Capital at Play February 2018 by Capital at Play Magazine

Stephanie & Sunny Keach

Hickman, Manning, & Simpson

Asheville Yoga Center p.16

Riverbend Malt House p.74

Western North Carolina's Free Spirit of Enterprise

colu m ns

The Homesteading Equation p.34 The Flip Side of Murphyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Law p.66

lo c a l i n d u s t ry

Real Estate 2017 Review A look back on Real Estate Growth for Western North Carolina. p. 39

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

Romantic Gifts & Getaways in Western North Carolina

p. 57

i n t ro d u c i n g

Volume VIII - Edition II complimentary edition

capitalatplay.com

p. 56

AY e PL cod AT ass E V ry P O L ru a b Fe

February 2018

| February 2018

February 2018 | capitalatplay.com

Editor’s Thoughts 343 Vanderbilt Rd www.343Vanderbilt.com

LOCAL KNOWLEDGE GLOBAL EXPOSURE

Jo Chandler “Creative” - “Connected” - “Committed” An Asheville native with a passion for representing her city’s treasures to markets both near and far. 828.231.5444 jochandler@preferredprop.com

elcome to the February issue of Capital at Play. As I write this note we’re about a week into the New Year, essentially marking the start of my third year with the publication—having come on board at the end of November 2015, at which point the gang here was already in the final stages of getting the January 2016 issue ready to send off to the printer. At that point I wasn’t quite yet sure of what I, um, had gotten myself into, but there was definitely a sense of optimism and excitement that was infectious. And while our readership is the ultimate arbiter, I personally think the past couple of years have yielded some remarkable results. I’m proud to be associated with the staff as well as our contributors, all of whom are among the most professional, creative, insightful, good-humored, and generous I’ve ever had the good fortune to know and work with. In addition to it being my second editorial anniversary, this new issue also ushers in a couple of new wrinkles to the magazine’s modus operandi. First, we’re kicking off a new series for our Featured Capitalists section in which we revisit some of the Western North Carolina entrepreneurs who we covered in the past and have subsequently reached significant new milestones. Back in March 2016 we reported on the talents behind Asheville’s Riverbend Malt House (“Malt On a Mission”), at which time the still-young business had already exceeded its initial production predictions and was looking at potential expansion strategies. That expansion has now come to pass, with Riverbend recently moving into a massive new facility, so we’re pretty excited to be able to report on everything that’s gone down for them in the past two years. It should prove instructional for other business owners in our region as well as the readers. The other item that’s fresh on the CaP plate: Check out this month’s Leisure & Libation feature, which we’re calling “Romantic Giveaways & Getaways” in a timely nod to this month’s Valentine’s Day. It’s more than just a rundown of flirtatious, romantic, and sensual things—chocolates, wines, couples’ massages, luxury staycations, etc.—we Western North Carolina residents (and our partners) can avail ourselves of as the big “V” approaches. Thanks to the generous participation of several local businesses, we’re also giving away some of those same goods and amenities to a few lucky readers, as well as arranging for special promotions and discounts at those businesses for our entire readership during the month of February. You can get all the details on page 56. Meanwhile, get ready for many more such giveaways and offerings in the year to come, as we leverage our extensive network of local businesses to give special access to our hyper-local readership. Make sure you pick up each new issue at the start of the month, sign up for our monthly email newsletter, and follow us on social media so you’ll stay in the loop and have the opportunity to score some very nice swag. You’re welcome! ;-)

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Dasha O. Morgan, Brenda Murphy

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. We cater to those who see the world with curiosity, wonderment, and a thirst for knowledge. We present information and entertainment that capitalists want, all in one location. We are the free spirit of enterprise.

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This magazine is printed with soy based ink on recycled paper. Please recycle. Copyright © 2018, Capital At Play, Inc. All rights reserved. Capital at Play is a trademark of Capital At Play, Inc. Published by Capital At Play, Inc. PO Box 5615, Asheville, NC. 28813

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.

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February 2018 | capitalatplay.com

Capital at Play has partnered with Bclip Productions to bring the pages of each edition to life, just for you. Featured at Capitalatplay.com and our Facebook page, we give you exclusive interviews and insider info on the people, places, and faces of Capital at Play has partnered with Bclip Productions to bring the pages of each edition to life, just for you. Featuring a new enterprise throughout Western North Carolina. Visit us on social media or at our website to see the latest 60 Seconds at Play.

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At Bclip we do more than tell your story. Our business-ﬁrst mentality and creativity set us apart from other video production companies. It’s our mis help our customers sell their products, train their staﬀ, and entertain custo video. We strive to eat, sleep, and think like the wonderful companies we

thi s page : R AW BARLEY and water being mixed together at the beginning of the steep cycle at Riverbend Malt photo by Anthony Harden

w 60 prise y.

combustible ssion to omers with work with.

