Capital at Play February 2017

Lisa Ziemer

Fitness in the New Year

VaVaVooom p.74

Leisure and Libation p.56

Western North Carolina's Free Spirit of Enterprise

Signs

Muralists Scott Allred and Jeremy Russell paint, p. 20

Times

O’ THE

colu m ns

Down on the Farm

Information on the ASAP Conference p.16

More Than Just Mailbox Money Benefits to using Limited Liability Companies (LLC) p.66

lo c a l i n d u s t ry

Real Estate 2016 Review A look back on Real Estate Growth for Western North Carolina. p. 39

Asheville Symphony’s Joyous New Year & After-Party p. 88

Volume VII - Edition II complimentary edition

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February 2017

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Editor’s Thoughts

K NOTABLE HOMES ESTABLISHED NEIGHBORHOODS

Jo Chandler

An Asheville native with a passion for her city’s treasures... both old and new 828.231.5444 jochandler@preferredprop.com www.preferredprop.com

udos directed at Western North Carolina—and Asheville, in particular—have become so commonplace over the past several years that some people typically snicker and roll their eyes when yet another national publication or organization places the region atop a new “Best Place To… [insert lifestyle blurb of your choice]” list. This rarely comes as a surprise to residents, of course. If they were born and raised here and still live here, there’s a reason, or ten, for that; and if they came here from someplace else, well, there’s a reason for that, too. (Apologies if I’m starting to sound like a GEICO commercial.)

Concurrent with this, though, are sundry woes we could generally categorize as “growing pains.” Chief among them: traffic congestion, aging infrastructure in need of repair, and, of course, housing availability and steadily-rising prices. The latter seems to be in the news practically on a weekly basis. And it’s something Capital at Play has been covering, not so coincidentally, for several years now as part of our Annual Real Estate Report. These post-mortems of the year just completed have proven to be rather popular among the readers; we are advised that Realtors themselves have found the wrap-ups useful as well, especially when it comes to breaking down stats and trends for their clients.

Indeed, it won’t come as a surprise to learn that one of the most common questions clients pose to their agents is, “Why has it gotten so expensive to live in the mountains?” We feel your pain, trust me, so that’s something we’ve tried to answer, at least partially, while tracking trends in area home sales. This year is no different (and stay tuned; we additionally have something in the works for an upcoming issue), but I’m proud to say that Bill Fishburne, the veteran Hendersonville-based Realtor who authors our reports, always manages to leave us with a note of genuine optimism.

Western North Carolina, he writes, “is a unique and wonderful place. We are blessed with beauty in every direction. Seriously, this is the best place in the world to live.”

As should we all—foster a similar spirit of optimism, that is. Because if you live in a remarkable region like this, it’s what you do.

Sincerely,

Fred Mills

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| February 2017

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Western North Carolina's Free Spirit of Enterprise

publisher

copy editors

Oby Morgan

Dasha O. Morgan, Brenda Murphy

associate publisher

contributing writers & photogr aphers

Jeffrey Green Fred Mills

Joanne Badr, Bill Fishburne, Emily Glaser, Anthony Harden, Molly Nicholie, Toni Sherwood

briefs and events editor

gr aphic designer

Leslee Kulba

Bonnie Roberson Intern Ali Burke

managing editor

It’s Our Business To Make You Look Good.

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Call (828) 253-3691 Or visit Online at swannanoacleaners.com

Information & Inquiries Capital At Play is Western North Carolina’s business lifestyle magazine. It embodies the idea that capitalism thrives with creativity—that work requires an element of play. Exploring everything from local industry to the great outdoors, Capital At Play is inspiration for the modern entrepreneur.

In every edition, we profile those who take the risk, those who share that risk, and those who support them—telling the untold story of how capitalists are driven by their ideas and passions.

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Capital At Play is protec ted through Tr ademar k Regis tr ation in the United States. The content found within this publication does not necessar ily ref lec t the views of Capital At Play, Inc. and its companies. Capital At Play, Inc. and its employees are not liable for any adver tising or editor ial content found in Capital At Play. The ar ticles, photogr aphy, and illus tr ations found in Capital at Play may not be reproduced or used in any fashion without express wr it ten consent by Capital At Play, Inc.

February 2017 | capitalatplay.com

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Cap FEb17

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ASHEVILLE: Historic Biltmore Village 9 Kitchin Place 828-274-2630 STORE HOURS: Mon.-Fri. 9:30am-7pm Sat. 9:30am-6pm Sun. 12pm-5pm 8

| February 2017

OUTERWEAR:

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thi s page :

Detail of a Corset for sale in VaVaVooom, photo by Anthony Harden

on the cover

Scott Allred and Jeremy Russell of Brushcan looking through the newly painted door at Octopus Garden in downtown Asheville, photo by Anthony Harden

F E AT U R E S vol. vii

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SIGNS O’ THE TIMES SCOTT ALLRED & JEREMY RUSSELL

ed. ii

74

SENSUALITY IN THE CITY LISA ZIEMER

February 2017 | capitalatplay.com

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C ON T EN T S f e b r u a r y 2 017

LISA FALBO teaching clients how exercising in their off ice is possible.

39

lo c a l i n d u s t r y

Real Estate Year in Review 2016

56

l e i s u r e & l i b at i o n

Better Than Nothing The Pessimist’s Guide to Fitness in 2017

The Black Bear Bounce

colu m ns

insight

briefs

16 Down on the Farm

12 H ealthy Lifestyle

34 Carolina in the West 52 The Old North State 70 National & World News

Information on the ASAP Conference Written by Molly Nicholie

66 More Than Just

Concepts

Medea Galligan

Blyss Running

Alyson Neel

Mailbox Money

Benefits to using Limited Liability Companies (LLC) Written by Joanne Badr

p e o p l e at p l ay

88 Asheville Symphony’s Joyous New Year & After-Party

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Food Into Medicine For Medea Galligan, nutrition is nurturing.

I

n 1985, a 19-year-old college student embarked upon a quest to understand what the word “health” meant—not just the dictionary definition, but the entirety of good (or bad) health, and the resulting implications for humans.

Medea Galligan would eventually go on to earn a master’s degree in nutrition from Oklahoma State University and graduate from New York City’s Institute of Integrative Nutrition. By 1998 she’d launched her own business, Healthy Lifestyle Concepts, LLC, in order to help people recognize and sustain the very real connection between nutrition and health. “[Even] as a pre-med student, I somehow knew that drugs and surgery would never make anyone healthier,” says Galligan (MS Nutrition, CHHC, AADP). “And later, after having my first child, I realized that if my family and I were going to stay healthy, I would need to learn all I could about the human body and nutrition. Now, the rest of the world has finally caught up to the concept that ‘food is medicine’— that, ‘when we eat better and exercise, we feel better.’”

Simple enough in concept. But not so simple in execution, as anyone who has ever attempted to maintain a healthy

lifestyle can testify. So for close to 20 years, Galligan has dedicated herself to supporting her clients’ transitions to good health. Explains Galligan, “While my education allows me to teach my clients the simple science-based truth that ‘the quality of our food directly determines the quality of our health,’ my clients [also] learn that health is not just a mathematical formula of calories, carbs, and pounds, but that it is ultimately dependent upon them understanding themselves.” She adds that once unhealthy behaviors are

“I’m happy to say that most people really want to be healthier, but with all the misinformation in the media, they just don’t know where to start.”

12

| February 2017

unlearned, follow-ups and emotional support are crucial, so those become key components of her health coaching, which is organized as a six-month program.

As suggested above, though, it’s rarely a seamless process.

She points out that her greatest obstacle has been the

ENJOY USING

mass marketing of processed foods and the multi-billion-dollar diet industry; obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer are constant concerns. “Twenty years ago, the concept of ‘real food,’ was foreign to most people,” she says. “Only ‘health nuts’ ate in a way to support their health. Now, I’m happy to say that most people really want to be healthier, but with all the misinformation in the media, they just don’t know where to start. Most people weren’t raised knowing what foods support their health and how to prepare them.”

In addition to creating goal-based, personalized health coaching programs for clients, Galligan offers wellness workshops on a variety of health topics to businesses and organizations throughout Western North Carolina. She’s also a prolific writer, having published over 70 articles (viewable at her website, www.

MedeasHealthyLifestyleConcepts.com) for numerous regional and national publications, and is currently planning on publishing a book on nutrition and sex. (“Yes, believe it or not, they are related!”) And until this past December, she operated Medea’s Espresso & Juice Bar; the popular Arden-based business, which opened in March of 2015, had eight full-time employees, and regularly hosted nutrition-related workshops, closed in the wake of Galligan’s recent divorce.

She’s busier than ever, though. One current project is The Foundation for REAL Food, a new nonprofit whose mission is to teach practical skills of gardening, how to support local farmers, and demonstrate simple farm-to-table cooking techniques. As executive director, she’s planning several fundraising events to get the foundation off the ground, with the first group of classes to be taught this summer. Longrange plans include hosting The REAL Food Festival in downtown Asheville in the summer of 2018.

By empowering people in these ways, asserts Galligan, “we can directly and dramatically improve our personal health, our local economy, and the state of our natural environment.”

For more details, visit MedeasHealthyLifestyleConcepts.com

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| February 2017

Running, The Business Alyson Neel embraces the old maxim, “form follows function.”

I

t’s no secret that athletic wear is a huge, multi-billiondollar international industry. But just because there’s a lot out there to choose from doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll want to wear what’s being offered. Alyson Neel, owner of Asheville’s Blyss Running, recognizes this and, with her line of women’s running apparel, aims to do her part in providing fellow runners with comfortable, functional, sophisticated gear.

Interestingly, she came to the game relatively late, having had a career in merchandising and not getting into running until the age of 41. Within three years she was tackling marathons, and that regimen, in turn, gave her the confidence to start her own business.

“In the spring of 2015,” recalls Neel, “out of frustration in not being able to find a running short or skirt that was functional, I started to consider the possibility of having a prototype made of a design I had [created], one with a longer

“This is why I started Blyss— to get this feedback was so empowering to me as a designer and business owner. On tough days, I will always go back to that moment as reassurance that I am on the right track.” inseam and pockets to hold my phone. When I started to run, for so long the athletic wear industry had been designing clothes for what they thought was the body type of a woman who ran. That translated to ‘small and lean,’ when in reality, women of all body types run. It is important that women have options.

“Then that summer, I signed up for a business foundations class at Mountain BizWorks to explore whether I could make a business out of selling my designs to others. In October of 2015, I officially became an LLC and started laying the foundation to launch a small line in March of 2016.”

It wasn’t necessarily a cakewalk for Blyss Running, however. Neel, having no interest in producing her designs overseas, had mistakenly assumed she’d be able have everything done by United States manufacturers. (“They told me the designs were too complicated to manufacture, which meant too expensive.”) Eventually she located a one-woman production facility in Pennsylvania whose owner was trying to grow her business. Through careful strategizing, the two were able to streamline the production steps and keep costs in line while also, in Neel’s words, “keeping the integrity and quality of the product.”

Neel adds that there have been other extremely gratifying moments during her journey, including her very first sale. Blyss was set up at a booth last year during a race in Charleston, and a woman came by to listen to Neel’s spiel about how Blyss skirts wouldn’t chafe due to their length. Though skeptical, the woman made the purchase, and a few days after the race, Neel opened an email from the woman thanking her for selling her a skirt that was “perfect” and had completely eliminated what had been a persistent chafing problem.

“This is why I started Blyss—to get this feedback was so empowering to me as a designer and business owner. On tough days, I will always go back to that moment as reassurance that I am on the right track. Blyss is for women looking for flattering and functional running clothes that are a bit more sophisticated and offer a little more coverage—so you don’t have to worry about the functionality of your attire and can feel comfortable and confident while you run.”

Looking to the future, Neel says that she wants to establish a clothing production co-op/ incubator-type facility for fellow small-scale designers and producers. Another goal: to partner with local organizations that support and contribute to the empowerment of women.

And of course, she plans to expand the Blyss Running line and offer more fabric options in her current designs.

BLYSS TAKES pride in fitting all types of women. (Blyss owner Alyson Neel is far right) photos by Katherine Brooks Photography

Additional details, customer testimonials, and online store can be found at www.BlyssRunning.com.

February 2017 | capitalatplay.com

15

column

Down on the Farm

Western North Carolina farmers must navigate a maze of challenges just to survive. An upcoming conference this month aims to provide support and resources.

W

E H AV E A L L H E A R D T H E S A Y I N G

“don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” While there is more sophisticated language like “risk management” or “diversification,” the old saying still holds true for any small business—especially for farms (and not just because of the egg analogy). Building or expanding a business involves risk.

M molly nicholie

is the local food campaign director for ASAP Asheville.

16

For most entrepreneurs, this includes financial, legal, and marketing risks. But for farms, production risk is part of the equation, and many farmers have to consider not just, “What if something goes wrong?” but “What is it going to be like this growing season?” as well. Farmers in our region must enlist multiple strategies to reduce some of the risks in operating a farm business, and luckily there are resources to help them navigate the opportunities and challenges of selling into local markets.

As any farmer will tell you, for every year something goes well, something unexpected can knock you back. Breedlove Family Farm in Swain County experienced a lot of ups and downs in 2016.

They successfully grew two acres of popcorn (a new crop for them); there was high demand for

| February 2017

their chicken and game birds; and they were able to expand sales of their goats.

But after generations of growing sorghum cane to be squeezed and cooked down into molasses, the year was a total loss for their cane. “It just did not have the sugar content we needed to make syrup,” Patrick Breedlove explains. “We used a different field, but that should not have made such a significant difference.” After calling in experts from North Carolina State University and consulting with Cooperative Extension specialists, the Breedloves discovered it was aphids, a species only recently found in the region, which sucked the sweetness from their cane. The Breedloves plan to expand on their successes from this year, and try again with new strategies for their sorghum in 2017. Sustaining

M a small farm business requires a lot more than hard work and planning. It also requires resiliency.

Farming is sometimes romanticized, and the stories of success are shared and celebrated. But behind the beautiful produce, craft cheeses, local meats, and artisan gifts, there is a tremendous amount of planning, hours of hard work, and, too often, difficult losses. While farmers can do their best to plan, they have to be thinking simultaneously about marketing, financial planning, diversification, packaging, distribution, legal risks, record keeping, managing labor, and—oh yeah—actually growing and raising food and farm products.

BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL PRODUCE, CR AF T CHEESES, LOCAL MEATS, AND ARTISAN GIF TS, THERE IS A TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF PLANNING, HOURS OF HARD WORK, AND, TOO OF TEN, DIFFICULT LOSSES. For small farm businesses, economic sustainability is tied to diversification.

This not only applies to product diversification (like producing more than just eggs), but also to having diverse market outlets (multiple baskets for those eggs). Relying on one market to sell your products is just as risky as only growing one crop. Farmers market sales may be solid and expanding, until it rains every Saturday for a month and customers dwindle. An area restaurant might offer to buy everything you can grow, until the chef you have worked

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with for years moves away. The most successfully grown products wilt and rot if you don’t have an outlet to sell them.

For farms in the mountains looking to diversify their market outlet and connect with more customers, ASAP (Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project) is available to offer support and resources to help farmers determine where and how to sell local food and farm products in our region. The nonprofit organization is also building market opportunities for farmers by increasing consumer demand for local food.

Every year for the last decade and a half, ASAP has held the Business of Farming Conference to provide

the 2016 conference were there to build relationships with potential buyers, and they did. As one farmer put it about the buyers at the meeting, “They were here looking for farms, rather than us looking for customers.”

At that conference, farmers had the opportunity to meet with 17 different buyers, ranging from ice cream shops to regional grocery chains. Happy Hens & Highlands Farm made their first delivery of chicken to Roots & Fruits Market in Black Mountain two days after they met them at the conference.

This year Imladris Farm joined as a buyer, looking to connect with other blueberry growers because they have

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farmers with the tools and assistance to manage risk. The conference is a full day of workshops, breakout sessions, network ing, and meetings, w ith farmers sharing their own experiences, alongside agriculture and business professionals. Each year, 200 farmers come together to learn, share, and think creatively about how they can sustain their farm. Topics such as record keeping and financial planning offer a framework for the business planning component of the conference, while social media and crafting your farm story workshops examine successful ways to approach marketing.

One unique component of this conference that moves the classroom learning to real life is the Grower-Buyer meeting held every year. Farmers considering selling to restaurants or expanding into niche meats or selling wholesale get to explore the opportunities directly with a potential buyer. Eighty percent of farmers attending the Grower-Buyer meetings at

more demand for their farm-grown berry jams than they can grow themselves.

“I could buy large quantities of berries from one wholesaler,” Walter Harrill of Imladris Farm shares, “but it’s important for me to support other small local farms.” This is where selling into local markets is different: It is about having good quality products, diverse market outlets, and a good business plan; but more than anything, it is about building relationships and connections that support our communities.

Now that’s something to crow about.

ASAP is a regional nonprofit committed to helping local farms thrive, link farmers to markets and supporters, and build healthy communities through connections to local food. The 2017 Business of Farming Conference takes place Feb. 25 at A-B Tech Community College in Asheville.

(Details: Asapconnections.org/events/ business-of-farming-conference)

February 2017 | capitalatplay.com 19

BRUSHCAN’S MURAL for Bonfire Barbeque,

20

| February 2017

Signs

Times O’ THE

written by toni sherwood photos by anthony harden & brushcan custom mur als February 2017 | capitalatplay.com 21

PAINTING THE front of Octopus Garden in Downtown Asheville

E

very day we drive past signs competing for our attention. Most modern signage is created by computer generated letters and images, a very cost-effective way to advertise. “Commercialism took over,” explains Scott Allred, co-owner of Asheville-based Brushcan Custom Murals & Hand Painted Signs, “which means mass produced vinyl signs.

You see them everywhere.”

22

| February 2017

END PRODUCT? A BARR AGE OF GENERIC SIGNAGE lulling us into a coma on the commute to work.

