toss in a language barrier, and suddenly they had a problem.

- And we were like, how are we gonna get back to campus?

How do we get back to school with no cell phone, right?

We can't call an uber, and we can't call our friends to see if they can give us a ride.

- [Jason] The guys eventually got home that night, and the seed for an idea was planted.

- We started to think.

Why isn't there a more convenient way for us to charge our cell phone while we're on the go?

And so that really was the light bulb moment that spawned Battery Xchange.

Because we were just like, if we run into this inconvenience, we know thousands, if not millions of people, potentially run into this as well.

So we were just like, why not figure out a solution.

- [Jason] Drawing up ideas, what that solution might look like.

- So literally that same night we started sketching up some ideas on some of the things that we thought a solution would need.

- [Aubrey] Of course, it's all on paper.

It's like chicken scratch.

(laughs) We're just like...

I don't even know if this is possible.

- We would walk around with this sheet of paper to various people, just trying to connect and say like, "Hey, can we get this built?"

- [Jason] Eventually, a prototype was built.

Then was time for startup funding, with Aubrey and Desmond raising an astonishing $120,000 from family and friends in just six weeks.

They also received a major grant.

- From there we realized that we had to figure out how to make this kiosk machine work, and dispense batteries.

So we looked at the Redbox scenario, how they put their business model together, and then we looked at Uber, we looked at the scooters and the bikes that are in our community.

So we said, "We need a mobile application for this."

- It's just like an Uber application where you can pretty much identify where our kiosk machines are located.

I've already created a profile, so all I have to do is open up my QR code scanner, and then I literally scan the QR code like that.

I confirm my rental, and then I wait for it to pop out.

Out pops out a battery, and it's compatible with lightning for iPhones, type-C, and micro USB cables.

I have an iPhone, so all I have to do is literally plug it up like this, and then I'm off to charging.

And then once I'm finished, all I have to do is put the lightning cord back in, and then return it to any one of the slots.

And just like that, I return it back, and that's my checkout.

- [Jason] With locations popping up around Charlotte, Battery Xchange just installed multiple new kiosks on the campus of their alma mater, Winston Salem State.

And here's the best part.

Renting a battery is free.

You get it for four hours, with the only charge coming if you don't return it.

- [L.J.]

Honestly, after using it, it's one of those things where I'm like, I don't know why you wouldn't charge for it, honestly.

It's a great idea.

- So the business that we partner with pay for the kiosk to be there for free.

- [Jason] Then how are you guys making money?

- Through the business.

The business pays us, and then we have a platform where third party businesses can run ads on our digital screens.

- [Jason] The goal, keep manufacturing the kiosks, and get the word out, especially with the younger, on-the-go generation.

- [Desmond] You know, really looking to scale in the university space within a region, across the nation.

- Especially on a campus like this, or any campus in general, because we're always walking around and moving.

So I just feel like it's needed to have a charger, 'cause not everyone charges their phone when they get to their room, or some people don't go to their room all day.

- [L.J.]

I think honestly, for a lot of the kids my age, and the guys my age who want to be entrepreneurs, and want to indulge themselves in that career path, it just gives motivation for them.

They see somebody from here do it, and then you just...

They feel like they can do it themselves.

So I feel like it's a great thing.

It's really inspiring.

- [Jason] Providing a real time solution to an everyday issue, while inspiring the next generation at their alma mater.

For Carolina Impact, I'm Jason Terzis reporting.

- Thank you, Jason.

The men hope to some day have Batter Xchange kiosks at every large venue where people gather, college campuses, hospitals, airports, stadiums and theaters.

If you're a lake lover, one of the lakes you love in our region is probably Lake Norman.

It's different than the other lakes along the Catawba River.

Lake Norman is bigger.

In fact, it's the biggest lake in North Carolina.

And it's younger, too.

Young enough that some of us still remember when Lake Norman wasn't a lake at all.

PBS Charlotte's Jeff Sonier and photographer Doug Stacker have more on Lake Norman from a living history documentary Catawba 100, Our Century on the River.

(upbeat orchestral music) - [Narrator 2] They say every town has its main street.

Well, this is ours.

- [Jeff] Mooresville was here before the lake was here.

- [Andy] Oh, yes, yes.

- [Narrator 2] Our fathers and mothers in our hometown- - [Jeff] Did Mooresville understand what was about to happen, (soft piano music) that they were about to become a lake community?

- Nobody did, no.

Nobody understood what impact that lake was going to be, because the sheer size of it.

I mean, 500 miles of shoreline.

And it is the biggest manmade lake in the southeast.