F E AT U R E D vol. viii

A GROUNDED PAIR STEPHANIE & SUNNY KEACH

ed. ii

74 THE MISSION CONTINUES SCOTT HICKMAN, BRENT MANNING, & BRIAN SIMPSON

February 2018 | capitalatplay.com

C ON T E N T S

f e b r u a r y 2 018

HALF-MILE FARM from above, See how you can win a stay here on p. 56! photo courtesy Old Edwards Inn

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

You Snooze, You Lose The 2017 Western North Carolina Real Estate Year in Review

12 F arm Tables Etc.

Equation

66 The Flip Side of

Jess & Kenneth Wehrmann

p e o p l e at p l ay

Murphy’s Law

Written by Laura Webb

i n t ro d u c i n g

88 Economic Development

Coalition & Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce 12th Annual Homecoming Career Fair

| February 2018

30 Carolina in the West 52 The Old North State

Written by Lee Warren

Harris Clark

Monkee’s of Blowing Rock

briefs

34 The Homesteading

Custom Furniture

Romantic Gifts & Getaways

The Capital at Play Romance Guide

colu m ns

insight

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

p. 56

70 National & World News events

90 Whether or not

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February 2018 | capitalatplay.com

nsight

HARRIS CL ARK

Every Building Tells A Story In the eyes of Harris Clark, of Farm Tables Etc., form/function is a beautiful, mutable thing.

n 2008 Harris Clark and his future wife, Courtney, were living in Wilmington, North Carolina, but soon enough they found themselves relocating to Western North Carolina in order for Clark to start a career as a firefighter. As Clark now recalls, of his unplanned second career’s genesis, “I quickly fell in love with not only the rolling pastoral landscapes of Haywood County, but with the beautiful old barns and historic structures that dotted the local farms. Each hand hewn building tells such an amazing story, oftentimes a century old and still functioning as intended. When these barns were built, there were no plans or companies producing them. Each one is a completely unique manifestation of its owner’s hard work and imagination, becoming even more unique with time as the sun and weather contribute to its texture, color, and character. Even more intriguing were the number of these barns that lay rotting on the ground, up for grabs for anyone who would haul them off. And when this antique wood is used

to make furniture, even though the form and function of the lumber has been transformed, the piece seems to cling to this unique character—lending to whatever shape it now takes a soul and personality that do not exist when the same piece is built from traditional lumber.” Clark didn’t have any formal furniture building experience, but he had done residential construction, so on a whim, he decided to repurpose some of the old barn wood he’d gathered (Clark: “I was allowed to pull as much lumber as I could get before the owner got around to burning it.”), initially building a dining room table and a china hutch that turned out beautifully. Upon seeing his handiwork, friends and family started asking him for pieces, and for the next few years he would work on tables, bookshelves, and hutches in between shifts at the fire department. Fast-forward to April 2017: The Clarks decided to take the plunge and officially open Farm Tables Etc. custom furniture in Canton. Offerings range from the aforementioned barn

“Custom furniture makers are few and far between. Of those out there, not many are dealing with antique lumber.”

| February 2018

wood tables to classic bed swings to joggling boards. (Don’t know what a joggling board is? Dating back to the early 1800s, it’s a long, flexible bench suspended between two rocking bases, and when several people sit on it and “joggle,” it creates a delightfully bouncy, side-to-side rocking motion. Try it with the kids.) Harris is quick to emphasize Farm Table Etc.’s small-town brand of personalized service and care. “There aren’t a lot of other companies engaged in similar commerce,” he says. “Custom furniture makers are few and far between. Of those out there, not many are dealing with antique lumber. Many of them build products for larger companies that ship out “rustic” furniture on a mass produced scale. [We are] a place where you can walk in with a magazine photo, or just an idea, and sit down for an hour while we hash out what it is you are really imagining, and have it built just for you. You can even bring us the wood from your grandfather’s fallen down tool shed, and we will build it from that.” Clark continues his f u l l-time firefighting duties, and Courtney is a teacher; they have a seven-year-old daughter as well, so needless to say, their days are busy. They just hired their first employee, and if all goes as planned, they hope to add an additional carpenter soon. They are also working with an expert local cabinet maker, Mike Layne, to help Farm Tables Etc. fill the backlog of orders in the woodshop. Going forward, Clark says, “Our plans are to push ourselves to create the highest quality furniture possible and to maintain a sense that we are creating not only functional pieces, but art. We strive to give every piece the unique attention that we would give it if it were going in our own home, and to respect and showcase the history engrained in the lumber.” For more info and to view galleries of Farm Table Etc.’s creations, visit: www. FarmTablesEtc.com.

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255 Smoky Park Hwy, Asheville, NC 28806• 828-667-5213 www.skylandmercedesbenz.com February 2018 | capitalatplay.com

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Family & Friends At ladies’ clothing boutique Monkee’s of Blowing Rock, Jess and Kenneth Wehrmann want their customers to feel they’re at home.

s children growing up in Wilkesboro, both Jess and Kenneth Wehrmann would frequently come up to the Blue Ridge Mountains with their families to cool off, sightsee, hike, and shop. Many years later, when an opportunity arose to become part of the mountain community permanently, the now-married couple didn’t hesitate; they already knew and loved the area. That opportunity? Jess had been attending Wake Forest University, studying sociology, and was working part-time at Monkee’s of the Village, in Winston-Salem. After graduation she became a full-time employee, and one day in 2012 she learned that the Blowing Rock Monkee’s franchise, a fixture in the town since 2001, was for sale. Jess picks up the story: “I asked my husband, ‘How do you feel about owning a women's shoe and dress shop?’ He said, ‘Let's do it!’ Kenneth had grown to know Monkee’s through my tenure there and was confident in the Monkee’s approach to retail. And I loved the Monkee’s family, enjoyed working with and befriending customers, and was confident that