“There’s no soul to them,” Brushcan co-owner Jeremy Russell adds. “Only a brush gives a certain look.”

A hand painted mural aims to capture both the eye and the imagination. From the initial design to the physical rendering of the final work, Brushcan does it all. With a wide range of styles and techniques to offer, perhaps it’s no coincidence they’re already booked up with jobs for the next six months.

“There’s been a reemergence of traditional craftsmanship,” says Allred.

You may have seen Brushcan’s work inside and outside of Bonfire Barbeque on Patton Avenue, or the side of the Hunter Banks Fly Fishing store in Montford, or the recently completed mural outside Octopus Garden Smoke Shop’s new location in Asheville’s south slope section.

At the time of this writing, the duo was settling into a new studio space in the River Arts Makers Place (RAMP) building at 821 Riverside Drive, a huge warehouse, also home to the University of North Carolina at Asheville’s impressive Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, & Math (STEAM) studio and several independent artists.

Brushcan’s multilevel space is bright and clean with high ceilings. In the lower level, Russell’s paintings and Allred’s drawings and sketches lean against one wall; on the main level, a huge worktable is scattered with drawings and books. “I love the studio,” Russell says. “I love to sit and draw and talk.”

Blank Wall Brushcan has officially been in business for two years now, although Russell and Allred have worked together far longer.

February 2017 | capitalatplay.com 23

SCOTT ALLRED

JEREMY RUSSELL

They kick off every project by meeting with the client to get their ideas so they can start to map out the logistics.

“For every mural we consider the location. Is it a busy road or a strip mall with lots of stimulus?” Russell says. “What type of business is it? Who are the clientele? We consider every aspect.”

The goals of each business may differ, but generally attracting attention and getting their brand across is the aim.

“We generate about three different renderings which are very different,” Allred explains. Starting with small hand drawn images they decide which concept works best. To help the client visualize they use software to generate mockups of how the finished mural will look on their wall.

The concept is crucial to nail down before any painting begins. “We put a big time investment in before getting a paycheck,” Russell admits.

While some muralists have a distinctive style that is recognizable, Brushcan’s calling card is variety. Their unique ability to create numerous looks and styles is what makes them stand out. “Jeremy came from fine art and I came from graphic design,” Allred says. “This helps our creativity. Partnerships can be tough, but we both have input on design and techniques.”

From flawlessly recreating a turn of the century ad, to inventing a modern abstract design, to Impressionist-style scenic painting, these guys can stretch in many artistic directions. “It’s the difference between a business model versus two guys who like to paint murals,” Allred says. “If you can diversify, you attract a wider pool of clients.”

“Each job is a new challenge. It’s never about us,” adds Russell. “It’s about making [the client] happy, problemsolving together.”

The Big Fish One of their early notable gigs was for Hunter Banks Fly Fishing, a guide service and retail shop in the historic Montford neighborhood just north of downtown Asheville.

Owner Frank Smith wanted more visibility. Brushcan hoped to do something innovative and new that would still blend into the traditional neighborhood. But whatever they came up with would have to be approved by the city of Asheville.

One reason, Allred observes, is logistical: “Let’s say we have to rent a cherry picker; we might need a permit to close off a street.”

The other reason the city gets involved is that brick and mortar businesses have a limited amount of square feet designated for signage. So for a mural not to be considered a “sign,” it needs to be more representational and not too “on the nose.”

Over time the partners have learned what works; all it took was submitting a few designs to the city and being denied.

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| February 2017

MURAL COVERING the side of Hunter Banks building

“Youngblood Bikes wanted a guy riding a bike and the city said no,” Russell recalls. Still on target with the owner’s vision, Brushcan created a design inspired by bike spokes, gears, and wheels, which immediately brings to mind bicycles, but in a subtler way. The city said yes.

When planning out the Hunter Banks mural they decided to go with a technique called marouflage, which uses canvas pieces affixed to a wall. Having never used the technique themselves, they left nothing to chance, contacting the man who developed a modern version of the method. “We wrote to Kent Twitchell, who developed this system, and he shared all the info,” Russell says. “He was really great about it.”

They used a material called PolyTab, which is completely synthetic and will not mold or rot. The design is painted onto squares of material.

Adhesive is applied to the wall to firmly affix the finished pieces onto it.

The reasons for choosing this technique ranged from the practical to the artistic. For one, it was the middle of winter.

ADDING TEXTURE to rocks from the Hunter Banks mural

“Each job is a new challenge. It’s never about us,” adds Russell.

“It’s about making [the client] happy, problemsolving together.”

February 2017 | capitalatplay.com 25

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| February 2017

DETAILS are an important part of making a mural fit its space.

Painting outdoors would be very challenging in freezing temperatures. With marouflage, the artists could work indoors to prepare the squares of material. Secondly, there were certain painting techniques they couldn’t accomplish on a vertical surface. The mural they designed for Hunter Banks represents above and below water.

Creating the effect of under water was complex and meticulous. They experimented to get the right look. “We were holding rocks while painting rocks,” Russell quips.

It took 130 4’x4’ pieces of material to create the mural. They spent two months painting for 12 hours a day to achieve the level of detail they envisioned. Then they spent a week and a half affixing the pieces to the wall, just slightly overlapping them to create the finished mural.

Although the mural is credited for increasing Hunter Banks’ business the following year, there was one crucial piece of the pie Brushcan missed out on. “We missed the advertising of being outside,” Russell says. “A lot of our new business comes from people seeing us painting, asking questions, and getting interested.”

Colorful Choice “I found out about Brushcan when I saw the Hunter Banks mural,” John Atwater, owner of Mamacita’s Mexican Grill, recalls. “We go to the Basilica Church, and one Sunday we were stopped at a light on the way there. What amazing exposure that mural gets. It’s hard to see, but their name is in the corner.”

Atwater wanted more exposure for his restaurant, which shares a building on Broadway Avenue in downtown Asheville with a shop called Local Provisions. Their landlord had recently painted the building black and white to distinguish the two businesses for tourists. It was a clean look, but bland, and it didn’t speak to Mamacita’s brand.

When contemplating a concept, Atwater’s goal was to draw attention, but he also wanted to keep Asheville weird. “The indie spirit is alive and well in Asheville; we’re not cookie-cutter new construction,” Atwater says. Inspired by his own experiences in Mexico, Atwater chose a Calavera skull design, traditionally used as a decoration in Day Of The Dead celebrations.

Atwater says Asheville’s downtown restaurant scene has never been more tourist-driven than it is now. “It’s not enough to just have great food anymore,” Atwater admits. “An establishment February 2017 | capitalatplay.com 27

LOADING DOCK area for Lexington Avenue Brewery

needs to be inviting. It’s like staging a house in order to sell it.”

He found the process of creating the mural with Allred and Russell to be fun, and the mockup they made helped him make some critical decisions. “I showed some friends the digital mockups and they thought it was already done,” Atwater says. “What you see is what you get—that’s exactly what the real mural will look like.”

Brushcan advised him to wrap the Calavera design around the corner for more exposure.

The other advice was to repaint the white walls a terracotta color that matched the nearby Orange Peel building. Atwater considered leaving the wall white to save money. But once he shared the mockup the reaction was clear; terracotta was the way to go.

Atwater has hired Brushcan to do an interior mural at his Taco Temple restaurant on Charlotte Street.

The restaurant makes all of its tortillas by hand, using heirloom varieties; they grind the corn themselves. The plan is to have a mural that illustrates this process. “The more you can do to educate your customers, the better,” Atwater says.

Off The Wall Danny McClinton, of Salvage Station, a new restaurant/ concert hall/event space on the northern stretch of Asheville’s River Arts District, first hired Brushcan to paint numbers on buildings as required by emergency services.

The sprawling acreage on the riverfront can hold up to 2500 guests and is composed of several small buildings scattered about the property.

“We are probably the priciest game in town,” Allred admits, “but we offer the maximum lifespan.

If you do it fast and cheap, you don’t get longevity.”

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| February 2017

Brushcan went with large, circus-inspired fonts, both easy to spot and fun to look at. But that was just the beginning. Soon they were commissioned to help camouflage an eyesore: an exterior walk-in freezer/cooler. With music as the inspiration, they transformed the square monstrosity to resemble an iconic Peaches Records’ record crate, complete with vinyl albums, just like the good old days.

SALVAGE STATION Freezer February 2017 | capitalatplay.com 29

Then they elevated a mere shipping container into an homage to McClinton’s musical tastes by painting it with iconic Reggae album covers. But nothing tops the giant Pabst Blue Ribbon can.

The base for this object art is a “quonset,” which is a semicircular piece of corrugated metal that forms a hut. Often used as sheds and army barracks, for Salvage Station this huge quonset would serve as the main bar. So the idea of making it look like a beer can lying on its side was right on target.

After some research, Brushcan decided on the style of beer can to go with, since the brand has changed its look slightly over time. “We did a ‘70s style can because that’s something you’d actually find here,” Russell explains. “Everything has to be harmonious.”

Painting difficult-to-access areas and uneven surfaces is a study in patience. The beer can layout was accomplished by creating a 1/50th scale model out of cardboard (about 18 inches long and one-foot high). From there, scaled measurements could be made on the quonset. “We laid out the majority of the design by eye and measurement, and then made a series of large paper patterns we call ‘pounce patterns’ for all the lettering,” Russell recalls. “We rented a boom lift to get out over the top of the can.”

Not only did they nail the design, even the weathering of the beer can looks authentic. If you’re driving south on I-26 from Weaverville, you can spot it from the highway.

Behind The Scenes Durability is key for murals; the materials chosen, the surface preparation, and the final sealant are crucial components. But quality doesn’t come cheap. “We are probably the priciest game in town,” Allred admits, “but we offer the maximum lifespan. If you do it fast and cheap, you don’t get longevity.”

Their education in materials and techniques came out of years working in film, theater, and theme parks as designers and painters, both on set design and graphic design.

Allred started in 1992 at Paramount Show Services in Charlotte, which at the time owned Carowinds, King’s Dominion, King’s Island, Great America, and Canada’s Wonderland. Russell began painting in theaters in 1995. By 1997 he joined Allred at Paramount and they started working together.

“We created all the theming for the rides and the sets for the song and dance bits,” Russell says. “We learned so much about materials and tools.”

Those were the days of classic craftsmanship. Theme park sets were built and painted by hand, and made to be super durable. They also worked on movie sets for Paramount, where they learned more skills and also a few life lessons.

“The hours are heinous and it’s a weird mix of egos,” Russell says. “It’s stressful and not as glamorous as people think. You can be on a set for months at a time.”

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| February 2017

MAMACITAS mural

SALVAGE STATION bar

INSIDE Bonfire Barbeque February 2017 | capitalatplay.com

31

They used to put in crazy hours working on films, and they still put in some crazy hours now, like overnight gigs or outof-town jobs. But generally they are home at night with their families. Allred is married with a teenage daughter living nearby, while Russell is married with a three-year old and a thirteen-year old.

“I love being at home,” Russell admits. “I have a family I want to be around.”

Impractical Art Murals are an investment. The materials alone for the complex Hunter Banks project were approximately $15,000. So one has to wonder why Mike Healy, owner of Sweet Peas Hostel and Lexington Avenue Brewery (LAB), decided to commission a mural in a loading dock area on a lonely side street in downtown Asheville.

“Before we owned the place, it was empty for a while, making it the perfect place for taggers to graffiti out of sight,” Healy explains. As Healy began to renovate the building and establish an office entrance there, he knew he had to solve the issue.

Although they had painted the wall white, it was no deterrent to tagging.

Fortunately, taggers have respect for wall art.

“In the world of murals and tagging, there’s an unwritten agreement between artists,” Healy explains. “So it’s not acceptable to tag an existing mural. That was part of our strategy.”

The mural incubated from an idea Healy had. “I wanted an old timey ad on the ramp side wall,” Healy says. Russell had painted some signage for LAB and Sweet Peas Hostel, so Healy knew of his work. Russell suggested using some of the old murals that were fading on buildings around town for inspiration, so-called “ghost murals.” That idea developed into multiple, overlapping historic ads.

“Jeremy did all the research. He looked up wall murals, and we had a couple rounds before deciding the ones we’d go with,” Healy says.

Once they had the plan, the real work began. “They often worked all night,” Healy recalls. “They would project the image on the wall and then use chalk to sort of sketch it out. Next they’d put the paint on.”

The result looks as if it has been there for a century. This little niche on Rankin Avenue now boasts style and character, and the taggers have not returned.

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| February 2017

The Big Picture The Brushcan partners are currently in talks about a project in Austin, Texas, for their Zaxby’s clients, and several more possibilities are in the works.

Asheville does a big party and they theme it out,” Russell says. “We always donate some work. Last year we made three 50-foot columns.”

Ever y mural they do is practically a billboard advertising Brushcan, so they keep their standards high despite budget limitations. “There are a lot of ways to work within a budget without walking away or doing a bad job,” Allred says.

Their work can now be found all over North and South Carolina, as well as Las Vegas, New York, Florida, and Georgia, as the mural craze continues to draw fans.

Observes Mamacita’s Atwater, “Murals can be artistic and informative— commercial art can be beautiful.”

And at the hands of artists like Allred and Russell, it can definitely have soul, too.

Every mural they do is practically a billboard advertising Brushcan, so they keep their standards high despite budget limitations.

“There are a lot of ways to work within a budget without walking away or doing a bad job.”

“Patience is so important,” Allred admits. “Years ago, if a job didn’t pan out right away that was crushing.”

They try to give back to the community they love with special projects for nonprofits. “Every year, Open Doors of

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33

CAROLINA in the

WEST [

news briefs

Elegance & Grace henderson county

Tim and Matt Nichols, co-owners of MrMaple.com in East Flat Rock, were recently featured on an episode of the popular Japanese television series Who Wants to Come to Japan?. The program showcases people from around the world who have a passion for Japanese culture and specialize in a particular field. MrMaple.com is a family-owned, Japanese maple nursery founded by the brothers’ father almost fifty years ago.

Offering over 1000 varieties of Japanese maples, all grown in North Carolina, it claims the largest selection of any retailer in the United States. On a whim, the brothers quickly shot some of their best work and sent an application to the television program the same day. They heard back from the show’s producers

]

almost immediately, and crews arrived in Western North Carolina for filming the next month. Then, just in time for peak fall color, the brothers were flown to Japan, where they spent eight days with the television crew. They were taken on a fall color tour to enjoy canopies and carpets of fiery vermillion leaves and trees integrated with the simple elegance of Japanese architecture. They learned about the trees’ natural habitat and learned traditional horticultural techniques. At the end of the segment, Tim and Matt presented their hosts with T-shirts reading, “I [dig] Japanese Maples.”

If It’s Metal burke county

is replete with uploaded photographs of completed projects. Nathan Hawkins is the Tin Man. His wife, Sonya, and business partner, Matthew Mosteller, help him run the business. Hawkins taught himself metalworking, which he pursued as a hobby beginning at age 12. He then took a more aggressive approach to the craft when he had to keep a truck running to get to and from school. He later went to automotive school, specializing in auto body work, and earned the credentials he needed to go into business. He has longrange ambitions to build out and add an automotive body shop, but for the shortterm, he is taking odd jobs rebuilding and restoring anything metal. Jobs can be as simple as rust removal and abatement to rebuilding cars and trucks from the 1960s or 1970s. In a typical restoration, Hawkins will order new parts when they’re available and make all the others.

(He uses recycled materials as much as possible.) Other projects have included making a sod cutter for the backhoe at Burke Memorial Park and redesigning and rebuilding a foam drill press to a customer’s specifications. Hawkins says, “No job’s too small or too big.” He invites people to bring him projects that others have declined to do.

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The Indians K-New swain county

Over centuries, the Cherokee developed their own methods of forest management using trial, error, and foresight.

Traditions fostered preservation. For example, ramps would be cut instead of dug up to allow regeneration, and only every fourth plant could be harvested.

But when the Great Smoky Mountains National Park came under the oversight of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), a lot of the sustainable, ancient know-how had to take a back seat. Tommy Cabe, the tribe’s forest resources specialist, notes one major difference was Cherokee traditions emphasize pre-commercial uses.

BIA standards call for periodic updates of forestry management plans, so this time the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians have partnered with EcoForesters, an Asheville nonprofit, to generate a proposal respectful of ancient wisdom. A draft has been approved by the tribe and is now awaiting a go-ahead from the BIA. One of EcoForesters’ goals was to quantify things the Cherokee have known for years, like what kind of white oak should be harvested for baskets and when. To communicate that gut feeling with others, though, they had to measure tree dimensions and translate that to basket output

52

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the old north state

national & world

and potential earnings. Cabe anticipated there would be some scientific frustration with spiritual traditions that aren’t subject to metrics, things “you just know.”

Piddling For History henderson county

The historic Tuxedo School is up on the market. Tax records list the building as having been built in 1924, but that school burned in 1929. The prestigious architect Erle G. Stilwell was contracted to build a new school, and the drawings dated March 1930 are still in existence. The Stilwell school is a 15,000-sq.-ft., classic two-story, brick building, with five classrooms and an auditorium on the first floor and three classrooms and a study hall on the second. The brick exterior remains sturdy, but listing agent Verna Shipman says the interior is “not in great repair,” except for the “beautiful wood floors.”

The building needs at least a stripping and painting and a new heating system.

It is located on seven acres, so there is room for parking or expansion; and the surrounding community of Zirconia now has its own amenities, including a fire department, lake, and park. Through the years, the school served as a graded school, an elementary school, and then the

carolina in the west

Tuxedo Extended Day School. Following community objections to tearing it down, which included demonstrating it would qualify for historic tax credits, the school board sold it in 2008 to Shane Shipman, whose grandfather, Clifton, purchased it from him, as a place to “piddle,” doing yardwork. The building is now owned by Clifton’s widow and listed for $450,000.

Suggested uses include a microbrewery, artist lofts, or vacation condos.