- [Jeff] Mooresville historian Andy Poore is talking about Lake Norman, the Catawba River's new kid on the block.

- [Andy] This is the actual map, and there's the river.

- [Jeff] He traces on this old 1917 canvas map where the Catawba was a hundred years ago, and where the lake is today.

- [Andy] All of this is all under Lake Norman.

- [Jeff] Andy also has vintage postcards from the '60s and '70s, when they broke ground on the dam that formed Lake Norman.

- [Andy] This, of course, shows the dam.

This was taken about in the 1970s.

They actually sculpted and created Lake Norman.

- Wow.

Old photos showing the old roads and bridges that disappeared under the rising water, (soft piano music) when new roads and bridges were built, to cross the lake that wasn't there yet.

- [Andy] This is the bridge.

I mean, this is the tributary that ran under it, and that's Lake Norman.

- [Jeff] Wow.

- [Andy] This is what's going to be Lake Norman right there.

My parents were both in the band in 1960, in the high school band, and they played at the groundbreaking for the dam.

We had a little lake house on the, on the lake, so we would go spend our weekends or summers out on the lake.

- [Jeff] Family by family, that lake changed lives, I suppose.

It changed how you lived your life.

- [Andy] Yes, it did.

It really did.

Lake Norman has sort of tied all these communities together, whereas they used to be separate little individual pockets, because the other part of it was not just the lake, but it was the interstate.

- [Jeff] Yep, a few years after Lake Norman came, so did I-77 north of Charlotte in 1968, connecting those little towns like Mooresville on the big, growing lake to the big, growing city.

And that's when Lake Norman became a different kind of lake.

- [Boots] The large house immediately to the right, the beige house with the brown roof, is the former residence of movie star Burt Reynolds.

- [Jeff] Attracting movie stars and race cars.

- [Boots] That house was just recently sold.

It was the home of Kurt Busch, the NASCAR driver.

- [Jeff] Boots Beasley says Lake Norman today is home to movers and shakers.

- That's the former residence of North Carolina Panther player, Mr. Julius Peppers.

It has a bell tower located on the top of the house.

- [Jeff] And back in the day, maybe even some moonshine makers.

- [Boots] A lot of it has not been verified, but you tell a story long enough, it becomes fact.

(laughs) - [Jeff] Beasley's been telling stories on Lake Norman about Lake Norman for 17 years.

(horns honking) He's the captain on the Catawba Queen, the Lake Norman tour boat that takes passengers on a different kind of history lesson.

(soft piano music) - That's not the official history.

- But it's a pretty colorful history.

- Yep, yep, yep.

I'm on the water probably 250, 300 days a year.

- [Jeff] These sightseers snap pictures as Beasley sails past the fancy and famous homes, the familiar Lake Norman landmarks, and the not so familiar, like this old A-frame that was blown into the lake during Hurricane Hugo.

And on this trip, when Lake Norman starts storming... - [Boots] We're fighting a crosswind.

I've got to get further offshore here.

- [Jeff] Well, the stories will have to wait for now as Beasley guides his 42 ton tour boat, filled with passengers, through 50 mile an hour lake wind.

I'm looking out these windows.

I see what you mean about... - This wind.

You see how this wind's shifting?

I'm doing...

It's all I can do to push this boat out off this shore.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna have to stay a little bit further offshore than normal due to this wind, till it lets up a little.

- [Jeff] That storm kind of came up from nowhere, didn't it?

- [Boots] It wasn't supposed to get here that quick.

I saw it coming, but it wasn't supposed to get in this quick.

But it sure did.

- [Jeff] Finally, once the storm passes, well, the passengers get another chance to step outside, to see the sights, to hear the stories.

- Well, actually, this is a birthday present for me.

I've never been on Lake Norman before.

I love lakes.

- [Jeff] Sarah Brust is here with her daughter, Isabelle.

- Okay, captain, jump in and grab you two hand fulls.

- [Jeff] Who actually got a chance to steer the Catawba Queen before the storm.

- [Isabelle] I was scared I was gonna hit something, but other than that, I was good.

- [Jeff] Nice mother and daughter day on the lake.

- [Sarah] Yes, absolutely.

- Yes.

- [Sarah] It's beautiful.

- [Jeff] So you're a lake girl.

Is she a lake girl too?

- [Isabelle] Yeah.

- [Sarah] Yeah.

I'd say so.

- Is she really?

(Sarah laughs) - I like pools better.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

- This is a pretty big pool.

- Yes, it is.

- [Boots] Yeah, I grew up on this lake.