THE HISTORIC

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SHOPPING • DINING • ESSENTIALS Open Daily • One Page Avenue • Downtown Asheville 828.252.7799 • www.grovearcade.com 14 GA_Capital_Feb17.indd 1

| February 2018 1/3/17 6:27 PM

KENNETH AND JESS WEHRMANN

Kenneth and I would be happy owning our own business. Kenneth and I saw an opportunity to expand on what Wendy Burgette, the original owner, had started and really build a business that had staying power.” Her instincts were correct, as Monkee’s has continued to be a mainstay of the Blowing Rock retail community, active in the Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, and Women’s Fund of the Blue Ridge, not to mention supportive of the arts through the Ensemble Stage and Movies in the Park. “We are thankful for the support of Blowing Rock,” says Jess, “and proud to be able to give back to the community that embraced a young couple with a vision.” She notes that in addition to having a vision, not long after taking over the business, they realized risk often accompanies vision. “Five months after Kenneth and I purchased Monkee’s, it was time for a revamp. We closed the store for 40 days to do a massive renovation that included combining two 1,000-sq.-ft. retail spaces, adding stock rooms, fitting rooms, and custom display shelves, and doing a full interior decorating overhaul.

It was scary. Not just being closed for 40 days, but hearing the whispers and the concerns about ‘What are these new young owners doing?’ and us thinking, ‘Seriously, what are we doing?!?’ “Thankfully, our customers loved the new look, the designers we introduced, and the energy we brought to Blowing Rock.” One aspect of Monkee’s the Wehrmanns did not change was its family-oriented approach to doing business—the reason Jess fell in love with it in the first place.

“When customers come in, we want them to feel like they’re family or out shopping with their best friends...” Customers are greeted and treated like family, and the staffers themselves view one another as members of an extended family, lending Monkee’s a relaxed, intimate vibe. “Monkee’s is all about the customer experience,” she says. “Our store is merchandised to be not only visually

pleasing, but physically comfortable. For example, we have a ‘living room’ in the middle of our shoe department! When customers come in, we want them to feel like they’re family or out shopping with their best friends, even if they’re just out and about by themselves.” Jess and Kenneth recently celebrated their seventh year of marriage as life partners and their fifth year as business partners. Going forward, they want to continue providing the best customer experience possible and contributing positively to the community. “We also pride ourselves at staying ahead of the trends and having the best designer products in the market,” Jess notes. “We want our customers to be able to find the ‘big’ names right here in Blowing Rock instead of online or in a big box store. Every year we strive to find the newest ‘it’ designer or the hottest ‘it’ look, traveling to New York, Atlanta, and Las Vegas to trade shows 8-10 times a year to keep our store stocked with fresh merchandise for our customers. “And once our customers are here, we also want to make sure those customers leave as our friends.” Monkee’s of Blowing Rock (www. MonkeesofBlowingRock.com) is located at 1179 Main Street in Blowing Rock.

February 2018 | capitalatplay.com

The rewards of Hatha yoga are bounteous and extend beyond the body, and for Stephanie and Sunny Keach, that includes their internationally acclaimed business, the Asheville Yoga Center.

Grounded | February 2018

Pair

written by emily gl aser photos by anthony harden February 2018 | capitalatplay.com

INSTRUCTOR Tucker Waldron leading students in class.

THERE’S LONG BEEN HEALING IN THESE HILLS. Before history’s mark carved the long scars of winding roads into our peaks, they were a place of respite. Bubbling hot springs, tucked into a northern valley and cradled in set boundaries of neutral territory, offered a soulful, healthful retreat for Native Americans, regardless of tribe or allegiance, for centuries before the rough footfall of Europeans touched these lands. In the 1700s straggling bands of Cherokees, hearts still tied to their home, would dig their fingers into the soils and roots of the mountains to pull forth gnarled ginseng. They’d long used the root to break fevers and stanch wounds, but now, traders paid them pennies for the “white medicine,” which they shipped across seas to boost Asian immune systems (among other things). In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Western North Carolina offered cool airs and warm waters to the aging, ailing, and merely disinterested elite in droves, complaining of headaches and hacking coughs and, in the case of one Mr. Edwin Wiley Grove (yes, that Grove), the hiccups. The cures they found in our mountains were so miraculous that many of them decided to make their homes here, founding landmarks like the Grove Park Inn, the Biltmore Estate, and Lake Lure that still define our landscape today. It was also here that flocks of tubercular patients fled; prescribed clean air and cool nights by masked physicians, 18