Clarifying Their Vision For Breakthroughs watauga county

Appalachian State University received a $430,900 award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to purchase a laser scanning confocal microscope. It will replace the microscope currently in use, which was purchased with NSF funding back in 2004. The new model’s laser beam will have a wavelength practically in the ultraviolet region. This, combined with its confocal image sharpening and the fast superresolution of Airyscan, will empower faculty to work with a broader variety of fluorescent dies. The microscope will be housed in the William C. and Ruth Ann Dewel Microscope Facility,

February 2017 | capitalatplay.com

35

carolina in the west

and it will be used by many university departments. A faculty team led by the facility’s director, Dr. Guichuan Hou, helped write the successful grant application. Among other research, the microscope will be used to study the shape and function of sensory neurons in fruit flies for a better understanding of the origins of chronic pain; characteristics of proteins that facilitate the transport of chemicals across cellular membranes to develop better pharmaceuticals; the evolution of the cellular-level processes involved in the elimination of body waste; and the regions of DNA containing genes that control when and where genetic traits manifest on the body for better understanding of birth defects and mutation. The biology department will use the microscope to study, for example, biofilm formation.

Bright Patterns Of Color, Sound, And Flavor buncombe county

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Calypso, located on North Lexington Avenue in the funky part of downtown Asheville, is now open for business.

Owner Esther Joseph grew up poor on the Caribbean Island of St. Lucia, and her first professional aspiration was to open her own restaurant. She earned a college degree in hospitality management while still on the island, and later moved to New York to become a certified restaurant manager. While pursuing a career in landscaping, she finished college, traveled extensively, and authored three books. Now, she is finally realizing her dream and bringing to Asheville the flavors of St. Lucia in healthy soul food. She found two experienced chefs who studied under world greats, understand the island’s cuisine, and are able to interpret her recipes. While food endemic to St. Lucia may only be green bananas and ocean catches, Joseph says the cuisine

WE SELL is a mélange of English, French, African, and East Indian cultures, reflecting the nations that have occupied the island.

Dishes include green bananas and figs, yams, and avocado; with spices like curry, cinnamon, nutmeg, cocoa, cloves, and garlic. One of the most popular dishes, roti, is a meat or vegetarian curry wrapped in nan bread. The restaurant’s bar will mix island cocktails, with or without spirits. Calypso will be open for lunch and dinner. Fridays and Saturdays will feature Island-Vibe Disco Dance Parties with live disc jockeys.

Will Gun Range Work In Green Pastures? haywood county

Jule Morrow is about to open the first North Carolina indoor shooting range west of Buncombe County. His adjacent gun store opened in mid-November, and sales have been good. Construction of the 60’x130’ building in the rolling pastures of Francis Farm is complete, and only finishing touches like painting and electrical wiring remain to be done. With fourteen 30-yard firing lanes, Mountain Range would be the largest and most modern firing range in Western North Carolina. Morrow hopes to earn the business of local law enforcement agencies now traveling to Buncombe or Transylvania counties for training.

Neighbors had expressed concerns about noise, aesthetics, environmental impact, and gun-toting rowdies.

Morrow said complaints tapered to zero after he graded the property to move the building away from the road and position its roof below the ridgeline.

The Haywood County Commissioners were powerless to stop the land use, as they don’t have a zoning ordinance; but federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration guidelines regulate noise, safety, and lead containment at shooting ranges. Morrow’s mother purchased the property to be exempted from paying land transaction taxes

when her home was acquired by the county because of alleged contaminant seepage from the landfill. Morrow, who had been a construction worker, got the idea for a shooting range after suffering a debilitating back injury while delivering a calf.

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local industry

REAL ESTATE Year in Review

2 0 16

The Black Bear Bounce

Sales and prices are up, while inventory is down—it was Western North Carolina’s best year ever. written by bill fishburne

February 2017 | capitalatplay.com 39

I

local industry

t’s official. The real estate recession is over. Results from 2016 show it was the best year ever for existing home sales in Western North Carolina, and prices have largely met and exceeded their pre-recession levels in every market and price range.

According to year-end data from the Mountain Regional Multiple Listing Service (MLS), total sales in the seven county region the reviewed reached 9,548 units last year (houses and condos) compared to the previous market peak of 9,486 recorded in July 2006.

The 2016 success is the result of steady growth that began in the summer of 2011. Along the way, excess inventory has been sold off, foreclosures have gone way down, and what was a buyer’s market has become one that more strongly favors sellers. Indeed, sales for the past two years have exceeded the rate of new listings by ever-growing amounts. The result is a total market reversal in a five-year period, with the highest volume and prices ever recorded in the Mountain Regional MLS system.

The outlook for 2017 is good, maybe better. But the caveats are worthy of consideration.

$200

First, pending sales declined year over year in Buncombe County by a negative 1.4 percent at year’s end. Pending sales are homes that are under contract, but have not gone to closing. We believe this was primarily due to high prices in the Asheville area coupled with the reduced inventory.

Support for this outlook comes from Haywood and Henderson counties, both feeder markets for Buncombe, that saw 4.4 and 4.9 percent pending sale increases, respectively, during the period when Buncombe’s pendings were on the decline.

Both counties have relatively higher inventories (measured in months of inventory in the MLS at current sales rates) and significantly lower median and average prices throughout the spectrum.

Second, new listings declined overall in the MLS market area by 1.7 percent for the year, compounding the impact of record sales. Buncombe County listings dropped 2.0 percent, and Haywood listings declined 2.2 percent; while Henderson County residents astutely took advantage of increased demand by listing 3.5 percent more houses than in 2015.

Dec. Average Price per Square foot entire mls

buncombe county

henderson county

haywood county

$161 $150

$148

$139

$138

$129

$121 $108 $100

$116 $102

$124 $108

$115

$50

$0 2014

+6.6% +6.5% +7.4% +5.9%

+7.0% +8.8% +6.9% +6.5%

2015

2016

entire mls & buncombe county & haywood county & henderson county: ncmountainsMLS, single-family & condo-townhome

40

each data point is one month of activity. data from January

| February 2017

12 2017

Average Sales Price entire mls

city of asheville

buncombe county

henderson county

$320K $300K $280K $260K $240K $220K $200K $180K

1-2013

1-2014

1-2015

1-2016

entire mls & buncombe county & asheville & henderson county each data point is 12 months of activity. data from January 13, 2017

haywood county

transylvania county

rutherford county

polk county

$260K $240K $220K $200K $180K $160K $140K

1-2013

1-2014

haywood county & polk county & rutherford county & transylvania county each data point is 12 months of activity. data from January 13, 2017

1-2015

1-2016

February 2017 | capitalatplay.com 41

local industry

Median Days on the Market entire mls

city of asheville

buncombe county

henderson county

140 120 100 80 60 40 20

1-2013

1-2014

1-2015

1-2016

entire mls & buncombe county & asheville & henderson county: ncmountainsMLS, single-family & condo-townhome each data point is

haywood county

transylvania county

12 months of activity. data from January 13, 2017

rutherford county

polk county

180 160 140 120 100 80 60

1-2013

1-2014

1-2015

1-2016

haywood county & polk county & rutherford county & transylvania county: ncmountainsMLS, single-family & condo-townhome

42

| February 2017

each data point is

12 months of activity. data from January 13, 2017

Black Bear Cycle Call it the Black Bear Cycle, hibernation, or natural seasonal variances.

Whatever, but much like our esteemed black bears, our real estate market hibernates during the winter. Sales charts show peaks and valleys that coincide with the key months of June, October, and February. Almost without fail, the sales peak each year will come in June. The market will hold strong through the end of October then fall off to the February’s depths of despair. We

New York. We repeat that advice this year. Housing prices are still growing, and the inherent value is keeping pace as the construction and resale industries fail to keep pace with demand.

There is no end in sight to this trend, as even rental housing is in desperately short supply in Asheville and the surrounding areas.

At the time of the “buy a house advice,” the average home in Buncombe County was selling for $222,102. Today, the average price is $311,298, a 31 percent increase and not a bad return on invest-

Based on history, the Western North Carolina market outlook is normal and growing at a steady pace. continue to sell through the winter, of course, but at a significantly lower level.

In 2016 the peak month was June, with 985 units sold throughout the region.

The worst month was (wait for it...)

February, with just 517 closings.

The key to the market is anticipation.

You don’t list a house on Monday and go to closing Tuesday. Real estate transactions take between 10 days for a cash sale if all the inspections go well, and eight weeks for a complex mortgage loan on a house that may have problems, both with the property and getting the buyer’s paperwork in order. Federal mortgage loan requirements have put a plug in the real estate pipeline that everyone has had to deal with since 2013. But that’s another story.

In January 2014, when the market was at or near the seasonal bottom, this annual Capital at Play report began to advise readers to “Buy a house. Buy two houses. Buy houses for all of your kids.”

That was picked up nearly verbatim from remarks made six months earlier by hedge fund manager John Paulson in his July 2013 luncheon remarks at the MSNBC Delivering Alpha conference in

ment. Factor in rental income (less mortgages, taxes, repairs, etc.), and if you sold it today for last year’s average price, you would be pleased. And maybe even more pleased if you work with a good Realtor to get it ready for market now, list it in February, and plan to sell when the Black Bear hibernation ends in March.

As we see it, prices will continue to rise in 2017 and politics will be the primary impetus. Based on the promise of a new, pro-business Donald Trump administration and its already announced actions to roll back excessive economy-busting federal regulations, early indicators are that manufacturing jobs are coming back to the United States or not leaving in the first place.

We obviously acknowledge there are two sides to the story, and this isn’t a political report. Bad things happen, but for now the upside is strong.

In this analysis, we’ll look at the 2016 data, give you comparisons to previous years, then look forward.

The price of a house is set by many factors, but especially by its current competition. Closed sales in a specific neighborhood are powerful indicators, February 2017 | capitalatplay.com 43

local industry

Closed Sales entire mls

buncombe county

henderson county

city of asheville

10K

8K

6K

4K

2K

1-2013

1-2014

1-2015

1-2016

entire mls & buncombe county & asheville & henderson county: ncmountainsMLS, single-family & condo-townhome each data point is

12 months of activity. data from January 13, 2017

but you don’t win the Indy 500 by looking in your rear-view mirror. A little foresight is a good thing. That makes closed sales the starting point for anticipating where a property should be priced in a growing market.

have already seen in the winter look like they will be followed by the Black Bear Bounce in March. The local economies are improving and Punxsutawney can have Phil. He always goes back to sleep anyhow.

Facts:

National Factors

Because of these sales, population growth, low interest rates, federal restrictions on banking and mortgage lending, the availability of land, ever-increasing regulatory burdens on builders, and multiple other factors (including the shortage of skilled tradesmen), the inventory of available homes continues to drop. There were 5,417 units offered in the MLS at the end of 2016 vs. 6,888 at the start of the year, a decrease of 21.55 percent. By contrast, when Paulson made his July 17, 2013 Delivering Alpha speech there were 7,755 units in the MLS. Compare that to today’s 5,417 units, and total inventory has dropped 30 percent in just 40 months.

Median prices went up 9.1 percent in 2016, from $204,000 to $222,500. The average price went from $249,246 to $267,124, which represents a 7.2 percent increase. (Median is half higher, half lower. The average is the total dollars divided by units sold.)

Based on history, the Western North Carolina market outlook is normal and growing at a steady pace. That is, the declines we 44

| February 2017

Donald Trump’s administration is literally the wildest of the wild cards. His cabinet choices (as of early January) indicate a cabinet with more business acumen than any other in recent memory. Other than shifting the deck chairs, where do we get new department heads with large organizational management backgrounds? This should bode for stability and growth across the economy at least through the end of the current real estate cycle, which would roughly coincide with the end of Trump’s (first) term.

We point this out as a probable continuation of the current national trend. Existing-home sales nationwide rose 0.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.61 million in November 2016, compared to 5.57 million in October. November’s sales pace is now the highest since February 2007 (5.79 million) and is 15.4 percent higher than a year ago (4.86 million), according to Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

Closed Sales haywood county

transylvania county

rutherford county

polk county

1200

1000

800

600 400

200

1-2013

1-2014

1-2015

1-2016

haywood county & polk county & rutherford county & transylvania county: ncmountainsMLS, single-family & condo-townhome each data point is

Pending home sales dipped in November to their lowest level in nearly a year as the brisk upswing in mortgage rates and not enough inventory dispirited some would-be buyers, according to Yun’s year-ending announcement. Only the Northeast saw monthly and annual pending sales gains.

The Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) for November 2016 (the last month available at the time of this writing), a forward-looking indicator based on new sales contracts, declined 2.5 percent to 107.3 in November from 110.0 in October. After last month’s decrease in activity, the index is now 0.4 percent below November 2015 (107.7) and is at its lowest reading since January (105.4).

Economist Yun says ongoing supply shortages and the surge in mortgage rates took a small bite out of pending sales in November. “The budget of many prospective buyers last month was dealt an abrupt hit by the quick ascension of rates immediately after the election,” he said. “Already faced with climbing home prices and minimal listings in the affordable price range, fewer home shoppers in most of the country were successfully able to sign a contract.”

With 2017 at the doorstep, Yun says higher borrowing costs somewhat cloud the outlook for the housing market. This was evident in NAR’s most recent HOME (Housing Opportunities and Market Experience) survey, which found that confidence

12 months of activity. data from January 13, 2017

among renters about now being a good time to buy diminished as 2016 wore on. The good news, according to Yun, is that the impact of higher rates will be partly neutralized by stronger wage growth as a result of the two million net new job additions expected in 2017.

“Healthy local job markets amidst tight supply means many areas will remain competitive with prices on the rise. Those rushing to lock in a rate before they advance even higher will probably have few listings to choose from,” said Yun. “Some buyers will have to expand the area of their home search or be forced to delay in order to save a little more money for their down payment.”

Existing sales are still expected to close out 2016 at a pace of around 5.42 million, which will eclipse 2015 (5.25 million) as the highest since 2006 (6.48 million). In 2017 sales are forecast to grow roughly 2.0 percent to around 5.52 million. The national median existing-home price is expected to increase to around 5.0 percent this year and 4.0 percent in 2017.

“Much more robust new home construction is needed to relieve inventory shortages and lessen the affordability pressures present throughout the country,” added Yun. The PHSI in the Northeast nudged forward 0.6 percent to 97.5 in November, and is now 5.7 percent above a year ago. In the February 2017 | capitalatplay.com 45

local industry

Homes Sold

by County

north carolina

madison

2016: 207 2015: 197 ^ 5.08%

buncombe

haywood

2016: 4124 2015: 4031 ^ 2.31%

2016: 1015 2015: 941 ^ 7.86%

rutherford

2016: 463 2015: 418 ^ 10.77%

henderson transylvania

2016: 588 2015: 565 ^ 4.07%

2016: 2118 2015: 1973 ^ 7.35%

polk

2016: 254 2015: 208 ^ 22.12%

Full Year-End Sales And Inventory Mountain MLS - Units Sold

$100,000-

$199,999

$200,000$399,999

$400,000$599,999

$600,000$999,999

$1,000,000.00+

Total All listings

1081

3276

3481

772

307

85

9002

2016

845

3155

4141

948

355

100

9517

% Change

-21.83%

-3.69%

18.96%

22.80%

15.64%

17.65%

5.72%

Price Range

0-$99,999

2015

46

| February 2017

Midwest, the index declined 2.5 percent to 103.5 in November, and is now 2.4 percent lower than November 2015.

Pending home sales in the South decreased 1.2 percent to an index of 118.7 in November, and are now 1.3 percent lower than last November. The index in the West fell 6.7 percent in November to 101.0, and is now 1.0 percent below a year ago.

The National Association of Realtors®, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is America’s largest trade association, representing 1.2 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.

COUNTY BY COUNTY

In this, our year-end wrap-up article, we again look at each of our local counties with information on what makes it an attractive location, some local lore, and, of course, the real estate results and trends. Our data is for stand-alone houses, condos, and townhomes.

Buncombe County At year’s end, the median days-on-market in Buncombe County was an amazingly short 25 days versus the MLS average of 40. Higher prices seemed not to be a deterrent as the county boomed and many sales went to the surrounding areas.

Asheville home prices continue to be the highest, and inventory the tightest, in all of Western North Carolina. The causes are multiple, but the city’s strong and positive position as the cultural, economic, and social center of the region simply makes Asheville the most sought-after place to live. There is more to do there, as well as a huge cultural and social scene, and the average age is a youngish 38.2 years. It doesn’t hurt this attractiveness that there are more micro-breweries and pubs (between 50 and 100 in Asheville and the immediate area) than the average person can get to in a year.

All this has made Buncombe County a seller’s market in just about every price range. That is, with no new listings, all the houses currently listed would sell within six months. The median number of days-on-market before a contract is reached is just 24 days, the lowest in the region. The county also has a very low number of months of inventory, a 3.8-month supply at annualized sales rates. There are still plenty of homes available in the higher price ranges starting at about $600,000. The shortage means Realtors are looking at new listings in the wee hours of the morning and texting clients to move quickly lest another buyer get there first.

At the end of December, there were just 1,374 houses and condos for sale in all of Buncombe County, a 26.4 percent inventory reduction in just 12 months. The median price for a home in Buncombe is $253,400, and it rises to $270,000 inside the Asheville city limits.

The market peak in Buncombe County was 4,211 houses and condos sold in October 2006. Ten years later, sales hit 4,124 1. www.ncpedia.org/biography/governors/sanford

units for all of 2016. The time in between was like the Dark Ages, with too many houses to sell and not enough buyers—and many of the sellers who found a buyer were faced with being upside down on their mortgages. Those times, hopefully, are behind us for the next several years. As former Governor Terry Sanford said in his 1961 inaugural address, “Welcome to the New Day1.”

Henderson County Buncombe’s inventory shortages and trends are reflected in virtually every category of Henderson County’s 2016 results.

The county seats, Asheville and Hendersonville, are just 22 miles apart, and for many buyers that’s not too far to drive to get a slightly larger home for less money.