Did all my dating and running around, and the lake's been in our family's history ever since the fill.

- [Jeff] And these days, Catawba Queen captain Boots Beasley, says the best part of his job may be sharing his lake, and his lake history with other families, so they can make Lake Norman their lake too.

- [Amy] You can watch the entire Catawba 100 documentary on our website at pbscharlotte.org.

Well, I love reading books.

Do you?

The pandemic rekindled a passion for reading for a lot of folks.

Carolina Impact's Beatrice Thompson explains, the pandemic has provided a positive one-two punch of books and business, for at least one local store.

- So Blackout is a young adult fiction book.

Six authors contributed to it.

(upbeat music) - [Beatrice] Take a good look at what many thought was a bygone experience in the age of social media, (door creaks) (doorbell dings) entering a brick and mortar bookstore, finding titles that intrigue and excite, and walking away with a treasure.

- Yes, yes, I love reading physical copies of books.

I have done a few audio books, but my preference is definitely turning the pages of the book.

(upbeat music) - [Beatrice] Welcome to a space that expands on its title as a bookstore.

For owner Sonyah Spencer, the Urban Reader bookstore is designed to offer those who enter so much more.

- [Sonyah] What I call rebuilding the community, and opening up the doors for anybody who wants to know, ask questions, or just anything.

And it's happening.

- [Beatrice] Along with her business as a consultant, she's been a bookseller for several years.

Yet the former Air Force brat says she found herself answering questions from former white classmates.

- [Sonyah] A lot of my classmates were calling me.

They didn't understand the things that we're talking about, police brutality, black men.

And I said, "There's books out there."

- [Beatrice] The results, the opening of the Urban Reader bookstore in the university area.

Enter the space, and you'll find books on African Americans that cover a gamut of topics, books on Black Civil War regiments, on the topic of strange fruit that Billie Holiday sang about, to the words from John Lewis.

They're copies of posters like this that show how Africans were brought to this country, enslaved in the bottoms of ships.

And they're posters of people whose names you will know, all of whom were jailed because of what they believed in.

This is what you learn at the Urban Reader.

For teachers and parents, the Urban Reader provides what many have searched for, an oasis of books to meet a burgeoning need for information to teach children.

- One teacher, she was from a rural area, and she heard about the bookstore, drove down, and she says, "They're not gonna tell me what my students are gonna read or not read, and I want African American books in my classroom."

- [Beatrice] The store goes much deeper, showing images of people of different ethnicities and gender in a section called Own Voices.

- So Own Voices includes every ethnicity, handicap, LGBQ, anything that you can think of, besides just what we consider just our general races.

- It's all about the inclusiveness.

- Inclusiveness, yes.

And then on the other side, you can see Own Voices where the children's section.

- Just being simply around books, and specifically this store, the very first time I came in grand opening day, and I saw the artist painting the murals over here, and you just don't see that in other bookstores.

You don't see our faces on these walls.

- [Beatrice] The bookstore showcases the mural artwork of Tashma.

Another major focus of this bookstore is to showcase other small businesses.

- As you go around the store, you'll see just different types of earrings, book bags, wine glasses, et cetera.

These are small businesses that are within my business.

They do consignment.

So I offer them an opportunity to grow, as well.

- It is a very good partnership, and I think it's proving to be profitable for both of us.

- [Beatrice] Tami Stewart's artistic business, Custom Jewelry, gained an outlet.

As she points out, when small businesses support each other, it becomes a win-win for the economy.

- I believe that if we all support one another, we all get ahead.

You know, teamwork makes the dream work.

Everybody has the same dream.

We're all a part of the same team of entrepreneurship.

- I waited until the ocean was dry, until the moon stopped kissing the earth at night.

- [Beatrice] To broaden its outreach and to give voice to the community, once a month, the Urban Reader bookstore holds an open mic session where poetry readers and the general public recite their creations, and speak on the state of the world.

Last month, it was standing room only.

And for those who love to read... - [Deaja] Even if I don't come out with a book, I know I can always comes back.

Just browsing, and taking my time to look at what's available, I enjoy that as well, just the simple things.

So when was the last time you did just that, enjoyed the simple things?

It could be as simple again as picking up a book, and exploring the possibility.

For Carolina Impact, I'm Bea Thompson reporting.

- Thank you, Bea.

You can learn more about the Urban Reader bookstore on our website.

Well, that's all the time we have this evening.

We always appreciate your time, and look forward to seeing you back here again next time on Carolina Impact.

Goodnight, my friends.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] A production of PBS Charlotte.