| February 2018

they were found, in these mountains. The dry air of towns like Asheville soothed welted chests, and the cities expanded like the wounded lungs they housed as thousands of invalids flooded local sanitariums. As the 20th century progressed, and medical treatments like antibiotics with it, the healthful allure of the region shifted. At Highland Hospital, manned by psychiatrist Dr. Robert S. Carroll, unstable burghers like Zelda Fitzgerald (whose husband F. Scott first visited Asheville in the hopes of alleviating a purported spot on his lung in 1935) sought reprieve and restoration in early psychiatry. It was a healing of mind and spirit, as well as body, that visitors began to seek. Even in the 21st century, we maintain a reputation for healthfulness and remedies, the hills dotted with bastions of healing arts like Asian massage retreats and herbalism schools. Dark jars of essential oils and homeopathic tinctures line the shelves of our groceries and the peaked tents of health fairs in our parks. And on streets across these mountains, nearly as common as the signs that name those lanes, you’ll find yoga studios. Decked in bricks and clapboard and mandala murals, they beckon to the afflicted with promises of health and healing, both physical and spiritual. It’s a trend that’s proved decidedly untrendy, vested with a staying power that will perhaps outlast all those other remedies coming before it. When the region’s first yoga studios opened in the ‘90s it was, even the proprietors will admit, in an effort to

STEPHANIE AND SUNNY KEACH

February 2018 | capitalatplay.com 19

capitalize on what they assumed was a fleeting fad before it faded. And now, 20 years later, local yoga studios are more plentiful than ever, and classes are still so full they’re advertised as “warm” and heated by bodies alone.

*** It’s a narrative to which Stephanie and Sunny Keach can attest. “A bunch of people left aerobics for yoga because it felt better,” Sunny explains, his long limbs spread across the bench of the picnic table at which he sits. His gaze drifts lazily over the ever-growing complex of his creation: Asheville Yoga Center. “So we were always assuming something else was going to come along, and there’s going to be a max exodus, so we better make hay while the sun shines.” He smiles, aware of his own blunder. “So that was, at least in the old days, the psychology that drove us to keep expanding or offering more to meet the demand: to not let there be unmet demand.” That expansion, and the demand it answered, resulted in Asheville Yoga Center, or AYC. It’s a center and studio currently offering 100 classes a week and 15 yoga trainings annually, and a name that’s recognized by yogis the world over. “We are aware that we’re a hub—we call it ‘the mothership,’” Sunny says, tracing a dialogue map of the Center’s previous students’ whereabouts: Japan, Russia, Italy. “All over the world, from little old Asheville.” But even today, with a series of buildings connected by winding, brick, and plant-draped paths, and covering more than half of a large city block, located just north of I-240 between Merrimon Avenue and Charlotte Street, and even with a reputation that triggers nods around the world, there is still unmet demand to be fulfilled. That demand attests not just to the endurance of yoga, but to the studio’s proprietors and the impact they’ve had on Asheville’s 21st century, yet ancient, healing art: yoga.

If You Hatha Will, You Hatha Way Before Asheville’s hospitals and retreats, before the trade of North American ginseng, and perhaps even before those hot springs were huddled in, there was yoga. It’s a short word with a long history—more than 5,000 years, to be exact—and weighed with the heft of mind, body, and soul. The word itself gains derivation from the Sanskrit “yuj,” which means “to bind, unite, or integrate.” Unity of body, mind, and breath—through breathing exercises, poses (or “asanas”), and meditation—is, at its core, the true intention of the practice. The mainstream vision of yoga, the one that’s spawned YouTube channels and billion-dollar clothing companies and studios like AYC, is actually Hatha yoga. Roughly translated, the Sanskrit word means “willful” or 20

| February 2018

STUDENTS GET INTO Warrior one pose

“forceful,” which at first may seem at odds with “yuj,” but that willfulness is a result of the Hatha yoga’s prioritization of the “asanas,” often in tandem with intentional breathing (or pranayama). “For 99 percent of people, what yoga is, it’s the asana, getting the body involved,” explains Sunny. “It’s proven to be the perfect combination of taking care of my body, getting a workout of some sorts, while taking care of my psyche, of my mind, of my soul.” Though Hatha yoga is based in physical movement, its rewards are bounteous and extend beyond the body. “In these classes, you are getting a lot of positive reinforcement messaging. You’re getting the time and the opportunity to unplug from your normal life and get back to square one. You’re getting the time and connection, the magical parts,” says Sunny, pressing a finger onto the table with

mind,” Stephanie says. “But luckily, we can change our thoughts and untangle the jumbles. Once untangled, new, better thoughts can come in via creative ideas or gentle compassion or pure joy.”