The median price of a house, condo, or town home was just $215,000 in Henderson versus $253,400 in Buncombe, making it the fourth most expensive county out of the seven in this region. There are other factors to consider that only the individual buyers can properly evaluate with the advice of their Realtor, but on price alone, Henderson County appears to have a winning proposition. Henderson sales reached 2,120 units in 2016, up from 1,973 units in 2015. The supply was a very tight 4.2 months’ average for all price ranges. At year’s end there were 765 properties on the market, a 27.6 percent reduction from the 2015 year’s end figure.

The annual auction of large, highly decorative ornamental Black Bears (called the Bearfootin’ Bears), incidentally, is one of Henderson County’s most prominent charitable fundraising activities. The bears are purchased each spring by local businesses and benefactors, decorated by local artists, and then displayed on virtually all street corners throughout the summer.

The auctions each October provide winter funding for local charities and make way for the new bear designs each spring.

Haywood County Haywood County includes four unique mountain towns, Canton, Clyde, Maggie Valley, and Waynesville, plus an assortment of gorgeous mountains filled with an array of places and events that are significant, fun, or both. From historic world-famous musical events such as the International Folkmoot USA festival2 to numerous art exhibits, Haywood County has a unique appreciation of both its own culture and those of hundreds of other countries worldwide. Haywood County geographically joins Buncombe County to Tennessee, but with its international outlook it is a very special place to live. Certainly, with its up-close mountain vistas in every direction, it is one of the most beautiful places in all of Western North Carolina.

Another advantage of Haywood County is that it offers real bargains in real estate. The median home price at the end of 2016 was $180,375, an increase of 9.66 percent over the year prior, but it is still just fourth out of the seven mountain counties covered in this article. Sales in Haywood reached

2. The Folkmoot USA festival for 2017 will be held July 20-30, 2017. For more information go to folkmoot.org February 2017 | capitalatplay.com 47

local industry

1,021 units in 2016 versus 941 the year before (http://hcbor. org/contact.html). Sales inventory dropped by 21.8 percent during the year from 990 units in January to just 774 at year’s end. The combination of still-decent inventory levels and low prices make Haywood a good choice for those who need to be close to Asheville.

Madison County

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Madison County is the northern neighbor of Buncombe County and is sparsely populated, with just 21,000 people (2010 census), a density of only 47 people per square mile.

Named for President James Madison, the original author of the Bill of Rights, Madison County is rugged and independent, with beautiful mountain vistas and great opportunities for building mountain retreats. One geographic feature that surprises most visitors is that the region’s largest river, the French Broad, flows north-northwest through Madison County into the Ohio River Basin rather than flowing southeastward towards the Atlantic.

Madison County has good transportation from Asheville on I-26, US 25, and US 70, and also by eastward via US 321.

Marshall is the county seat, Mars Hill University is widely renowned for its focus on complete education, and the county is growing around a resurgence in the southernly areas between Hot Springs and the ski resort at Wolf Laurel.

Madison also offers really good deals on home prices. The median price for an existing home in the county was just $200,000 in 2016, an increase of 7.62 percent over 2015. Sales reached a total of 207 units, up a modest 5.06 percent from 197. Year’s end saw just 239 units for sale throughout the county, down more than 16 percent from 287 the prior year. At the current rate, all of Madison County has just 12.9 months supply on the market, with the greatest shortages in the very low and very high prices ranges.

Polk County If you haven’t been to Tryon’s new International Equestrian Center (IEC) in Polk County, then we suggest you mosey on down there because it’s terrific; it’s unlike anything else in the region; and it’s about to become huge when the 2018 World Equestrian Games come to a county with a total population of less than 21,000 souls. The event is expected to have a $400 million economic impact when it arrives, and a large part of that will be in real estate, from rentals to sales, construction, remodeling, and services.

That is the promise, and the IEC developers have the reputation and record of making just such communities and events actually happen. Mark Bellissimo, the founder and managing partner, started his equestrian career when the Boston-based investment banker and his family visited Wellington and the Palm Beach Polo and Country Club. He moved there in 2004 and began an involvement that resulted in his acquisition of

Median Sales Price Trend 2006 - 2016 entire mls

city of asheville

buncombe county

henderson county

$280K $260K $240K $220K $200K $180K $160K 1-2006

1-2007

1-2008

1-2009

1-2010

1-2011

1-2012

1-2013

1-2014

1-2015

1-2016

entire mls & buncombe county & asheville & henderson county each data point is 12 months of activity. data from January 12, 2017

much of the polo facilities in 2007, with the intention of broadening public awareness and participation in the love of horses. Wellington has succeeded wildly since Bellissimo and his partners became involved, and the Tryon/ Mill Spring facilities are benefitting from the same expertise and love of all things equestrian.

Possibly as a result of IEC, Polk county sales grew in 2016 from just 208 units to 254, for a net increase of 22.12 percent. Median prices for these homes went from $210,000 to $216,500, a modest 3.1 percent increase. There were 264 homes for sale at year’s end both years, a positive indication that growth has not made the average house too expensive for the average family to afford.

Rutherford County Rutherford County’s county seat is in Rutherfordton, and sales are up 10.77 percent over 2015. The county is home to about 62,000 people. Some of its major features are the resort areas of Lake Lure and Chimney Rock, including Chimney Rock State Park. These communities are internationally known, not just for their inherent beauty, but perhaps primarily as the scenes of many major motion pictures, including Dirty Dancing in 1987, with Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey; The Last of the Mohicans in 1992, with Daniel Day-Lewis; and the classic of all mountain moonshine films, Thunder Road in 1958, with Robert Mitchum.

NOTES FROM THE AUTHOR The above chart shows Asheville’s previous peak median price was reached in February 2008 at $229,000. At the end or 2016 the median was up to $270,000.

Also shown: Buncombe went up from $227,000 to $253,300.

Henderson’s median price declined from $223,000 to $215,000. Not shown in this chart, Haywood also declined, from $210,000 to $180,000.

The chart shows that prices in Buncombe County and especially in Asheville are pulling the rest of the MLS up by its bootstraps.

February 2017 | capitalatplay.com 49

local industry

The Lake Lure area is just part of the Rutherford County story. Forest City is the home since 2011 of a major Facebook Corporation data center that has created a significant economic boon to the area. Rutherfordton itself is a remarkable town that in 2016 was named Small Town of the Year by the North Carolina Rural Center (www. rutherfordtourism.com).

At 2016 year’s end, 463 homes had sold in Rutherford County, an increase of 10.8 percent over the prior year. The median selling price at year’s end was $162,000, up 4.5 percent, and there were exactly 463 homes on the market.

Transylvania County

is very good news for a county that has struggled since several major manufacturing plants closed their doors several years ago. The county has been reborn as an eco-friendly outdoor adventure wonderland that builds on the DuPont State Forest and provides a great outdoor destination for visitors and residents of the greater Asheville area.

Whether you were born here or were lucky enough to find Western North Carolina later in life, it is a unique and wonderful place. We are blessed with beauty in every direction.

The average days on market for an MLS listing dropped like an acorn from a tree last year in Transylvania County. From an average of 111 days in January, the year-end figure was just 70 days. Sales went from 565 to 588 units, a 4.1 percent increase. The median price rose 7.7 percent from $205,065 to $220,950. All this

Transylvania County, with Brevard as the county seat and only significant town, is located about 30 miles southwest of Asheville. It is close enough for a daily commute, yet has its own distinctive lifestyle. Many residents and tourists are drawn by the Brevard Music

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| February 2017

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Center, a world-renowned teaching and performing center for classically-trained musicians.

Weather patterns vary significantly between Transylvania and Buncombe counties. Transylvania is the wettest county in the state, with 99 inches of precipitation each year, while Buncombe is the driest, with just 47 inches. The result is a lush forest and hundreds of natural waterfalls throughout the county, including those in the Pisgah National Forest.

Whitewater Falls, among them, is the highest waterfall in the Eastern United States.

Concluding Thoughts A year-end wrap-up article doesn’t do the region justice. We’ll give it just a few more words. Whether you were born here or were lucky enough to find Western North Carolina later in life, it is a unique and wonderful place. We are blessed with beauty in every direction. Every day our mountains give our eyes something gentle to rest upon, and our seasons give us both vigor for the outdoors, as well as variety and a year-round closeness with nature.

Seriously, this is the best place in the world to live.

Bill Fishburne is a real estate broker with Beverly-Hanks & Associates and is a former Henderson County Realtor of the Year.

Contact editor@capitalatplay.com if you would like to reach him.

all charts date sourced by: CarolinaMLS. Report provided by Charlotte Regional Realtor® Association. Data deemed reliable, but not guaranteed. Powered by 10K Research and Marketing.

Provided by Bill Fishburne of Beverly-Hanks & Assoc.

Note the phrase: “charlotte.stats...” indicates that the WNC MLS service pays a fee to Charlotte to operate our MLS. The data, however, is extracted for the Mountain Regional MLS. There is no data in it outside of our seven county region. (Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Madison, Polk, Rutherford and Transylvania).

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51

THE OLD

NORTH

the community, was shut down two years ago; since then, the area has shown signs of recovery. Hill is now working on restoring what will come to be known as the Mother Earth Motor Lodge to its former glory. Convenient to local restaurants and breweries, its twenty suites and twenty-five single rooms will go for upwards of $100 a night. But here’s the catch: Hill is refurbishing the inn to look just as it did in 1964. Each room will sport period furnishings, such as bright orange and avocado carpeting, BradyBunch orange countertops, and aqua bath tile. A replica kidney-shaped pool will be installed, and staff will wear bell bottoms and platform shoes. This is the second hotel Hill has opened in Kinston.

He previously converted the Farmers and Merchants Bank into the O’Neil Hotel.

STATE [

news briefs

Going Back To Wood wilmington

Enviva Biomass sent its first shipment of wooden pellets to Europe from the Port of Wilmington. The shipment comes four years after the state entered into a 21-year lease with the company, allowing it to build a storage facility at the port. The facility houses two storage domes, each capable of holding 50,000 metric tons of the pellets. Burnt as a lower-emission alternative to coal, wooden pellets are growing in popularity throughout Europe and Asia. The availability of wood and the regulatory climate stateside make it more profitable for the Maryland-based Enviva to produce the pellets domestically and ship abroad. Outputting 1.4 million metric tons of pellets a year, Enviva’s plants in Sampson and Northampton counties and Ahoskie account for half the company’s

]

production. A fourth plant, to be located in Hamlet and export via Wilmington, is in the design stage. Demand is high, and the company does not build on spec, but grows as needed to fill contracts.

The Scene For Crashing, Right On kinston

$340M Split 800k Ways Minus

Stephen Hill, co-founder of Mother Earth Brewing Company, has undertaken the task of restoring a landmark. Hill grew up in Kinston and has fond memories of going to the bakery and the hardware store when his mom got her hair done downtown. In the years that followed, that part of town went to seed. The Kinston Motor Lodge, viewed as the breeding ground for everything that had dissolved

raleigh

The North Carolina Supreme Court is merging the claims of 800,000 past and present tobacco farmers and their heirs and assigns from five Southeastern states into a single court case, to be heard in a trial court in Raleigh.

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| February 2017

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70

34 carolina in the west

Plaintiffs are staking claims for $340 million collected by the Flue-Cured Tobacco Cooperative Stabilization Corporation.

The corporation was established in the 1940s to purchase, process, and warehouse tobacco from growers when cigarette manufacturers wouldn’t pay the minimum prices set by the government.

Members paid $5 in dues and then sold the co-op tobacco as the law allowed. But when federal funds were withdrawn from the underwriting of tobacco crop prices in 2004, membership dropped 99%. The corporation has since been renamed the United States Tobacco Cooperative, Incorporated, and it continues to operate with about 1,000 members. Judges will determine how much the co-op needs to continue its operations, and then distribute the surplus.

Tiny Ball Bearings, In The Ride mebane

Cycle Star Nanotech is selling oneounce bottles of its single product, a bicycle chain lubricant, for $40 each. Ads say the tiny bottles will last as long as normal-sized bottles of competitors’ products. The advantage is possible because

Estate Sales Services

of a manufacturing process patented by North Carolina State University (NCSU) professor Jay Narayan. Carbon particles are laser-cut to nanometer diameters and suspended in a lightweight oil. The solids serve a three-fold purpose: They bond to metallic surfaces, smoothing over imperfections; they serve as miniature ball bearings between surfaces moving relative to each other; and they statically repel particulate contaminants. A NCSU Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering study indicated that adding the nanoparticles to lubricants would halve their coefficients of friction. Cycle Star’s parent company, Star Nanotech, is interested in commercializing the concept for automotive, aerospace, and firearms applications.

Cycle Star is already endorsed by Jim Felt of Felt Bicycles and former racer George Hincapie, and is used by the Holowesko-Citadel-Hincapie road team.

The Great e[Land]Scape raleigh

Canopy, an Uber-for-lawn-maintenance in the Triangle area, raised $2 million in its latest round of fundraising, which brings total funds raised to $3.9 million.

national & world

the old north state

The last round was led by hardware giant Lowe’s, with venture capital firm IDEA Fund Partners also contributing.

The Canopy app allows customers to request services online and get a quote within fifteen minutes, thanks to real estate data and proprietary software.

Appointments may be scheduled, and customers receive alerts when crews are en route. Canopy began in 2014 as Pack Purchase, a middleman that used technology to connect customers with home maintenance providers. The company grew quickly to hire its own yardwork crews. CEO Hunt Davis says having his own employees makes the service more “transparent, controlled, and consistent.” The company now employs thirty-five, and it will use the new funds to hire another forty and expand into the Charlotte area. The company now has thousands of recurring customers.

Digest This warsaw

Carbon Cycle Energy (C2e), based in Boulder, Colorado, has broken ground for an 82-acre, $100 million plant that will extract methane from animal waste to supplement the state’s energy demands.

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53

the old north state

The site was selected because, with 530 hog farms, Duplin County has one of the greatest porcine population densities in the country. The plant will use anaerobic digesters to convert animal and food processing waste to raw biogas, which will be injected directly into the nearby natural gas pipeline.

Approximately 750,000 tons of waste will be processed a year to supply enough gas to heat 10,000 homes. C2e already has contracts for 100% of its production. One million dekatherms will be routed to Duke Energy’s Buck, Dan River, HF Lee, and Sutton natural gas plants. The other 1.4 dekatherms are claimed by an unnamed Fortune 100 company. The state requires Duke to include swine excrement in its portfolio of renewable energy sources. The major utility already draws methane off the waste of 70,000 hogs on ten farms for a smaller facility in Duplin County.

Much Ado About Something pinehurst

With approval from the local Parks and Recreation Department, Jonathan Drahos and Carolanne Marano plan to start an outdoor Shakespeare festival at Tufts Park. The couple cofounded the Uprising Theatre Company, for which they have directed productions in New York and Los Angeles for the past 15 years. They moved to Moore County in 2014, when, after Drahos got his Ph.D. in Shakespearean drama from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, he accepted a position with the UNC-Pembroke Theatre Arts Department. A number of other live drama companies have failed in the county, but Drahos believes “Shakespeare works everywhere.”

The first production, slated for June, would be Much Ado about Nothing, chosen for its accessibility. Drahos has the contacts to recruit professional actors and technicians, as he does not want this to be an amateur hour. His 54

| February 2017

students and high school students would help with sets, costumes, and sound and lighting. They would also be able to learn about the business as they shadow the professionals.

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Craft brewers have formed Craft Freedom to lobby to lift the cap on volumes they may distribute themselves.

Currently, no brewer may self-distribute more than 25,000 barrels, an amount equivalent to 8.3 million bottles, a year.

The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery (OMB) and NoDa Brewing founded the initiative.

OMB halted expansion plans due to the cap and says it will have to shrink its territory as demand grows. OMB does not want to work with a distributor because it wants to maintain control over sales, delivery, distribution, and quality throughout the shipping and handling process. OMB founder John Marrino says his company would have to fire its in-house distribution staff, pay the distributor 30% of revenues, and, due to franchise law, relinquish ownership of its brand. NoDa opted to drop annual growth from 75-100% to 30% this year to avoid working with a distributor. The North Carolina Beer and Wine Wholesalers Association argues the law allows small brewers the privilege of self-distribution, whereas brewers argue the craft industry in other states is doing well without a cap. Sixty other brewers have signed on to Craft Freedom.

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Kalt Life Kustom Karts recently celebrated the grand opening of its showroom. Owner Chris Kalt builds custom golf carts. It started as a hobby, building them for family and friends out of his garage. Word of mouth spread, and things were getting cramped. Then, 11 weeks after his landlord informed

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him showroom space was becoming available, he turned his decades-long hobby into a full-time business. Kalt offers a wide array of colors and over 120 seat combinations. He displays a few floor models to give customers ideas and a starting point. Some of the more extreme models include four-wheel drives and 1950s-style roadsters. Prices run from $2,500 to $18,000. Kalt will start filling an order with a small down payment. The balance is due when the owner picks up the finished product, or carts may be financed in-house through an arrangement with Farm Bureau Bank.

Kalt sold the construction company he had owned and operated 17 years to pursue his hobby with undivided attention.

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Cempra, Incorporated, a pharmaceutical company with no marketed drugs to date, saw shares plunge 58%, to a record low $2.60, with trading eight times the daily average. The latest drop brought year-to-date losses to 91.7%. The adverse trading followed federal Food and Drug Administration requests for further testing of Cempra’s leading drug, solithromycin. While the drug appears to be effective in fighting pneumonia, the FDA is not convinced its advantages outweigh its risks of causing liver damage. Cempra had performed tests on 920 persons, but the FDA says the company needs to test 9,000 to make sure probabilities of collateral liver damage do not exceed one in 3000 with a 5% margin of error. CEO David Zaccardelli assured investors the company had sufficient resources to stay in business, including $225 million in cash on hand and patent protection through 2032. Cempra is receiving millions of dollars from Toyama Chemical Company, which has advanced solithromycin to Phase 3 clinical trials in Japan. Toyama would pay Cempra royalties if the drug is approved for treatments in Japan.

