It’s a tale old as Charlotte — a small, colorful, local business with dedicated patronage gobbled up by a greedy developer so he can level it, building condos in its place.
The Thirsty Beaver is an eclectic, inclusive, modern-in-attitude yet vintage-in-style bar in Plaza Midwood. Its enormous popularity defies its tiny stature. The Beaver has consistently been voted one of Charlotte’s best neighborhood bars and best dive bars since it opened in 2008. It’s beloved by both the community that surrounds it and the people who travel 30-plus minutes several times a week just to hang there.
This month, one man decided that it must fall.
John Hatcher of John Hatcher Realty owns a large chunk of land that contains much of Plaza Midwood’s business district, including the land surrounding the Beaver. In fact, if the Thirsty Beaver weren’t sitting atop its lot — which is owned by Charlotte resident George P. Salem — Hatcher could sell the entire corner at Central and Pecan avenues to a condo developer and make out with a hefty sum from this prime piece of real estate. The only problem is the Thirsty Beaver’s owners don’t plan to move out of his way. (Their lease is up in five years and Salem declined to answer questions for this story regarding his intentions for the land.) So Hatcher devised a scheme to force it to close.
Without warning, two weeks ago he erected a chain-link fence around the perimeter of the Beaver, blocking an emergency exit and leaving barely enough room for a single person to pass between it and the building. Presumably, the plan was to make the fire marshal deem the bar unsafe and shut it down. The icing on the cake would be for bar patrons to feel put off by the prison-like feel the fence created and stop giving the Beaver their business.
Neither of these initiatives succeeded. On Wednesday, June 19, the city ordered John Hatcher Realty to tear part of the fence down because it violated city code, which dictates it has to be 24 feet from the road. Instead of shutting the Beaver down, the fire marshal had a talk with Hatcher that I imagine went something like this (Hatcher refused to comment for this story): “Come on, dude. You’re really OK with a bar full of people dying in a fire as long as it means you can get rich off condos? At least put in a freaking gate!” So Hatcher put in a gate by the back door.
As for any hopes of bar patrons feeling uncomfortable and not returning, they were likely dashed as the Beaver had a week of record sales and an outpouring of community support.
“The positive responses from the public and from customers has been overwhelming,” said owner Mark Wilson. “We can’t express how grateful we are to them for their continued support.”
It seems the only damage Hatcher did with his fence stunt was to his own reputation in the community, which was already suffering after earlier this year, when he allowed a recently opened club on Pecan Avenue to charge patrons $5 to park in every surrounding lot, requiring customers, employees and even owners of neighboring businesses to pony up the cash to the club they had no intention of patronizing.
“That guy is Plaza Midwood’s worst nightmare,” said resident Sarah Leslie.
On the Thirsty Beaver Facebook fan page, many have said they’ve called John Hatcher Realty daily to express their outrage. A mile-long list of people call Hatcher greedy and immoral.
The fence still stands, and Beaver regulars have taken to decorating it with “Free the Beaver” signs and protest bras. If anything, this spectacle has added yet another layer of character to the bar and emboldened its already loyal clientele.
When I asked Wilson about speculation that he was moving the Beaver to a spot on Monroe Road, he said, “No, we actually were planning to open up something different there. We plan to stay at this location for as long as possible.”
Maybe developers and greedy landowners should just move on.
The story originally incorrectly stated when the Thirsty Beaver opened. It opened in 2008.
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This article appears in Jun 26 – Jul 2, 2013.
or maybe the developers should embrace the loyality and incorporate the beaver into their plan.
This is poor journalism at best. All the information I have indicates that the Thirsty Beaver is not paying to use the land that it has used as a parking lot. A landlord wanting to get paid for the use of his property does not make them “greedy” – it makes them a businessman. TB either needs to pay for parking, or move to a location that has suitable parking.
This is what happened to my old bar, Tonic, and my old clothing store Urban Evolution at the East Blvd location by the same developer! Developers want to squeeze you out regardless of the fact that your business is what make the once unnoticed land actually desirable now. We went out to support the Beaver the first night the fence went up. LONG LIVE THE BEAVER!