Finding a Place to (Nama)Stay Many yogis are initially attracted to yoga as a form of physical therapy; such was the case for Stephanie Keach. After a back break at 18 years old, she used Light on Yoga, a popular text, to learn yoga and help herself heal. A year later she was sharing her newfound passion and teaching yoga to other young adults in her hometown of Santa Barbara, an area that was already a hotbed for now-famous early American practitioners. Stephanie was still teaching yoga when she met the young, itinerant Sunny in 1994. The similarities between the two were almost immediately apparent—although, Sunny admits he was initially dismissed by Stephanie as a “long-haired hippie.” Both were “voluntarily mobile,” living out of vans on the palm tree-studded streets of idyllic

“We threw all the money we had, all the money we could borrow, all the money we could pull off credit cards, to make this little studio happen.”

each point. "They all fit together and, for a lot of people, by the end of class, it’s like a renewal.” Though popularized and, according to some yogis, bastardized by drive-thru yoga franchises that promise tight cores and bums, folks like Stephanie and Sunny hope that such fixations on the physical effects of yoga eventually bring more mental awareness to the practitioners. In other words, even if you get into yoga for the physical benefits, you’re likely to find much more along the path to developing a practice. “Yoga is becoming aware that our thought processes create tangles and knots. Yoga also gives us the tools to help unravel those knots. At first it’s our body, but with a skilled guide, we quickly realize it’s all in the

Santa Barbara, and both were pursuing an alternative lifestyle that prioritized a sense of awareness. “I had been very interested in meditation, personal growth, inner-world stuff, even in high school, which was very rare where I grew up in Maryland,” Sunny remembers, adding that ‘80s New England was an egoistic culture to which he just didn’t relate. California—and the friends he found there, like Stephanie, who’d grown up in Carmel Valley, next to San Diego—offered the kind of “right-on” respite for which his heart yearned. Though initially introduced by friends, it wasn’t until the two reconnected through massage school that romance (and common career objectives) were kindled. “We broke the rules—you weren’t supposed to get romantically involved with your fellow classmates, so we had to go to the teacher and the whole group and confess,” Sunny remembers, flashing his signature, toothy smile. “I think there was an element of that that made it more real.” Their February 2018 | capitalatplay.com

FORWARD FOLD

SIDE PL ANK

commitment sealed by classroom confession, the two began dreaming up futures for themselves. Stephanie had already shared her passion for yoga with Sunny (“It was actually kind of a novelty,” he says), and they were both finding a new kind of fulfillment through massage school. So, they postulated, why not pursue both yoga and massage, united by the common thread of teaching? As she recalls now, “One day we were riffing, ‘How awesome would it be’—I don’t know why we had to do both—‘to open a massage school and a yoga center?!’ And we were like, ‘Yeah, that’s what we’ll do!’ And sure enough, when we got here, that’s what we did.” Inspired, the duo left Santa Barbara in 1995, their van creaking under the weight of their belongings and bodies (as well as the growing weight of their first child), in search of a new home: somewhere mountainous and cool, with dry, hot summers; somewhere with green living and environmentally sound ideals; somewhere they could establish two new businesses—a yoga studio and massage school—that necessitated a community of prosperous health. Somewhere like Asheville.

Bending Over Backwards As is so common in these Asheville transplant narratives, it wasn’t necessarily the Keaches who chose Asheville, but Asheville that chose them. The wheels of their Westie trekked over desert and mountain, the mileage growing at a steady tick that echoed the pending arrival of their first son. Finally, 10,000 22

| February 2018

miles later, they stumbled upon a Black Mountain community called Earth Haven that encompassed the conscientious ethos—like living light on the earth, communal cooperation and neighborliness, and green living—for which they’d been searching. And, coincidentally, that also happened to abut the beatnik hub of Asheville. At the time, Asheville was home to the popular Lighten Up Yoga studio, but it didn’t offer the kind of yoga preferred by Stephanie and Sunny. “Here on the East Coast, the style of yoga was Iyengar, so it was very static, very rigid, very authoritarian,” Sunny explains. On the West Coast, where Stephanie had developed her practice, “it was more meditation in yoga, more power, more of the workout, more lovey-dovey with a softer edge to it. Once we brought it here, it was certainly obvious they were ready for it.” The first iteration of Asheville Yoga Center opened its doors in 1997, tucked in the back room of North Asheville’s Training Partners gym. They offered ten or so classes a week, mostly taught by Stephanie. Though they simultaneously opened a massage school, that venture soon fell by the wayside—it was in yoga that the two found success. By 1999 they were ready to expand to a full studio space. In 2000 they moved to a bricked corner building at 239 South Liberty Street, just north of where their current complex stands today. “We threw everything we had [at it,]” Sunny says emphatically. “Way back then, life was so different for us. We were very undercapitalized, pretty much every step of the way, but then, totally. We threw all the money we had, all the money