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Not everyone has the time (or inclination) to go the gym for a workout. The good news, though, is that with just a little creativity in the home and at the workplace, you can get in shape—and maintain it.

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| February 2017

Better THAN Nothing:

The Pessimist’s Guide to Fitness in 2017 written by toni sherwood

February 2017 | capitalatplay.com 57

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TR AINER LISA FALBO works with client, in their off ice.

TR AINING at BreakOut, photo by Ashley Bowen ClickChick.com

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SARAH BENOIT, working at the FitDesk, photo by Anthony Harden | February 2017

BREAKOUT TRAINING GROUND, photo by Ashley Bowen ClickChick.com

Here we go again : Only a month into the New Year, and you’re already breaking your resolutions. As always, you had the best of intentions, pledging how this year, you really will get in shape. You bought a cool new sweatshirt so you’d look good. You even told people you had started exercising.

But let’s be honest. Americans are working long hours.

Many of us sit at desks eight to ten hours a day. And yet we’re exhausted by the end of the day; we have no energy left even though our bodies are sedentary. Getting to the gym, well, it just doesn’t happen.

Yet this was to be the year everything would be different.

And it still can be. No, really. Because you don’t have to make yourself go to the gym; you don’t have to set ridiculous fitness goals; and sometimes, you don’t even have to leave the office to stay in shape.

Pedal While You Work Take the example of Sarah Benoit. Her work in the design and technology field requires long hours sitting in front of the computer. As a result of years in the field, she suffered a slipped disk. “Working on computers has done more damage

to me than any other work,” Benoit explains. “The repetitive motion takes a giant toll.”

Since then, for Benoit, fitness is closely linked with pain management.

“My body gets upset if I spend too much time sitting,” she says. “It’s more than fitness; I just don’t want to be in pain.”

This morning Benoit did a 40-minute session on a FitDesk Pedal Desk, which is a stationary bike with a desk attached to the front so you can pedal and type at the same time. (The company she works for, JB Media, actually has two Pedal Desks in its office.) And the Pedal Desk is easier to manage than one might think. You simply adjust the resistance on the pedals and adjust the desk position. Benoit wears her typical office attire when she pedals: ankle boots with two-inch heels and a dress. “After about thirty minutes I realized I was breathing really hard,” she says. “I was totally lost in my work.”

Benoit has a gym membership and an elliptical trainer at home as well. “I need a million options for being physical,” she admits. “I created a world where if I have time, I go to the gym, but if I don’t, I have options at home.”

Meg Ragland, president and co-founder of Plum Print (the publishing/memorabilia company profiled in the November 2016 issue of this magazine), had the opportunity to refit her February 2017 | capitalatplay.com 59

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PLUM PRINT TEAM working at their standing desks, photo by Anthony Harden

office when the company moved from Candler to downtown Asheville in July 2016. “The employees were into the sit/ stand desks, so now we all have them,” Ragland explains. “Most of us alternate between sitting and standing, and our backs feel much better with this option.”

One employee at Plum Print, Keely Knopp, has additionally instigated an hourly one-minute exercise interval throughout the workday. Borrowing exercises from the gym, like squats and sit-ups, the employees can stop working and start working out. Although not everyone participates, Meg sees it as a team building opportunity.

“It’s definitely morale boosting and energizing,” Ragland says.

No Excuses Lisa Falbo is an ACE Certified Personal Trainer based out of Waynesville, North Carolina. She works with clients in Waynesville, Asheville, and everywhere in between. Falbo meets about 60% of her clients at the gym and about 40% at their home or hers, or even at their office—as she puts it, “I try to make it so they have no excuse not to exercise.”

That’s part of her equation: Make the time and the place as convenient as possible for the client.

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Falbo has seen trends in the fitness industry come and go. [Fads, too—see sidebar, p. 63 ] Interval training is one catchphrase trending now. Some say the short high-energy intervals, coupled with brief rest periods in between, can put them on the fast track to fitness.

While Falbo agrees this is a good tool to get in shape, she maintains it’s not the only one you need. “Most people are looking to stay healthy and strong. For the best results, the research supports a mix of interval training, resistance training, and steady state cardio.”

Resistance training can include weights and resistance bands, whereas steady state cardio can be activities such as walking, rowing, or biking at a steady pace. “Your muscles get used to doing the same things, so it’s good to mix it up,” Falbo explains. “Also, the body needs rest and recovery.”

Body Awareness Katie and Michel Cox own BreakOut Training Ground in Hendersonville. The company makes it clear: They are not a gym. There are no machines. There are no televisions. There are no mirrors.

Just two and a half years ago they were teaching classes out of their backyard, until they found their current

location in 2014. The open industrial space with painted floors and a huge garage door is no frills, and not the least intimidating. Their vision is a place to focus on fitness while having a blast and not necessarily worrying about charts and numbers.

“I’m constantly encouraging clients to tune into their body,” says Katie, an AFAA Certified Personal Trainer.

She cites how one of her past clients had gained ten pounds in muscle, but lost only two pounds on the scale. The client felt devastated despite her body feeling great and her clothes fitting better. “We saw how the scale can be an imperfect measurement of success, so we threw out the scale,” Katie quips.

In similar fashion, Katie notes that while she used to have her classes do repetitions (such as twenty sit-ups, ten squats), she found that using timed

Not every office has a FitDesk, and not every office is going to offer visits from trainers, so most of us can’t work out at work, right? segments worked better. “In a class, the timed segments mean everyone finishes at the same time, and it takes the competitiveness out of it,” she explains. “Everyone can move at their own pace.”

One of the buzzwords going around the fitness community of late is “functional” exercise. These exercises mimic movements we might do in our everyday lives, such as lifting the groceries into the car or walking up stairs. The idea, Michel explains, is by strengthening the muscles we use every February 2017 | capitalatplay.com 61

KATIE AND MICHEL COX , photos by Ashley Bowen ClickChick.com

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day, we are less vulnerable to injury. “Life is not a static plane,” he says. “Some workout machines have us move in ways we don’t in real life.”

Erin Porter, head coach at Orangetheory Fitness in South Asheville, views functional exercise also as a response to out-ofdate fitness trends. “The reason ‘functional exercise’ is a trend is because so many exercise programs that came out over the years focused on ‘no pain no gain’,” Porter says. “Which often translates into ‘fast and furious’ and ‘hard and heavy,’ all of which tend to compromise form.”

Katie has observed clients who can chest press their weight easily on a machine, but struggle to do pushups. One reason is there are so many more muscles that come into play when we are not only pressing weight, but balancing. “How about the leg extension machine that you sit on and extend your legs from the knee?” Katie muses. “When do you ever do that motion in real life?”

Porter adds there are a variety of ways to think about functional exercise, such as mindful exercise that helps people get stronger to bring balanced musculature. Some exercise programs or trends focus on certain aspects of the body, but may ignore other parts of the body; perhaps they focus on power and strength, but not endurance. Orangetheory offers programs that focus on power, strength, and endurance, designing exercise routines that work the whole body to bring about overall balance. “When 62

| February 2017

our musculature is imbalanced, it sets up for possible injury and/or pain,” she explains. “If not immediate, then at some point in the future.”

In fact, both Katie and Michel have suffered past injuries from repetitive motions that they must accommodate even today in their workouts. Katie spent so many years as a step aerobics teacher that she blew out her knees. “I overdid it,” Katie admits. “It’s important to find balance and mix it up; don’t get in a rut.” For his part, Michel injured his shoulder playing baseball in his youth and he has had back surgery. “People fall into their ‘exercise candy’ and do it too much,” he says. The Coxes’ own injuries are a constant reminder to have awareness of when clients are training too hard. Because growth happens in recovery, rest is required to build muscle.

“We don’t lift Olympic size weights or lift for speed,” Katie says. “We do a lot of balance work and we’re more into encouragement than competition.” To that end, BreakOut hosts Friday night dance parties, open to the public, on the first Friday of each month as a means to dance away the week’s stress and kick off the weekend.

BreakOut is also about to launch their Desk Workout. Katie has designed a workout specifically for an office or cubicle environment. Other than a desk and a chair, it requires no special equipment or attire. All levels can get a challenging workout with modified movements. “The workout lasts about 20 minutes, so you still have time for lunch,” she explains. BreakOut will visit workplaces to train clients as well as offer an instructional video.

Working Out At Work?

Not every office has a FitDesk, and not every office is going to offer visits from trainers, so most of us can’t work out at work, right? Oh, well, we’re screwed. Too bad we won’t benefit from

The Ghosts of Fitness Trends Past

1.

2.

1. VIBRATING BELT MACHINES There’s nothing American’s won’t do to lose weight, including doing nothing. Back in the 1960s and ‘70s, these jiggle belts promised to shake the fat right off you.

Popular in spas and wealthy homes, the allure of an effortless workout led many to purchase these clunky machines. All you had to do was lean back and let the weight loss begin. Turns out, um… no.

2. THE THIGHMASTER Who can forget Suzanne Somers in her shiny leotard and headband, promising us perfect thighs? The Thighmaster is made from two looped metal tubes with a hinge between creating resistance when you squeeze it between your thighs. Like many devices advertised in the 1990s, the idea was you could do something else, like watch TV, while your thighs miraculously got into shape. It’s still for sale, and the latest version, the Thighmaster Vibrato, vibrates.

3.

4.

3. EARTH SHOES, TONING SHOES, FITFLOP Footwear purporting to address ergonomic/biomechanic issues periodically captures the out-of-shape public’s imagination, most recently via the hideous, Kardashian-shilled Fitflops. The jury is still out on those, but their predecessors, toning shoes, also known as rocker bottom shoes (the ones with the unstable/ wobbly/curved soles that supposedly toned up your butt, legs, and abs), were thoroughly discredited a few years ago by the American Council on Exercise; Skechers even had to settle a $45 million lawsuit over their Shape-ups shoes—yes, the same ones famously endorsed by Kim Kardashian’s butt. And raise your hand if you remember the pride of the ‘70s, the Kalsø Earth Shoe, whose remarkably uncomfortable Negative Heel Technology made users—translation: hippies, gurus, health-food store employees—feel like they were constantly trudging uphill.

5.

4. THE SHAKE WEIGHT A dumbbell that, wait for it… shakes!

Debuting in July 2009, the Shake Weight went on to sell two million units by August 2010. Their “slightly pornographic” infomercial went viral, spawning parodies of the phallic-shaped product on Saturday Night Live, The Daily Show, and Southpark, among others. Unfortunately, Consumer Reports found the product to be inferior to conventional exercises.

5. POWER BALANCE BRACELETS Speaking of “consumers” and “inferior products,” less than a decade ago, these colorful wrist gadgets employing “holographic technology” to tap the body’s “natural energy field” en route to flexibility and strength were all the rage. But no longer: Minus scientific evidence to support their claims, Power Balance was sued for fraud and had to file for bankruptcy in 2011.

THE WORKPLACE HASN’T BEEN IMMUNE TO FITNESS FADS ‘N’ FLOPS, EITHER OFFICE SQUARE DANCING

YOGA BALL

OFFICE PARTNER YOGA

Back in the ‘80s, when “Greed was good,” office square dancing offered a respite from the stress of insider trading. It didn’t last, of course; maybe it was all the files and desks that got knocked over, or that time when the boss decided to be the “caller” and no one could unsee it.

A/k/a the balance ball, it was actually invented in the 1960s by an Italian toymaker.

It subsequently got introduced in the United States in the ‘80s. And yes, the yoga ball is still around, and people do sit on these bouncy balls instead of their desk chairs, and at times they fall off them. But if you think you are working your core into a six-pack or whittling your waist, um… no.

This sprang up after the tech bubble burst in the ‘90s to help workers cope with being middle class again. Who knew even yoga could be competitive? Let’s just say it gave “breath of fire” a whole new meaning.

February 2017 | capitalatplay.com 63

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increased energy, reduced tension, and better focus. But that’s not the worst news.

The assumption has been that we can counterbalance sedentary activity by working out. But the American Heart Association (AHA) has come to some rather daunting new

“When you’re working out, and pushing through even though it’s hard, it trains you to fight life’s battles.” conclusions. According to a statement released this past October, the AHA advised that the negative effects of sitting eight or nine hours a day cannot be undone by working out.

So the health risks of a sedentary lifestyle, such as diabetes and cardio vascular disease, cannot be counteracted by any amount of physical activity. “Regardless of how much physical activity someone gets, prolonged sedentary time

could negatively impact the health of your heart and blood vessels,” said Deborah Rohm Young, PhD, director of Behavioral Research at Kaiser Permanente Southern California in Pasadena and chair of the AHA. With so much at stake, Americans need to get strategic about moving more, especially at work. Personal Trainer Falbo has developed some tips that require no special equipment to keep moving throughout the workday. We have listed a few here for your enjoyment.

Take A Walking Meeting Walking often spurs creative ideas and different ways of looking at problems. Why not work out the kinks in your muscles while you work out the kinks at the office?

Stand Up Another option to consider is a standing desk. Although you’re not going to sculpt your muscles or lose weight with a standing desk, it’s one way to keep the blood flowing and the energy up. Some models are adjustable to several different heights (including for sitting), and there are

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also desktop add-ons that allow you to turn any desk into a standing desk.

Get On the Phone Whenever you are talking on the phone, start walking or pacing. This way you get that blood flowing regularly.

Make Time Set a timer for every 30 minutes or every hour. Whenever it goes off, stop and do two minutes of something—jumping jacks, sit-ups, push-ups, march in place—and do something different for each segment. By the end of the day, you’ve given yourself a workout. “It mimics interval training,” Falbo says. “You’re getting that heartbeat up, and your muscles are not atrophying.”

Sooner Rather Than Later

Never Mind Let’s not forget the psychological benefits of working out: from less stress to better mood and focus. Sarah Benoit finds exercise helps keep her energy up throughout the day, releases tension, and even helps her sleep better at night. “Working in technology, we do lots of mental processing and creating ideas,” Benoit explains. “When you haven’t burned off energy, your brain can’t stop, so your mind is racing all night.”

There are other long-term benefits that may be subtle.

“When you’re working out, and pushing through even though it’s hard, it trains you to fight life’s battles,” Katie says.

So before you say, “Oh well, I didn’t work out today, screw the whole year,” remember that tomorrow, you can simply wipe the slate clean and start again. Falbo puts it this way: “I always tell clients, if all you can do is four minutes at a time, that’s better than nothing.”

Another tip is to work out earlier in the day. Explains Falbo, “The later it gets, the more likely you are to skip it. Fifteen or twenty minutes during your lunch break still gives you time to eat lunch.”

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| www.WhiteOakFinancialManagement.com February 2017 | capitalatplay.com 65

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More Than Just Mailbox Money

There are numerous benefits to using multiple “single-asset” limited liability companies for investment properties.

J

P

joanne badr

is an Asheville native, and an attorney with Ward and Smith, P.A., where her practice includes the representation of lenders, business owners, and commercial real estate developers.

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R AC T IC I NG R E A L E S TAT E L AW M E A NS

that I’m constantly talking with all types of clients, including large scale developers as well as individuals simply looking to do a little investing in real estate. Interestingly and somewhat counterintuitively, people tend to make just as many mistakes, and in some cases more serious ones when the transactions are small by comparison.

One of the most frequent areas of mistake is failing to use a limited liability company (LLC) to own real estate. Many people have probably heard about owning their investment properties in an LLC, but don’t know why it is important, how to go about doing so, and why they should make this relatively minimal expenditure. In today’s legal environment, it’s wise to understand how to protect your investment assets in this way, where the benefits massively outweigh the drawbacks.

Consider this situation as an example. “Jane” had saved modestly during her twenties and thirties, and, after having created a small nest egg, decided that she wanted to invest in some real estate so that, as she grew older, she would have some “mailbox money” (her financial advisor calls this “passive income”). Over the course of the last seven years, Jane has acquired five rental properties, which are each occupied by long-term, stable tenants.

Recently, one of her first and most trustworthy

| February 2017

renters, “Renta,” suffered a serious injury in the home she was renting when a kitchen appliance malfunctioned and caught on fire. Renta had been a reliable and easy-going tenant for years, but her injuries were extensive, and she filed a lawsuit alleging that the owner’s negligence contributed to her injuries.

During the course of the lawsuit, it was determined that the appliance had been recalled several months before Renta suffered her injury, but that no one had taken steps to have the appliance replaced. If Jane owns the property in her own name, or in an LLC that owns all four of her other real estate investments, Jane’s personal assets or the investment properties in which Renta has never stepped foot could be threatened or lost during the course of the lawsuit. If that is the case, Jane might really regret ever getting into the real estate game.

However, if the property that Renta occupies is owned by a separate LLC that Jane formed, then

J Jane’s other assets, both personal and investment, will be protected. In that still stressful, but much less costly scenario, Renta will have to sue Jane’s LLC, rather than Jane, and the only asset that can be lost or subject to lien in the lawsuit is the property Renta lived in that is held by that separate LLC.

The Benefits of Single-Asset Multiple LLC Ownership Limitations on Personal Liability Holding each investment property in its own LLC limits the liability that could be owed to any tenant, guest, invitee, or trespasser to the value of that specific investment. As shown in the example above, if Jane has formed five LLCs for each of her five investment properties, then when any one of those LLC-owners is found liable to a tenant for negligence or other claim, Jane’s personal residence, bank accounts, and unrelated investment properties held in the other LLCs will not be threatened.

WHILE THE CHANCE OF A LOSS THAT EXCEEDS POLICY LIMITS MAY BE REMOTE, IF IT HAPPENS, THE CONSEQUENCES CAN BE DEVASTATING, AND THE PROTECTIONS AFFORDED

BY A SINGLE-ASSET LLC CAN BE INDISPENSABLE. This is especially important in a scenario where, for example, Renta’s damages in light of her medical injuries surpass the value of the home she is renting. In that event, if Jane has shielded her other assets from liability with the formation of an LLC to own each property, while the home Renta was injured in may have to be sold in order for Jane to pay damages to Renta, Jane’s other assets would not be exposed to lien or loss in order to cover any excess of Renta’s damages over the value of the house rented to her.