The beaver was paying for the use of Hatcher’s lot and had been since they opened. Hatcher told them he would no longer accept payment for the lot and that they could no longer use it for parking. That was his first attempt to force them out. When that didn’t slow patronage, he erected his fence.
Hatcher owns all the eyesores in Plaza Midwood; including that HORRIBLE plaza with Family Dollar. That entire plaza makes PM look like a rundown parking lot. Maybe he should have started with that. I’m all about supporting the community and local business, but in order for those businesses to thrive, we need a reason for people to come to PM. A rundown Family Dollar and taking up the majority of his land with a parking lot (most of which you now have to pay to use,) is such a waste. Ridiculous that he would consider taking a local business away that is actually DRAWING people to the neighborhood. This guy is up to no good.
This is GREED, short sighted greed. For instance, I don’t live in Charlotte but quite often come down to Charlotte to specifically go to the saloon. But that’s not all I do. I usually end up shopping around the area or other parts of Charlotte. We eat dinner and sometimes get accommodations at a hotel for the night which means breakfast in Charlotte the next day. All in all a lot of cash put into YOUR local economy. I know it’s not just me either. I usually bring down 2 or 3 people with me. I know several others that come from out of town to visit the beaver. Why? .the same reasons the locals do. Because it is a friendly, fun and welcoming atmosphere. A place where you can just tell that the owners love the place and love the people that come there. Where the sweat and hard work of two guys has paid off in something locally owned and successful. It’s a success story much like most of the central avenue area. Where locals came into a place that was on a downhill slope and revitalized it and made it a homemade jewel in the queen city’s crown. A jewel that lures folks from far way to be a part of it.
Yes maybe some day somebody may want to build high rise condos with a Starbucks in the bottom. And really, aren’t there enough of those in Charlotte already? But for now the parking lot goes unused where it could be helping a home grown successful business to flourish and help Charlotte shine.
They previously had been paying over $1000 / month for the parking. All he needed to do was put up a chain over the entrance and post No Parking signs. People are still parking there BTW.
Eric Kotz, all the information you have sucks ass.
The Beaver paid more to Hatcher to rent the parking lot than they did for the Beaver building each month. Commenter Eric Kotz should check his facts. However, CL, the Beaver has only been open since Jan 2008 and I’m not sure Hatcher owns the land all the way to Pecan- you may have meant the block along Central after Hawthorne. No matter: long live the Beaver and the small business owners that make Charlotte unique.
Lauren, that “run down Family Dollar” is the original store. Its not my cup of tea either, but Plaza Midwood has done fine growing around it, and I don’t see it going anywhere any time soon. I also don’t think Bistro La Bon, Yoga One or the Dog Salon are “horrible.”
The Beaver was nothing more than a run down block building for years and nobody gave .02c about it until someone came along a couple years ago and put a mural on the side of it of a rodent wearing a cowboy hat. Embrace change for it is inevitable. What complete tear down and new project have you seen John Hatcher Realty do in the past 15 years in Plaza Midwood. Aside from CVS. Nothing.
The Family Dollar is a store I shop at and anyone on a budget would do well to do that as well. Let’s face it if there was no business for Family Dollar they would not stay open. There is really nothing run down about this location, if you shopped there you would know that they have remodeled this store twice in recent years even moving it over a little in the shopping center.
I agree maybe they have too much parking, but you never see them out there having vehicles towed that give business to CVS or the business across the street. So as a community builder I would say Family Dollar does more than their part.
Yeah, the Family Dollar really does have to go so families who’ve lived in the neighborhood for decades, people who can’t buy cars to drive elsewhere, have nowhere affordable to shop. That will make it easier for all the trendy white suburbanites to finish gentrifying the area. Gotta complete the process of getting all the gross poor people out so they can have more shitty bars and more shitty restaurants. Thank god for Lauren and everyone like her working to make Plaza Midwood as sterile and sanitized as it can possibly be. If a few places like the Thirsty Beaver have to be sacrificed so Lauren and her ilk can live in their white urban fantasy land, that’s just the price of progress.
Seems like to me that the fence that was erected could be some sort of safety hazard. In the event of a catastrophic event such as a fire, it seems that the patrons could only exit out the front (can’t see if a fence is in the back). But I guess that it appears to be legally erected as it seems to still be there.