we could borrow, all the money we could pull off credit cards, to make this little studio happen.” From a business perspective, the move was the kind of all-in gamble that haunts the dreams of investors—but yoga isn’t your typical business. It was a risky move that proved to be the right one. “People showed up, and we got validated,” he explains, succinctly. That early success was measured in signatures. Students would sign in on paper sheets marked with 24 long lines; in the early days, if ten of those lines held the names of students, they considered the class a success. Eventually, more lines began to carry the pen strokes of names, and the sheet would have to be flipped to reveal its blank side. “We were consistently having to flip it over, use a second sheet, and that was a big deal back then for us,” Sunny remembers. They began to offer more classes to accommodate the growing interest, bringing in more teachers who could fill the 1,000 square foot studio. Over the next ten years, Asheville Yoga Center expanded its offerings to include dozens of classes and, most important, trainings. “That’s how you can survive as a yoga studio,” Sunny says of their expanding yoga teacher training programs. “There’s not a lot of money in teaching yoga classes—most of it goes right to the yoga teacher. Most of the money that comes in just goes right back out to the folks who work for us. So as the trainings grew, we were renting other spaces, so by the time we were done there [at 239 South Liberty], maybe there were 25 to 30 classes a week, and maybe half a dozen teacher trainings a year, maybe more.” The Center was hosting teaching trainings in cities across the Southeast, and their reputation was growing, prompting more visits to the Asheville studio. As Sunny notes, by the end of the decade their growth far exceeded the single studio and its basement, forcing them to rent spaces sporadically across town to accommodate teacher trainings and special programs. When Sunny, perched atop his bike on his commute home, passed an empty grass lot at the end of the block, inspiration struck. Fittingly enough, on January 1, 2012, they opened their new, custom studio space at 211 South Liberty. The new space housed two yoga rooms so that, when paired with their old space at 239 South Liberty, the Center could host multiple classes simultaneously. Even then, Asheville Yoga Center’s growth was far from over, abetted by the sudden, inestimable growth of Asheville itself. As new Ashevillians flooded the city—many of them already diehard yogis—the Center found itself ill-prepared for the additional influx of students. “It was all maxed out. We were still having to rent an additional space, we still had to rent offices across the street, we had to rent parking,” Sunny says. “That’s some of the things that have always driven the growth—the need." In response to that need, they grew again, this time remodeling an existing building behind the 211 building. The latest addition, which opened in November of 2015 to bring the size of the AYC campus to three-quarters of an acre, houses the yoga training center (with two yoga rooms) and a boutique at 62 Orange Street. The location, previously home

to FemCare, was purchased and renovated to host the Center’s 200- and 300-hour yoga trainings, as well as its operations offices and boutique, with racks of stretchy, patterned pants and tanks emblazoned with encouraging mantras, as well as a “local” section with eye pillows, jewelry, and bags. Following the opening of this latest location, the Center moved wholly into the two new buildings, clearing their old space at the 239 address for a cycling studio. It wasn’t just the inflation of its physical space that marked the growth of Asheville Yoga Center, but the expanding number of employees and teachers. When they opened the studio at 211 South Liberty in 2012, it marked a shift in the scale of the Center and, thus, the responsibilities of its employees. “Up to that point, Steph and I ran everything,” Sunny points out. “There were teachers—there were always teachers—but there were essentially no staff, just kind of some helpers. And then it blew up, and we were like, ‘Holy crap, we can’t do it all anymore.’ And actually, we are still adjusting to that reality.” It’s a notable permutation of which many small business owners are hyper-aware. When a business begins, the majority of its responsibilities fall squarely on the shoulders of its February 2018 | capitalatplay.com 23

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L AUR A HODGES helping shoppers in the Boutique.

founders. Habits form, routines arise, and ways of doing things are held fast; surrendering those duties and obligations, even to well-qualified and freshly-hired recruits, can be a hard task indeed. “We’re still adjusting to having employees, having other people do the things that you did, adjusting to letting go, adjusting to entrusting, adjusting to being ok when things aren’t done how you would have done them,” Sunny points out. "For both of us, that is a continual struggle.” It’s an adjustment made all the more difficult because it was simply unexpected. When Sunny and Stephanie opened their yoga studio twenty years ago, it was—in

The space is certainly special, but it’s the classes—and the teachers who teach them—that has made the Center such a reputable destination for yogis. Sunny’s own words—as a way of capitalizing on what they expected to be a fad. But two decades and several moves later, it’s proved to be much more. “Back in the early days, you figure out the systems and do all the work yourself,” he says. “What I never saw in expanding was all the people, the staff, and the management of that; it just changes things. That’s been the biggest shift that we’re still very much in.” Sunny returns again and again to the word “plateau” when describing the Center’s current business model. It’s a word that was once alien to the selfdescribed visionary’s vocabulary. “I’ve always been the dreamer, the visionary, the ‘what’s next,’ the pusher for growth or expansion,” he says. But now, following a full-force ride that’s propelled them through two decades of business and multiple expansions (not to mention raising three sons), he’s tired, and he’s ready to focus on refining what he’s already built, rather than building more.

As it Stands, In Mountain Pose In a region long defined by its healing arts, Asheville Yoga Center is now the undisputed mecca of Western North Carolina yoga. It’s the longest established studio in the region, and the largest. The studio hosts classes from 7AM to 8PM, seven days a week, totaling over 100 classes every week. More than 50 instructors, including Stephanie herself, teach at the Center, and many of them are worldrenowned and award-winning. In addition to all those classes, AYC offers 15 yoga trainings and 50 to 60 advanced trainings annually (“Basically every weekend, plus some big long 10 weekend ones,” Sunny notes), plus, according to Sunny’s estimates, almost 100 events every year, including small workshops and events, like the Asheville Yoga Festival. As Sunny mentioned earlier, it’s not the classes that create monetary success for the Center, but the trainings. The teacher trainings offered by the Asheville Yoga Center come in two varieties: 200-hour and 300-hour. Marketing Coordinator Erin Gregory compares the two trainings to a Bachelor’s and a Master’s; combining the two results in a 500-hour certification, or “degree.” The 200-hour training is typically completed via a three-week immersion, during which students spend the majority of their days for three weeks (8AM February 2018 | capitalatplay.com 25