Jane certainly would be wise to have her LLC carry homeowner’s insurance on the property rented and occupied

by Renta, but it is clear that real estate investors who rely solely on insurance as a means of protection from personal liability take a significant risk. Liability policies typically have limits, exceptions, and carve-outs. While the chance of a loss that exceeds policy limits may be remote, if it happens, as with the example above, the consequences can be devastating, and the protections afforded by a single-asset LLC can be indispensable.

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the Perfect Place for everything her heart desires.

column

Simple Formation Process Forming and maintaining an LLC is a straightforward process. Simple Articles of Organization are filed with the North Carolina Secretary of State. If more than one person will hold an interest in the LLC, an Operating Agreement should be created.

For example, if Jane has a business partner with whom she is purchasing investment property, she will want the Operating Agreement to clearly provide the framework by which the members of

a tax standpoint than in another type of corporation. While LLC’s provide “pass-through” taxation, meaning that an LLC member does not pay taxes at the business level, corporation owners face a double tax, at both the corporate and personal income tax levels. Furthermore, while real estate can go into a corporation tax-free, it can never come out tax free, which is not the case with LLCs. The management of an LLC is often much simpler than the management

[AN LLC] DOES OFFER MANY OTHER ADVANTAGES THAT MAKE IT THE MOST DESIR ABLE FORM OF ENTITY IN MANY CASES, PARTICULARLY WITH RESPECT TO REAL ESTATE HOLDING COMPANIES. the LLC will co-own the property, i.e., which member has the right to hire a property manager or obtain a mortgage secured by the assets of the LLC, which member has the right to sell the assets of the LLC, and what might occur if the members come to an impasse on an important issue, or one of the members dies or becomes incapacitated.

With a solid Operating Agreement in place, groups of investors can co-own real estate assets within the structure of an LLC, which further simplifies the way that a group of investors can take title in the property, operate it for a profit, and pass it to others.

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Simplified Management of the Legal Entity Additionally, an LLC’s maintenance is easier than the maintenance required of a corporation. For example, unlike other corporations, an LLC does not have to issue stock, hold annual meetings, or keep written minutes in order to preserve the liability shields afforded to its owners.

More importantly, holding real estate in an LLC is much more favorable from

of a corporation, but an investor must still take certain precautions in order to maintain the separate and distinct identity of the owner from that of the LLC. For example, an LLC member must not co-mingle personal and business funds, i.e., by using personal credit cards to pay for expenses incurred by the LLC. If the member does co-mingle funds, the integrity of the liability shield provided by law will be compromised and potentially expose all of the members to personal liability.

Privacy Considerations In addition to the liability protection created, LLCs are also beneficial in terms of affording privacy to investors. For example, if a valuable property is owned by “Lexington Avenue Properties, LLC” rather than by “Jane Doe,” it is harder for the general public to determine that Jane Doe owns the property, or to search for all properties in which Jane Doe has an ownership interest. This is especially true where the Articles of Organization are prepared in a way as to avoid disclosure of Jane Doe’s name or personal information.

Limited Drawbacks to LLC Formation The drawbacks of creating an LLC are limited to costs. In North Carolina, at the present time, the filing of Articles of Organization with the Secretary of State costs $127, and the preparation of that filing and an Operating Agreement between members will involve legal fees.

Additionally, an Annual Report must be filed with the Secretary of State each year in order to keep the LLC active and recognizable as a legal entity, at a filing fee of $200 per year. Investors will also incur expenses for the tax preparation of each LLC’s K-1. These costs are relatively quite low, however, in comparison to the asset protection and privacy that LLCs afford to investors.

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Minimize Risks and Evaluate Your Options There is simply no way to eliminate all the risks associated with starting a real estate investment business, but you can easily improve your chances of success by complying with the corporate formalities required by applicable entity formation and operation laws, and taking time to consider whether or not acquisition through an LLC is the right choice. If so, it is much easier to purchase property through an LLC to begin with, as opposed to trying to transfer it to an entity at a later date when a lender might have to consent to the transaction.

Even though an LLC may not offer any more protection from outside lawsuits than a properly formed corporation or partnership, it does offer many other advantages that make it the most desirable form of entity in many cases, particularly with respect to real estate holding companies. This is the kind of seemingly minor difference that Jane, and other investors like her, might want to keep in mind, if they want their “mailbox money” to be incoming, rather than outgoing.

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Archy Bunkers edgemont, south dakota

Vivos Group is offering 575 bunkers for high-net-worth families in what they bill as the “largest private shelter community on earth.” The bunkers are 26 feet wide and 60-80 feet long. They were built in 1942 by the Army Corps of Engineers to store munitions. Made of hardened concrete and steel, they were designed to withstand a 500,000-pound explosion.

The Army base was retired in 1967 and purchased by Vivos in 2016. The bunkers have been gutted, and they retail as-is, with no plumbing, electricity, or air filtration. Interested parties can hire their own contractor or work with Vivos’ staff to personalize their bunker. Retrofitting a unit with a blast door seal, escape hatch, HVAC, and utilities would cost $12,000. Finishing the space with walls

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and flooring could run another $20,000.

Vivos provides amenities like full-time security, maintenance, and community meeting space. Vivos intends to finish a model and begin home tours after the snowy season. Applicants must take a tour, submit to a background check, and pay a $5,000, fully-refundable fee.

Back To Mattresses & Sock Drawers bern, switzerland

Switzerland will no longer be a safe haven for taxable assets. The ratification of the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters means, effective January 1, qualified foreign governments won’t have to submit a specific request and present hard evidence

of tax evasion to view information on their citizens’ Swiss bank accounts. Reports will automatically be disseminated each year to 104 participating countries.

The Convention is lauded as “the most comprehensive multilateral instrument available for all forms of tax cooperation to tackle tax evasion and avoidance, a top priority for all countries.” European nations will receive reports this year, but developing nations won’t be brought online until 2018. The poorest of nations won’t be able to participate because they do not have the technology to collect and share information on Swiss citizens in their countries, and they cannot guarantee confidentiality.

Hedgehogs Approach Extinction new york, new york

In their heyday, key hedge funds in New York paid for $166 million in medical facilities, $210 million in parks, and $60 million in Juilliard scholarships. They pushed up the price on art by greats like Andy Warhol. Trading became a $3 billion business, with twenty-seven hedge fund managers in the Forbes 400. Now, Bloomberg predicts they’re on the way

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out. Investors are growing weary of paying management fees that are twice their returns. Skilled managers who earned 20% fees, as well as managers who got rich charging 2% for essentially doing nothing, were both hurt with near-zero interest rates. Since 2008, returns on hedge funds have averaged 40% of the annual returns on stock, and the funds have performed only slightly better than bonds. In light of the low profits, public pensions and endowments are being moved from hedge funds to more profitable investments.

With waning investor interest, managers have sought more profitable products. In the first three quarters of this fiscal year, 782 hedge funds closed.

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A number of innovations in the automobile industry were unveiled at CES 2017 (the annual Consumer and Electronics Show). Autonomous and electric cars dominated the scene, which was represented by about 300 exhibitors.

A recurring theme was upgrades that merely unlock features manufacturers build into multiple models. Sometimes the only difference between BM W series engines is the software. New

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BMWs also sport Connected Drive, which for an extra $360 allows drivers to purchase apps for features like traffic updates, messaging, switching between muscle-car and economy-car revs, and remote ignition. Prices run around $50-$100 apiece, some being offered as renewable subscriptions. Tesla, similarly, offers a $10,000 upgrade that accesses software in all S models that can shave 10% off acceleration times. Cars come standard with Insane mode, but special software can unleash Ludicrous mode, which enables zero-to-sixty in 2.8 seconds. After 50 years, CES has grown to accommodate 3,800 manufacturers, developers, and suppliers of cutting-edge technology, as well as over 165,000 attendees from 150 countries.

Robin Hood: Men In Thermoplastic Polymers sherwood forest, united kingdom

Perhaps they’re only going in big to settle for what they want in the negotiations process, but Ineos Group Limited—a $54 billion, multinational chemical company—has reached an agreement with the United Kingdom’s Forestry Commission to begin burying charges for

national & world

shale gas exploration in Sherwood Forest.

Fracking had been halted in England since 2011, when tests conducted by Cuadrilla Resources set off tremors felt in Blackpool. Following studies, hearings, and regulations (plus estimates claiming trillions of cubic feet of recoverable shale gas await beneath the British Isles), the United Kingdom government concluded it would be safe to license exploration again. Ineos received 21 of 159 new permits issued, but its attempts to get the go-ahead elsewhere in Nottingham have been thwarted. Environmental group Friends of the Earth has taken the lead in opposing seismic surveying in Sherwood. Not only was it the hideout of national icons Robin Hood and his Merry Men, it is now home to the 1,000-yearold Major Oak and rare bats. The forest’s designation as a National Nature Reserve would apparently not prohibit fracking the underground.

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Adam Tanner, a fellow at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University, has published

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multiple works about the multinational personal data business. When a person visits his doctor, the physician takes notes and may order tests or prescribe medications; the pharmacy fills the orders; and the insurance companies update their databases. Intimate details about the patient’s body are entered into an electronic medical records system anonymously every step of the way, and the information is sold to data miners, like Quintiles IMS or IBM. Tanner said it is almost impossible to opt out of having one’s medical data sold to the multibillion dollar data mining industry.

Presumably, the data mining facilitates breakthroughs in science. Tanner hasn’t seen the breakthroughs, but, as more and more information is recorded, he’s seen hacks and medical records theft on an upswing. With a little detective work, it would be easy for a malicious adversary to reconstruct a target’s medical profile. In his latest book, Our Bodies, Our Data, he argues updated privacy protection and the advancement of science are not mutually exclusive goals.

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On December 22, construction stopped again on the garish American Dream Meadowlands Mall. The developers, Triple Five, had missed a key deadline for a $1.15 billion bond issue.

They had argued in a legal defense prepared in September that meeting the deadline would be make-it-or-break-it for the project. The venture began with a request for proposals issued by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority in 2002. The first developer, Mills Corporation, ran into financial difficulty building out 2.5 million square feet for $1.3 billion. Colony Capital next brought the project near 80% completion before the recession hollowed out their financing. Now, Triple Five is trying to complete a 3 million square-foot project, a decade overdue and $3.7 billion over budget. In

Kitty Leader cheyenne, wyoming

Wyoming, the nation’s number-one coal mining state, has been hit hard the last two years with the downturn in the industry and a Bureau of Land Management coal-leasing moratorium.

The industry, therefore, is using less bentonite, the clay used in drilling for coal because it liquefies with friction, thus keeping drill bits cool. Wyoming’s volcanic ash supplies over 50% of the world’s bentonite, but fortunately the material is claimed to have a thousand other uses. It clarifies wine, provides impervious lining for landfills, removes ink from recyclable paper, and is used by over half the world’s cat owners as kitty litter. Last year, 4.3 million tons of bentonite were mined nationwide, a large portion of which supported the $2.9 billion kitty litter industry.

Bentonite mining and processing employees 700 Wyomingites. What’s more, the BLM just approved Wyo-Ben’s plans to expand a bentonite pit in the north-central part of the state.

Lacking Conscience new york, new york

Regulators are now grappling with how to get algorithms to act with moral decency. Last May’s flash crash, characterized by absurd sales like Apple shares going for $100,000 each and Accenture’s going for $0.01, has now been attributed to Waddell and Reed Financial, Incorporated. The investment giant tried to hedge their $7 billion stock portfolio on a long-range bet that the S&P 500 would fall. The mass movement started an avalanche as computers, not

Diamonds Are A Nerd’s Best Friend oxford, united kingdom

Element Six (E6) began 70 years ago as the research arm of famed jeweler De Beers. It was tasked with finding applications for scrap diamonds, and the brain trust found the gemstones, with their extreme hardness, tensile strength, and thermal conductivity, could be used in almost any industrial application demanding effectiveness and precision. Now, E6 is researching diamond technologies for the post-digital age. Its researchers have demonstrated how two subatomic particles could interact with each other when separated over 4000 feet, a breakthrough for quantum computing.

Diamond lattices in which two adjacent carbon atoms have been replaced by a nitrogen atom and a vacancy have proven to be super-sensitive, photoreceptive magnets. These properties could be developed for a GPS system that uses the sun’s magnetic field instead of satellites for a reference or for handheld MRI scanners. To date, E6 researchers have shown nitrogen-vacancy diamonds can detect a car’s magnetic signature up to 200 miles away and red diamonds can detect the firing of an axon in a marine worm’s brain.

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people, began responding to the fluctuation in market data. It is estimated that 70% of Wall Street trading decisions are now made by algorithms. Products like Dow Jones’ Lexicon scan multiple news sources for triggers to feed in actionable machine language to trading computers that, every second, process millions of moving data points, each with their own feedback loops. A single stock may receive 10,000 bids a second. People can customize the software, but experts say it’s futile for a human mind to try to keep up with the logic of the markets.

Regulators have since implemented rules to stop trades if a stock’s value changes more than 10% in five minutes.

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Sensuality IN THE

CITY written by emily gl aser photos by anthony harden editors note : the following article is intended for responsible adults only

Lisa Ziemer’s goal is to share her passion for, and knowledge of, the dualities and dichotomies of womanhood. It’s all about “making the world better for women,” says Ziemer.

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LISA ZIEMER | February 2017

L

ISA ZIEMER IS A WOMAN

who deliberately affiliates the sexy and the tender as equally va lid represent ations and definitions of femininity. For while it’s true that designers of feminine lingerie intentionally remove themselves from the domains of the more candid adult sex toy businesses, and vice versa, these seemingly contradictory industries and ideals are in fact harmonious facets of Ziemer’s business, of Ziemer herself, and, she argues, of women everywhere.

On Broadway Avenue, in the heart of bustling downtown Asheville, North Carolina, you’ll find VaVaVooom. Its bricked, centuried storefront is much like those around it, with wide, bright windows and a sparkling marquee sign. But this is a store unlike any other in the mountain town. It is, you gradually begin to realize, a uniquity, a business that is an amalgam of industries almost always at odds.

The door swings open with a delicate jangle of bells, and your first step inward reveals the croak of aged wooden floors.

Sunlight pours through the windows and filters through thinly layered lace, sweet teddies, and négligées draped over thin hangers, racks of whimsical lingerie in rainbow-hued gradients of pastel, in cherry blossom pink and spearmint green and salty blue. Mannequins pose in the corners, tied tight in warm, velvety corsets and cloaked in silky emerald robes. Shoppers can stroll through the clothing, guide their hands along the soft folds, and imagine a sweet night of champagne and strawberries.

If you continue deeper into the store, another room emerges.

It’s not hidden behind heavy curtains or a coquettish sign; the lights aren’t suppressingly dim or revelatory and bright. It’s a room as much a part of the shop as the foyer, but the goods are decidedly different. In this room, you won’t find delicate apparel, but sex products and goods. Shelves upon shelves of body-safe, luxury adult toys and products line the lilac walls.

Bottles of lubricants, jewel-toned vibrators, and boxes of sexual curios such as “the Liberator” are stacked on the shelves. The “toy room,” though decidedly different in selection from the rest of the store, is also similar in aesthetic and ambience.

For Lisa Ziemer, a lifelong supporter of all things feminine and feminist, none of this is random or unintentional. Her business is a platform from which she can share her passion and knowledge of the experience of womanhood with an eager, parched community (and, needless to say, a consumer base).

“LOUNG-ERIE” greets customers at the door.

Duality The falsified juxtaposition of the feminist and feminine is the fundamental incentive behind Ziemer’s actions and VaVaVooom.

Here, you’ll find petal-pink teddies of soft lace mere steps from shelves of lubricants and adult toys, a physical rebuke of the traditional segregation of the strongly sexy and the softly intimate. It’s purposeful, and it all hearkens back to Ziemer’s recognition of the multi-faceted identifications of all women.

“I don’t think there’s a contradiction between feminism, femininity, and pretty, and I do think that sexuality is best when it’s heart-based and connected,” she explains. “There’s a lot of difficulty within this culture of ‘femininity’ and ‘pretty,’ and that somehow those are contradictory.”

That socially accepted contradiction hails from the days of second-wave feminism. Consider the modern feminist ideologies of Betty Friedan and Simone de Beauvoir, who fathered—ahem, mothered—women’s liberation. They applied the ideals of feminism to the political arena like their predecessors, but also to the home; women, they realized, were as suppressed in their traditional roles of housekeeper and mother as they were in their professional ones. Modern feminists called for a deconstruction of the conventional roles of women across spheres and a redefinition of womanhood, without the formerly all-powerful preferences of men.

February 2017 | capitalatplay.com 77

SHOPPERS BROWSE VaVaVooom’s large selection.

It became increasingly difficult to equate the traditional tenets of femininity—frothy lace, pink-tinged négligée, demureness and sweetness and tenderness—with anything more than the male idolization and falsification of the female form. Those icons of womanhood became, instead, icons of conformity and suppression. Bras were burned, pants were donned, and those frilly, fancy garments were tossed in the trash. A brasher perception of sexuality was adopted. Women gained control of their sexuality, but they often lost their own definitions of femininity in the process.

It’s a dichotomy Ziemer is very familiar with, having grown up in the tumultuously feminist time and place of ‘60s northern San Francisco.

“I grew up in Marin, north of San Francisco, with all the hippie mamas,” she explains. “To me, I grew up watching women breastfeed; it just seemed so normal. But I also went to Catholic school, so there was this collision of sexual shaming, and it’s all out there.”

Since the mid-twentieth century, women have wrestled with these paradoxical assessments of sexuality and feminism.

It’s a contradiction that exists still, in a generation of female millennials raised to enjoy their sexuality without shame, while simultaneously instructed to withhold that sexuality for a single respectful, patient partner. With time, it seems the contradictions of femaleness only tend to multiply rather than dissipate.