LOW LUNGE, VARIATION

to 5PM, Sunday through Thursday) in the Center’s training studios. Students can also choose a nine-week weekendsonly program. In both iterations, students learn the basics of teaching yoga. The 300-hour certification, on the other hand, takes far longer to complete—on average, two to three years. Unlike the immersion, the “Master’s” certification is completed through a series of specialized “modules.” If you’d like to teach yoga to children or seniors, for example, you’d take a coordinating module; there are modules geared toward certain careers (like physical therapy) and specific branches of yoga (like Kundalini). Combining a series of these modules over the course of several years earns the yogi that holy grail, a 500-Hour Certification. Students attending the immersion training or weekend workshops often make the trek to Asheville from out of town, and a lucky few get to stay at AYC’s own Namastay House. The butter-yellow house includes a seasonal garden, kitchen, bathrooms, and both single and double rooms for attendees within walking distance of the Center. The trainings and the hundreds of classes are hosted in the two newer facilities: the studio, built from the ground up and opened in 2012, and the training center and boutique, which 26

| February 2018

was purchased, remodeled, and opened in 2015. Both buildings are entirely solar-powered and tucked into a campus covered in indigenous, medicinal plantings that burst into verdant growth every summer. When building the studio space, Sunny relied on his experience in sustainable building for inspiration. “A lot of my roots are in sustainability, permaculture, living lightly, improving, being a steward,” he says. When building, he says, “you make the choices you can to ensure that, over the life of that building, it’s going to use less energy than most buildings.” That meant designing the space to be passive solar natured (so that the sun heats the building in the winter, but doesn’t creep in during the summer); investing in high-quality insulation to keep temperature-regulated air inside; and even choosing materials that required less energy to create. That same ethos applied to the landscape around the building: “Why not use edibles? Why not use medicinals? Why not use natives? Why not demonstrate a way that’s a little bit different from whatever the standard is?” The space is certainly special, but it’s the classes—and the teachers who teach them—that has made the Center such a reputable destination for yogis. “We lucked out,” Sunny says, smiling. “We’ve been able to maintain relationships with worldclass teachers—like, no-joke, world-class teachers, thanks and praises to them.” In his role, he explains, he’s provided the space and situation for these teachers to thrive, without the distractions (like checking in students or having faulty props) they might encounter at other studios. “Same with Steph,” he adds. “She’s helped keep those relationships with those teachers, get them everything they want, and have it be a win-win.” Teachers from around the world want to come to AYC and teach, including many who passed through their teacher trainings at the Center. “When you get to a point where you are the hub, your rep precedes you,” Sunny says. “The challenge is to figure out who are the winners, who are the ones who really shine. That’s been a challenge for a lot of the new teachers here: They were the rock stars where they moved from; they show up to Asheville, it’s a different story, a different scene, it’s hard to break into that.” For some teachers, their reputations have established them as local celebrities—like Michael Johnson, whose classes are trumpeted by yogis the city over. It’s teachers like Johnson, and even Stephanie, who define the success of AYC and continue to grow the Center’s reach. As the largest and longest-standing yoga studio this side of the Piedmont, one has to assume the success of the studio is monetary, too. Perhaps some errant minds may wonder about the seeming contradiction of selling something as soulfully sacred as yoga. When asked how the Keaches reconcile the purity of the practice with profit, Sunny nods knowingly. “After you struggle enough, and after you have some kids, after you take millions of dollars in mortgages, under the weight on your shoulders, you’re like, ‘If this is gonna be sustainable, you’ve

DOWNWARD DOG

gotta make some money, because you have responsibilities to everybody and everything.’” For years, they poured their profits back into the studio and their teachers, but profiting personally was a necessity. “There’s gotta be some return on that to keep people [like myself] interested. That’s a little bit how business works. What helps me be okay in profiting is that it’s win-win-win: Our teachers are profiting, the employees are profiting, the owners are profiting, the students are profiting… There’s a million other ways to make money out there where you’re just taking advantage of people, and I in no way, shape, or form feel like I’m taking advantage of anybody.”