Couple those confusing definitions of femininity with a sexual industry defined by males, and you’ve got a veritable maelstrom of conflicting w i nd s sway i ng the m i nd s a nd opinions of the modern woman.

“What surprises me most about this industry is how sexuality overall is separated from the heart. It’s so male-defined, and it’s so physically defined,” Ziemer notes. Her words ring particularly true in the realm of the adult toy, a business largely influenced (and controlled) by the pornography industry, an industry of male-oriented polarization. “If you go online, you’re just hit with everything.

Most women have a higher sensibility and aesthetic and just don’t wanna see all that.” But with the strong influence of the male-dominated (literally and figuratively) porn industry, many women lose sight of their own sexuality and

“I just think all women walk a dichotomy, a paradox, that is difficult to deal with,” she acknowledges. “And here, we talk about it. It’s a safe space to come talk about it.”

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feel pressured to adopt the one-dimensional stereotypes espoused in erotic films: the subjugate, the dominatrix, the doe-eyed ingénue. Higher sensibilities and aesthetics fall victim to the male gaze. Or adversely, the shroud of male-defined sensuality is so forcefully thrown off that sexuality as a whole is incriminated by association alone.

Being a sexual, feminine, feminist woman in the 21st century is undoubtedly a confounding, serpentine road, a conflicting tale each woman must learn to tell. But Ziemer has learned her lines, and wants to help other women with theirs, too. At VaVaVooom, she serves as the paradoxical spirit guide, helping customers navigate the complexities of modern sexuality.

Ask Ziemer what it is that gets her out of bed every day, and her answer rings with the sweet tones of such a guide: “Making the world better for women.” It’s a response that could easily slip into the brash or quixotic, but delivered with a steady gaze and her calm, practiced cadence, it’s simply authentic. Perhaps because Ziemer identifies so strongly with all the separate identities that womanhood can entail: mother, sister, businesswoman, feminist, and advocate of the feminine—all definitions to which she subscribes and identifies, despite their often dichotomous perception in a modern, 21st century world. Making the world—or at least, their personal, intimate worlds—better for the women of Asheville is Ziemer’s inspiration and her daily practice. Hence, VaVaVooom.

February 2017 | capitalatplay.com 79

WOMEN OF ALL sizes and ages can f ind something in Lisa’s store.

“I just think all women walk a dichotomy, a paradox, that is difficult to deal with,” she acknowledges. “And here, we talk about it. It’s a safe space to come talk about it.”

Merely recognizing the contradictions helps to alleviate them. Because in truth, those contradictions are nothing more than social constructs. We may live in a world where sexuality and sensuality are threaded with strings of doubt and contradiction, but it’s also in the able hands of every woman to decide her own definitions of sex and femininity.

“In my world, you can be a very strong feminist and still love lace and beautiful things,” Ziemer offers, her palms open. “I think some of what got lost in feminism was the femininity and the playfulness, and you can still have that with strength and determination and courage, and all of those wonderful feminist ideas, but you can still love lacy things. You can still love feeling that way and dressing that way. What’s surprised me the most through my life is how the feminine part of feminism got kind of pushed under the rug, or ‘we’re not going to do that because it’s too much for him,’ but I think a lot of women like feeling this way and dressing this way whether they’re with a man or not.”

At VaVaVooom, Ziemer encourages women to explore and understand their own versions of sexuality, as she says, with a man or not.

She sweeps away those pesky contradictions with an able flick of her skirt, leaving instead a tabula rosa, complete with a feathery, pink pen, for each customer to understand and define their own femininity and sexuality.

Sexuality And understanding your sexuality isn’t just gratifying, it’s healthy. “Sexuality is a part of a healthy life,” Ziemer promises.

Doctors champion sex as nature’s cure-all for maladies physical and mental alike. Sex supports a healthy immune system, lowers blood pressure and the risk of heart attack, improves the quality of sleep, and, of course, relieves stress. So when Ziemer says sexuality is a part of a healthy life, it’s not just a sales pitch—it’s doctor’s orders.

W hich is why some doctors literally prescribe (or at least recommend) VaVaVooom to their patients. “We have a lot of people sent 80

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over by physical therapists and gynecologists in town, so there’s a real health and wellness aspect to this that I’m trying to address,” she points out.

While the store’s merchandise is appropriate for customers of all ages and sexual preferences, many of the products are also geared toward making sex practical and enjoyable for women in and beyond menopause. Older women, for instance, may find that sex becomes difficult; as estrogen levels fall, vaginal tissues thin and dryness ensues.

Ziemer offers a selection of products that can help. “Anything that helps with orgasming [after menopause] and keeping the pelvic floor solid.

There are four muscle groups, and as we age they tend to get lax,” she explains. “We have a lot of women in their 50s who are referred here for Luna Beads to help with kegeling. There’s not enough awareness of how important that is.” (Luna Beads strengthen the pelvic floor and prevent that laxity to which she refers, helping women to maintain their ability to orgasm.)

And it’s not just specific products that keeps women coming back; they come to realize that VaVaVooom is also a safe place to discuss and discover their sexualities. “Once they’re introduced to it and they know it’s safe, they can come play, too, which can really help enhance their relationships,” Ziemer says, adding that as women become more comfortable with their own sexual preferences and identities, they develop confidence in and contentment with themselves.

Unfortunately, female sexuality is still culturally knotty. “I think there’s still a lot of shaming of sexuality in this culture, especially female sexuality; along with the shaming comes the ridicule, the denigration, all of those really negative things.“ Ziemer pauses. “I’m here to try to enhance the positive side of that, the beautiful side of that.”

Credibility Of all those auxiliary pieces, perhaps the thorniest are the adult toys. It’s a business, as we mentioned before, usually controlled by the porn industry, and as such, often distanced from the more feminine, female-oriented lingerie enterprises. It’s also a business fueled primarily by monetary gain and not, lamentably, by female safety. The result? Potentially dangerous products produced without regulation or standards.

“The way that the toy industry works is that none of these products are FDA-regulated, so February 2017 | capitalatplay.com

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there’s a lot of toxic toy products out there,” Ziemer explains.

Even toy makers with good intentions often don’t fully understand the toxicity of their products. Manufacturers who send plans to producers in China don’t necessarily receive what they specified back. Consumer reports may note the intended specifications of the products, but not the reality; lab reports can reveal conflicting ingredients or designs.

“The industry gets away with it by calling them ‘novelties,’ not ‘medical devices.’ This is also where the whole gag-gift comes in. They have a little warning on the back, ‘only to be used as a novelty,’ but people don’t think ‘I should be putting a condom on this before I put it in my body’; and the toy industry itself, the adult industry, they’re not going to promote that because their stores are full of that stuff.”

So droves of adult toys with varying levels of toxicity are sold to an unassuming public—why does it matter? Just as with the food we eat and the drinks we guzzle, the products that make it inside other areas of our body can greatly affect us. Women especially should be aware of the composition of their adult toys. “The vagina is mucous-membrane and highly absorptive, and that’s not the same with males,” Ziemer points out. Many of these products are made of phthalates, which are proven carcinogens, or plastics, which can leach into the body; inserting them directly into a highly-absorptive area could produce untold negative consequences.

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It’s a welcoming divergence from both the roadside, windowless sex shop and the commercialized, bubblegumpink lingerie shops of the mall.

In a town like Asheville, where its citizens are hyper-aware of the organic foods and nutrient-rich drinks they put inside their bodies, it’s only sensible that the adult toy market would be similarly health-conscious. Ziemer is proud that her toy products are carefully researched and closely monitored. “I think that’s the big selling point of what we have here, is that it’s so well-curated and monitored, because the industry itself is not doing that. Really, they don’t care, and so it’s up to us to care.” She notes that their adult toy selection has been personally researched and verified with both consumer and lab reports to ensure being entirely body-safe. “Vibrators, lubricants, all of that. If anything’s going internally, it’s safe.”

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Facility VaVaVooom, in many ways, defies definition. It doesn’t fit neatly into any retail category, in some ways because it’s too refined; in others, because it’s too expansive. And so Ziemer has created her own definition: a boudoir boutique.

“This isn’t just a replica of something,” she says. From the moment of VaVaVooom’s conception, Ziemer had to invent her model, without guidance or predecessor. She was tasked with the responsibility of uniting two sectors that were often reluctant to share association. “This was really a melding of two different industries that didn’t work too well together.

Higher-end lingerie does not want to be associated with adult toys, and the adult toy lingerie, in that arena, is pretty cheesy.

So the difficulty was, how do you mesh really nice, wonderful apparel with some toys, but not the full-on toy selection. I didn’t want a full-on sex toy store, but I wanted lingerie that really gave a boudoir feel.”

The result, of course, is a boutique that brings together physically disparate merchandise as a literal and metaphorical snub of culturally disparate mentalities. It’s a welcoming divergence from both the roadside, windowless sex shop and the commercialized, bubblegum-pink lingerie shops of the mall. With bright, sunlit windows and a spot on the proverbial main drag, the turn of the century building that VaVaVooom calls home is classy Asheville at its best. A marquee sign and chalkboard easel draw in some strolling shoppers, but a positive reputation around town draws in even more.

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The layout of the shop is intentionally approachable, easing shoppers into a comfortable retail reverie. They’re first greeted with the easy, palatable apparel. There’s a vast array of lingerie for all styles, from black velvet corsets to dusty blue, barely-there underthings. Ziemer incorporates local designers’ offerings into the selection whenever possible, including Diane Gardner’s Accentuates line. The British-born costumier delicately designs, cuts, and creates the patterns herself into unique, handmade négligée. Other designers featured in the store specialize in a new category, which Ziemer calls “loung-erie,” more comfortable alternatives to lingerie. There are also accessories, like locallycrafted body jewelry, to browse.

The toy room is also fastidiously attended, a veritable treasure trove of sexy items—but lacking that tacky sheen you’ll so often find in most adult stores. These are products all sorts of women can imagine themselves using, with or without a partner.

Ziemer is so much more than a purveyor of products, and VaVaVooom is therefore much more than just a retailer. They offer boudoir photography intended to break out your inner, confident diva. “You will tap into energy that is different from your routine life,” says Ziemer, of the photoshoots, which take place in a private lower level or in the bank of windows at the back of the store, where natural light shines beautifully before store hours. “We use costuming and artistic photography to encourage women in their journey toward radical self acceptance.” Those costumes include anything from the classic French Boudoir to Game of Thrones to 1950s Happy Homemaker. But ultimately, it’s about much more than the photos. “The goal is an awakening to one’s own unique inherent beauty expressed in a new way,” she adds.

Another experiential service offered at VaVaVooom is that priceless apple: education.

Though Ziemer has offered Sexual Health and Relationship classes in the past, the store is shifting their focus even more toward education and a broader variety of classes with a new program coordinator at the helm. Events and classes include Couples Communication, How to Talk to Kids about Sex, Intimacy for Moms-to-be and New Moms, and Toys 101, and they are led by community professionals like therapists, medical professionals, and trained instructors.

In addition to the lingerie and toys, Ziemer also offers bra fittings, corset fittings, and, perhaps most importantly, an open dialogue.

Women with questions are always welcome to pose them to the ladies at VaVaVooom, and more often than not, they’ll leave with an answer.

The carefully-curated selection at VaVaVooom, from apparel to accoutrements, was not an implicit decision, but a progressive, gradual process of trial and error. “When you’re doing a start-up and inventing, then you’re having to try something; ‘no that didn’t work,’ go back, and slowly grow so that you can adjust,” Ziemer says, of the steady, though sometimes stalled, growth of her shop.

The process that began eight years ago in Battery Park with a minimal investment of capital. When Ziemer first opened, it was 2008 and the economy was floundering. It was possibly the most inopportune time to venture into retail, but VaVaVooom survived. Three years after opening, she moved the business to its current space on Broadway. “It’s a more expensive space, but to me it’s worth it, because it really brings home the idea of ‘it’s beautiful and it’s acceptable,’” she explains. The breezy, sunshiney shop on Asheville’s main street is as confident in form as Ziemer is in what she preaches. Sexuality and femininity can and should be pretty.

Over the years, Ziemer has really embraced the organic growth of the company. Because there were no blueprints or precedent to follow, it’s been a process of invention. The natural growth, rather than the rise and fall of capital investments, proves the fundamental success of VaVaVooom. It’s a system of checks and balances that makes for an old-fashioned, simply successful business model.

Fidelity It’s a business model that also owes a large measure of its success to its progenitor, Lisa Ziemer. VaVaVooom is a retailer that could not exist with anyone else at the helm.

Ziemer is uniquely qualified, in demeanor and experience, to offer support and products to a controversially divided female population.

“To get this off the ground started 30 years ago with doing my own business with my husband,” Ziemer begins, referencing the staffing and home care companies she had previously helped February 2017 | capitalatplay.com 85

establish with her now-former spouse. As a key figure in those companies, Ziemer developed unparalleled business acumen. Simultaneously, she became a mother, raising a daughter and three sons. All the while, she invested in other interests.

“I have a degree in accounting, and I passed the CPA exam, but I didn’t like accounting,” she says, with a laugh. “But I love business.

And I also combined that with a lot of art study, including studio art and art history and feminist studies, so a lot of study about women, bodies, body image. I’ve done work with photography, with oil painting, but mostly based on the feminine.” She ticks her interests off on her fingers; it’s an extensive list, and one can’t help but wonder how she managed to concurrently raise four kids and run two businesses.

While raising those children, Ziemer never lost sight of her femininity, but it did get shuffled. Sexuality, Ziemer notes, is a spectrum, one that constantly shape-shifts,

grows and shrinks (it’s this understanding that would later make VaVaVooom so successful), and hers did throughout her life. But Ziemer grew up as one of five sisters; her femininity was deeply ingrained, an integral piece of her

Making life better for women truly is the impetus for Ziemer’s days. She offers beautiful lingerie and fun, body-safe toys, but she also offers comfort and kindness, and support for all women. soul, and after raising the three sons, she wanted to offer that part of herself the attention it deserved.

Following a major life change, Ziemer knew it was time to consolidate her various interests into one passion. “When it came time to do a business, I was like, ‘Well, I’d like to integrate that artistic sensibility and elevate sexuality, especially female sexuality, and how do I do that?’ And it’s

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through beautiful, comfortable things. And having the adult product just seemed to me to be a necessary part of it because of the private and intimate nature of it.” In VaVaVooom, all of Ziemer’s interests could finally coalesce and find sanction in something of her own invention. It’s here that Ziemer, with her vast knowledge of feminism, femininity, and sexuality (both their artistic and scientific sides), peddles the finest in delicate lingerie and sleek adult toys. Here, the physical and mental disjunction of these spheres melts away.

Though her store is a retail business, Ziemer gives the distinct impression that profit is not the highest aspiration of the shop. It’s not a capitalistic, but a moralistic, objective that she has in mind. “In capitalism, there’s not an honoring of the nurturing part of life, and women carry a lot of that. Since it’s not compensated, it’s not valued highly enough, but I think it’s so incredibly important to life and to families. I hope that [VaVaVooom] can be seen as enhancing that. If women are feeling comfortable and are feeling at peace in their bodies, they bring a lot of wonderful nurturing to life.”

Making life better for women truly is the impetus for Ziemer’s days. She offers beautiful lingerie and fun, body-safe toys, but she also offers comfort and kindness, and support for all

women. “The big thing for me is that women find their center,” she says, her fingers binding in her lap, “what they are and what they want. And once they do, life just becomes so much more full because then you bring that out into the world.”

Ziemer, it seems, has found her own center, too.

What truly makes Ziemer successful is not necessarily her unique qualifications and business experience, or her extensive knowledge of the feminine, or even her unique retail selection.

It’s Ziemer herself—her demeanor, her gentleness and kindness, her quiet offering of understanding and comfort. Her presence is a calming balm on the often raw, tender souls of modern women. She untangles the perplexing ribbons of sexuality, femininity, and feminism with nimble, ladylike fingers.

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1. Asheville Symphony Executive Director David Whitehill and Jessica Whitehill 2. Robin Massie and Steven Condy 3. Gina Mashburn, Coy Heath, and Emme

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4. Joe and Jill Lawrence with Gary and Olivia Zahler 5. Jim and Mary Kirby 6. Marsha and Marcus Davis

7. Two Asheville Symphony Symphonettes 8. Kyle La and Kate Geberin 9. The spread of tasty treats.

10. Hayes Blair and Sheila Blair

Asheville Symphony Joyous New Year: Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony & After-Party Thomas Wolfe Auditorium & U.S. Cellular Center Banquet Hall | December 31, 2016 photos by Evan & Abby Photography

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11. Daniel Meyer, Asheville Symphony Music Director 12. Elise Bayless with Gabriel, Elijah (front), Noah, and Maggie Jones

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13. Frank Shulshi and Malia Crowe 14. Ezekiel and Caroline Christopoulos 15. Thomas, Elizabeth, and Caroline Roth 16. James Posedel and Annie Erbsen

17. Mick Glasgow of the Low-Down Sires 18. Gabby Chao, Sarah Stickle, Joanne Chao, Barbara Stickle, and Marty Stickle 19. Dustin Anderson and Artona Boggs February 2017 | capitalatplay.com 89

events

february 3 -19

february

EVENTS february 1 - march 31 Horace Kephart: Revealing an Enigma

10AM-4PM (Mon-Fri)

Mountain Heritage Center Gallery Western Carolina University, University Way, Cullowhee, NC A 42-year-old librarian came to the Western North Carolina mountains to rough it. He spent the next twenty-seven years writing books and articles about the culture he found. Kephart is perhaps best known for his work toward establishing the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The Mountain Heritage Center’s Kephart Collection has 127 artifacts, including Kephart’s backpack, sleeping bag, and writing desk.

> FREE > 828-227-7129 > wcu.edu

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Almost, Maine 7:30PM (Fri & Sat), 2:30PM (Sun) Asheville Community Theatre, 35below 35 East Walnut Street, Asheville, NC In time for Valentine’s Day, the story comes to Asheville of a very weird town with the very strange name of Almost.

Not only is it freezy cold, it is oddly beautiful as the Aurora Borealis hovers overhead. But for some reason in this “mythical” town, people fall in and out of love all the time for no apparent reason.

This could be fun.

>Tickets: $15 > 828-254-1320 > ashevilletheatre.org

february 7

Music Faculty Showcase Concert UNC Asheville, Lipinsky Auditorium One University Heights, Asheville, NC

All Kinds of Beautiful 4PM

Private Residence - TBA It’s the new thing, performers taking a small roadhouse show to private homes instead of selling out arenas with big light shows. In this instance, guitarist A ndy Jurik and vocalist Rachel Hansbury are making a stop

LEISURE & LIBATION

>Tickets: $25 > 828-254-7123 > panharmonia.org

7-8:30PM

february 5

LOCAL INDUSTRY

in Asheville. Their “group” is called Demeter, and the genre is described as café and salon. They will be supported by Pan Harmonia’s flautist Kate Steinbeck and bassoonist Rosalind Buda. The address will be released with the purchase of a ticket.

According to the university, its music faculty are among some Asheville’s finest performing artists. They will get together to play a mishmash of styles. We are further told donations to the university’s music program will be heartily accepted.

> FREE > 828-251-6432 > events.unca.edu

BRIEFS

EVENTS

insight

lo c a l i n d u s t ry

news briefs

Wisdom can come in many forms, but observing successful entrepreneurs and local businesses is one of our favorites.

Getting down to business on local and regional industries. After all, this is a business publication.

From the town you’re in and around the globe—you won’t find the same information in one magazine anywhere else.

c r e d i b l e co l u m n i s t s

l e i s u r e & l i b at i o n

events

Articles by local people recognized regionally, nationally, and globally for their knowledge and experience.

Working as hard as you do, it’s more work to just plan a good time—let us help you.

Head out of your office and see what's going on in the community this month.

| February 2017

february 7

Excision

9PM Orange Peel Social Aid & Pleasure Club 101 Biltmore Avenue, Asheville, NC The crowd goes all frenzy as laser lights are sprayed all over them and they watch themselves get charged by, in rapid succession on the big screen, a herd of rhinoceros, cutting tools, heavy machinery, tiki dudes, and who knows what-all. All this happens to the peeooh-peeows and bwa bwa bwa bwas of synth music. This makes as much sense to the new generation as Frank Sinatra did in his heyday.

>Tickets: Advance $32, Door $35 > 828-398-1837 > theorangepeel.net february 8

Jessica Lang Dance

7PM Appalachian State University, Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts 733 Rivers Street, Boone, NC

tightly-choreographed, to the extent you’ll be astounded nobody bumps into anybody else. The genre is a mix of classical ballet and contemporary dance.

>Tickets: Adult $25, Student $10 > 800-841-2787 > theschaefercenter.org

february 11

The Children’s Welfare League Mardi Gras Ball 6PM Crowne Plaza Expo Center 1 Resort Drive, Asheville, NC

Dinner, dancing, and auctions will paint the night. The Children’s Welfare League operates with no overhead, so all proceeds benefit student stipend and college scholarship programs. Currently, the league helps over 200 Buncombe County High School students, selected on the basis of financial need and desire to succeed. Scholarships given for UNC Asheville or AB Tech.

february 9

An Evening with BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet

8PM Altamont Theatre 18 Church Street, Asheville, NC

Based in Lafayette, Louisiana, their style is described as Cajun and Creole, or, more traditionally, folk. Doucet is the fiddler. The sound runs from Steve Vai chord transitions to polka. They’ve been nominated for ten Grammy Awards, and won two.

>Tickets: Advance $27, Door $32, VIP $40 > 828-782-3334 > thealtamonttheatre.com

Jessica Lang Dance was founded in 2011 in New York. Acts are graceful and

> Admission: $125 and up > cwl-asheville.org february 11

Asheville Symphony presents Music from Fantasia 8PM Thomas Wolfe Auditorium 87 Haywood Street, Asheville, NC Conductor Daniel Meyer will be joined by pianist Inon Barnatan to perform

Western North Carolina’s Free Spirit Of Enterprise Pick-Up Locations on an easy to use Google map

Archives of full articles from past editions

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Free Digital Magazine

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selections from Disney’s classic film. The program includes Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain, Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2, Ponchielli’s “Dance of the Hours” from La Gioconda, and a suite from Stravinsky’s The Firebird. The performance is the fifth in this season’s Masterworks series.

>Tickets: Adult $22-$62, Youth $11-$43 > 828-254-7046 > ashevillesymphony.org

AVL - EWR

NEW ALLEGIANT non-stop DAILY UNITED non-stop AMERICAN | DELTA connect

february 11

Mutts Gone Nuts: Canine Cabaret

1PM & 5PM Flat Rock Playhouse Mainstage 2661 Greenville Highway, Flat Rock, NC

So, somebody got this idea to rescue a bunch of dogs and train them for showbiz. They do action-packed, uproarious, choreographed tricks. The Washington Post ranked this “Must See.” It should be a barrel of monkeys.

>Tickets: $14-$18 > 828-693-0731 > flatrockplayhouse.org february 11

Zoe & Cloyd

7:30PM Black Mountain Center for the Arts 225 West State Street, Black Mountain, NC House favorites Zoe and Cloyd will sing sweetly in the Americana Acoustic style to help you and yourn fall in love all over again.

Just in time for the pink holiday.

>Tickets: $16 > 828-669-0930 > blackmountainarts.org february 12

Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet 4PM Diana Wortham Theatre 2 South Pack Square, Asheville, NC

This quintet was founded in 1988 and features the principal musicians from the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The program includes works by Mozart, Pavel Haas, Johan 92

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SWEETEN YOUR MONTH

Kvandal, and Carl Nielsen. While they look like a mere chamber group, the sound is that of a full movie soundtrack.

>Tickets: $40 > 828-257-4530 > dwtheatre.com

With Local Shopping, Dining and Essentials in an Elegant Atmosphere

february 15 -19 King Lear 7:30PM (Wed-Sat), 3PM (Sun) Western Carolina University, Hoey Auditorium University Way, Cullowhee, NC Poor King Lear went mad, whether from age or stress. He was betrayed; his kingdom, divided. The mighty king fell, and the drama-filled descent wasn’t pretty. The play has two endings, one so tragic later generations felt compelled to give the king a softer landing. How will this production end? King Lear is lauded as one of Shakespeare’s best, probing human nature with insights that will remain relevant as long as the world shall turn.

>Tickets: Adult $66, Faculty/Staff/Senior $47, Student $30 > 828-277-2479 > wcu.edu february 16 & 17

Camille A. Brown & Dancers

8PM Diana Wortham Theatre 2 South Pack Square, Asheville, NC

a romantic a soothing E V E N I N G FOOT SOAK a glass of WINE or local BEER BUBBLE BATH for later indulge in FUDGE and LOCAL ART passionate DINNER a lovely BOUQUET sweet gifts of ART or CLOTHING or JEWELRY kiss your SWEET HEART forever

Funky groove would be a serious understatement. The action is fast, athletic, and still graceful, if not comical. Choreographed performances span history, taking in ballet, hip-hop, and tap; and they’re delivered in historical context. More than movement, Camille has messages she wants you to see.

>Tickets: Adult $42, Student $37, Child $20 > 828-257-4530 > dwtheatre.com

THE HISTORIC

GROVE ARCADE on

february 17-19

BATTERY HILL

Mountain RV, Boat, and Recreation Show

10AM-8PM (Fri & Sat), 10AM-5PM (Sun) WNC Agricultural Center 1301 Fanning Bridge Road, Fletcher, NC

SHOPPING • DINING • ESSENTIALS

This is the largest show of its kind in Western North Carolina.

Major dealers representing big names in the automotive,

Open Daily • One Page Avenue • Downtown Asheville 828.252.7799 • www.grovearcade.com February 2017 | capitalatplay.com 93

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recreation, and marine industries will showcase the latest. There’s enough stuff to fill both the Davis Event Center and the Expo Center.

> Admission: Adult $5, Child (0-12) FREE > 828-687-1414 > mountainrvboatshow.com

february 17-19

30th Annual National Arts & Crafts Conference

URBAN March 11, 6:30 p.m.

The Wedge @ Foundation Life is our medium; education, enrichment and advocacy are our palette; and this vibrant city is our community canvas.

PRESENTED BY

Omni Grove Park Inn 290 Macon Avenue, Asheville, NC

This is more than a chance to walk from table to table. There will be temporary installations in the Great Hall, demonstrations, hands-on workshops, documentary screenings, and tours of other venues that should be of interest to craft enthusiasts.

> Check website for registration info. > 800-438-5800 > arts-craftsconference.com

– march The Foreigner february 17

5

7:30 (Fri & Sat), 2pm (Sun) Hendersonville Community Theatre 229 South Washington Street, Hendersonville, NC This is a standard for theater. Charlie is depressed, and tells his friend Froggy he doesn’t feel like talking to anybody because his wife may be dying. To help, his friend Froggy tells everybody at the fishing lodge that he doesn’t understand English. Audiences never cease to be amazed at what one will say in front of somebody when it is believed he can’t understand.

>Tickets: Adult $22, College Student Invest in a child, strengthen a community

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$18, Youth (0-17) $12 > 828-692-1082 > hendersonvilletheatre.org

february 18

Grovewood Studios Art Tour

11AM-4PM Grovewood Gallery 111 Grovewood Road, Asheville, NC Local craftspeople will be busily at work in the olde-worlde guilde. The only difference is, members of the public will get to bumble around backstage, as it were, on self-guided tours, peering over their shoulders and asking whatever comes to mind. Artisans will be working a variety of media. Entertainment, education, and charm are all wrapped up in one.

> FREE > 828-253-7651 > grovewood.com february 18

Drivin’ N’ Cryin’

8PM Grey Eagle Music Hall & Tavern 185 Clingman Avenue, Asheville, NC The Georgia band may best be known for its hard rock ’90s hit, “Fly Me Courageous,” but there’s always been a folky, twangy, Americana undercurrent to the sound. Frontman Kevn Kinney, of course, is an Honorary Ashevillian by virtue of his lengthy tenure and honorable service with the annual Warren Haynes Christmas Jam.

>Tickets: Advance $17, Door $20 > 828-232-5800 > thegreyeagle.com february 19

Umphrey’s McGee

9PM Orange Peel Social Aid & Pleasure Club 101 Biltmore Avenue, Asheville, NC This event is sold out, as it should be. It is mentioned here because the band’s

talent, polish, and ear for what’s going to sound good earn them a best-of. Their guitar jams are reminiscent of the best of Pink Floyd studio recordings. They keep the chords fresh and the vibe progressing for a full hour, and you won’t want them to stop. The act is well worth a search of ticket reseller sites.

>Tickets: $39.50 > 828-398-1837 > theorangepeel.net february 23 - 26 Totally ’80s Retro Ski Weekend Beech Mountain Resort Downtown and at the Village, Beech Mountain, NC

URBAN OpenDoors thanks our generous sponsors.

It’s time again for the “righteously rad celebration of all things 1980s.” Fun includes ’80s music nightly and skiing in headbands, leg warmers, and show-off jackets. It has been such a blast in its first five years, the weekend has grown to include four days. Attractions you may enjoy include Knight Rider’s car and a DeLorean, a ski apparel parade and contest, Rubik’s Cube and Ms. Pac Man contests, and Totally Tubular tubing. Contests have cash prizes.

> Call for pricing. > 828-387-9283 > beechmtn.com february 24

Michael Bolton

9PM Harrah’s Cherokee Casino 777 Casino Drive, Cherokee, NC There was a time when office music stations couldn’t go an hour without playing Michael Bolton. His biggest hit may have been “How Am I Supposed to Live without You?” He’s now a 53-million-seller on his way to the Qualla Boundary.

FOR TICKETS: OpenDoorsAsheville.org

Invest in a child, strengthen a community

February 2017 | capitalatplay.com 95

events

>Tickets: $36 and up > 828-497-7777 > ticketmaster.com

Asheville Lyric Opera’s 2017 Winter Gala

5-9PM DoubleTree by Hilton 115 Hendersonville Road, Asheville, NC

february 25

Solas

8PM Diana Wortham Theatre 2 South Pack Square, Asheville, NC The fivesome sounds like the missing link between bluegrass and Celtic.

They were called “Irish America’s most influential band” by NPR’s The Thistle and Shamrock. Now in their 20th year, whether they’re covering tunes ancient and modern or doing originals, Solas keeps it mixed up and fresh.

>Tickets: Adult $32, Student $27, Child $20 > 828-257-4530 > dwtheatre.com

This is the annual fundraiser and preview for the upcoming opera season. In addition to buying dinner, there will be other ways to support the arts, including a live auction. For the trouble, you’ll be gifted with food, wine, and an opera concert.

>Tickets: $100 and up > 828-236-0670 > ashevillelyric.org february 25

Lake Street Dive

7PM Appalachian State University, Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts 733 Rivers Street, Boone, NC

february 25

ASAP’s Business of Farming Conference

8AM-5PM A-B Tech Conference Center 340 Victoria Road, Asheville, NC Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project’s 14th annual conference is in partnership with NC Cooperative Extension and Mountain BizWorks and is designed to offer farmers marketing, financial, and production tools and resources. Expect training and networking opportunities, Grower-Buyer meetings, and workshops “Demystifying Social Media,” “Protecting Your Farm: Legal Tools for Farmers,” and “Markets for Medicinal Herbs.” New for 2017 is an on-farm cool season crop workshop on Feb. 24.

> Registration: $95 > 828-236-1282 > asapconnections.org 96

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Rachael Price sings the blues like a natural in an easy-to-listen-to alto range.

She is backed by a girl on bass (violin), a trumpeter, and a drummer. They quit their day jobs after a street-corner performance went viral. The vibe is retro.

>Tickets: Adult $30, Student $20 > 800-841-2787 > theschaefercenter.org february 25

The Vagina Monologues 8PM Orange Peel Social Aid & Pleasure Club 101 Biltmore Avenue, Asheville, NC What was initially a hugely controversial play went on to win awards and earn acclaim for playwright Eve Ensler.

Stagings also became means to raise funds and awareness to combat sexual and domestic violence against women.

Local producer-director-actor Allison Taylor indicates she’s raised over $18k

for local women’s shelters over the past 4 years and hopes this event, which will benefit Helpmate of Asheville, will continue that trend.

>Tickets (advance): Adult $25, Student $15 > 828-398-1837 > theorangepeel.net

february 27 &28

Ladysmith Black Mambazo

8PM Diana Wortham Theatre 2 South Pack Square, Asheville, NC Expand your horizons with a taste of South African tradition. Ladysmith is a chorus line, dressed in native tunics, singing totally a capella. In half a century of performing, the group has won 4 Grammy Awards. While you might not understand the words, the message the singers want to bring to the world in their travels is one of peace, love, and harmony.

>Tickets: Adult $45, Student $40, Child $20 > 828-257-4530 > dwtheatre.com

february 28

Rhythm in Science and Spirituality

7-8PM UNC Asheville, Lipinsky Hall One University Heights, Asheville, NC Matthew Richmond will handle the latest in the Faculty Music Lecture Series.

Richmond is a composer and percussion with the Asheville Symphony Orchestra, as well as multiple bands about town.

He will talk about rhythm and pulse in nature and their role in traditions of worship. The contemplation of periodicity, he says, will help us understand perception and existence.

> 828-251-6432 > events.unca.edu march 3 & 4

Western North Carolina Model Train Show

12-7PM (Fri), 8AM-5PM (Sat) WNC Agricultural Center 1301 Fanning Bridge Road, Fletcher, NC Vendors from 7 states will attend over 200 tables showcasing anything train.

Eight layouts will be up and running.

The event is supported by the nonprofit Western North Carolina Model Railroaders.

> Admission: Adult $5, Accompanied Child (0-9) FREE > 828-699-0983 > wncmrr.org

Your source for Hearth & Patio needs 264 Biltmore Ave. Asheville, NC | 828.252.2789

march 3 -19 Songs for a New World 7:30PM (Fri & Sat), 2:30PM (Sun) Asheville Community Theatre, 35below 35 East Walnut Street, Asheville, NC Music and lyrics are by Jason Robert Brown. They are lauded as powerful and moving. The musical explores struggles common to the human condition through its characters. We’ve all been in those situations, wondering how long we can hold on hoping for a better day.

>Tickets: $22 > 828-254-1320 > ashevilletheatre.org

If your organization has any local press releases for our briefs section, or events that you would like to see here, feel free to email us at events@capitalatplay.com.

Please submit your event at least six weeks in advance.

Custom pools and spas.

We create unique backyard environments 1200-C Hendersonville Rd. Asheville, NC • 828-277-8041 • waterworkswnc.com February 2017 | capitalatplay.com 97

Transformations begin here...

...and last a lifetime.

Our inclusive community, inspired teaching, and innovative program combine to create the ideal balance for transformational character development and intellectual growth.

Our commitment is to each student’s success.

We activate, inspire, and celebrate the potential of each student. We prepare students to independently drive their own futures equipped with adaptability, flexibility, and agility.

CarolinaDay.org/Apply 828-407-4442

Financial Assistance Application Deadline

February 1 Admission Application Deadline for a Spring Admission Decision

February 1 98

| February 2017

Visit and apply now for school year 2017-18.

Join us on campus for events below or schedule a private tour.

Key School Open House February 23

Parent-to-Parent Conversation February 15

8 a.m.- 9:30 a.m.

For parents interested in applying to our division for Grades 2-8 students with language-based learning differences

8:30 a.m.- 9:30 a.m.

Talk with current CDS parents to learn more about our school community and to hear why they have chosen an independent school education at CDS

The new CHOICE for North Carolina employers

Innovative and affordable

GROUP HEALTH BENEFIT PLANS to secure their future and your bottom line.

(888) 823-1315 healthystate.us February 2017 | capitalatplay.com 99

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