It Was a Bit of a Stretch Asheville Yoga Center is a Registered Yoga School (RYS), and its trainings provide the Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) credentials, designations assigned and defined by the Yoga Alliance. These are acronyms you’ll find at the helm of many studios and courses, but they’re particularly significant at AYC because Stephanie was at the forefront of founding the Yoga Alliance. Detractors of the Alliance argue that the organization flippantly established requirements around hours and content in order to rake in fees. Supporters, like the Keaches themselves, argue that establishing some set of reputable rules for teachers and schools protects the students and requires everyone to uphold a set of reasonable standards. Stephanie describes the designations as a “platform of accountability,” noting, “I think the requirements of 200-and 300-hour teacher training programs have really helped people be accountable for their education and knowledge and safety of yoga practices and ethical guidelines.” When they first began teaching yoga, Sunny points out, there were no guidelines, so basically anyone could teach and claim to be a teacher. “As the popularity of yoga increased and people started to have teacher trainings, anybody could teach anybody to be a teacher. They could be as crappy as they wanted to be…

Some of the concerns [in setting up] this Yoga Alliance group were, ‘People are getting hurt. Hold on a minute, let’s just take a look at this and set up some bare minimum requirements to help people not take advantage of other people, to help people not get hurt, to help bring the level of professionalism up.’” Sunny understands the hesitation of some practitioners to support the Alliance: “Especially the old school folks, who are like, ‘We don’t need this level of bureaucracy, this isn’t what yoga’s about.’” But he also understands that allowing people to teach yoga without some kind of standard is dangerous, and that Stephanie and the other folks behind the Alliance created it with just that intention. It’s a sentiment that rings true because Sunny himself is such an adamant detractor of the beaurocratization of yoga. More and more states are adopting efforts to categorize yoga studios as secondary schools of education—“Forcing studios to adhere to community college standards, which drives a lot of studios out of business,” he says. Though the web of yoga studios may be in competition, he certainly supports the free roam of them all.

A Flexible Timetable That kind of bureaucracy stands in direct opposition to the primary motivation of Steph, Sunny, and the majority of yogis: getting more people into yoga. That’s what’s shifting the industry as a whole and, despite Sunny’s desire for plateau, the Center itself. As more yogis enter practice, more studios open to meet their needs. A bit of competition within the industry is certainly healthy. Sunny notes that in Asheville in particular, there’s a sense of competition among studios: “Sure, you’re probably going to share students with them, and sure, they’re probably going to take students from you, but we’ve never focused or worried about that; there’s not much sense to it.” What is worth worrying about, however, is how the industry is being spurred and shaped by corporate mega-chains. February 2018 | capitalatplay.com 27

“If that gets you in the door, great,” Sunny says of the enterprises. “The concern or fear is they just keep buying up [centers], and you know a lot of these organizations have huge money coming in to keep it growing.” These studios aren’t problematic because of the type of workout they offer—as the Keaches mentioned earlier, perhaps those calorie-counting classes will inspire a more spiritual practice down the road—but because they threaten to monopolize the industry. It’s a question of small businesses versus corporate and the way they’re shaping the American economy. Another interesting shift in the industry comes at the hands of a common foe: technology. Sunny notes that online classes have both positive and negative effects for studios like AYC. “It’s great for folks who can’t get out, or who are travelers, or have a favorite teacher, but live in a different city; that’s awesome,” he points out. “It’s great to introduce people to yoga who maybe wouldn’t get to a studio because there’s no studio in their area. So that accessibility is 100 percent awesome. It’s not gonna be the same experience as being in a class, or being able to ask a teacher questions, or being able to be adjusted by a teacher, so that’s an unfortunate aspect of it, but I think most people realize it.” He adds

that although he’s considered incorporating online courses into the curriculum at AYC, it’s not yet a priority. So, what are the priorities for the future of Asheville Yoga Center? Like online courses, expansion or franchising has long been an option for the AYC, but not one they’ll

“If there’s one thing that makes this all worthwhile, the stress and strain of owning a business, it’s knowing that Steph and I are doing right in the world.”

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pursue soon. Instead, Sunny would like to turn the already bursting training program into a full-blown retreat center. “I have this big vision that would be like an omega, where we’d be one of the major spiritual center hubs of the country,” he explains. “The element that is missing is the lodging aspect, the live-in, that retreat aspect. You’re all in it together 24-7, and there’s a richness that can come there. There is some lodging, but I have this vision of it being

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close and tight and all integrated.” But with the current price of property in Asheville, and with his own exhaustion, he’s happy to press pause on the vision and concentrate instead on the Center in its current form. And Stephanie? She says the same: She’s content with the Center as it is.

Finding Savasana Ten thousand miles, millions of dollars, and hundreds of thousands of classes later, and the Keaches have realized their dream—thought into being with the crash of Santa Barbara’s waves as a soundtrack—of opening a yoga studio. After all that work and stress, the growing pains both mental and physical, we have to ask a simple question: Why? And for Sunny, the answer is pretty simple, too. “If there’s one thing that makes this all worthwhile, the stress and strain of owning a business, it’s knowing that Steph and I are doing right in the world,” he confesses, his hand rubbing mindlessly at his shoulder, which is laced with muscles shaped by decades of yoga. “Particularly now, this time and age, where if you visit social media, there’s so much bad news, so much chaos and conflict, and to know that through the years—that was originally an idea of the ‘why,’ and it continues to be a

major idea of the ‘why’—it’s counteracting that. It’s helping the world be a more peaceful place. It’s helping people be more grounded and not be a dick.” At that, he can’t help but stop to laugh at his own words. Those words may come clothed in a casual package, but what he says is scientifically true. According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, several studies have shown that yoga improves overall quality of life. The positive effects are mental—like reducing stress and relieving anxiety, depression, and insomnia—and physical—like improving cardiovascular health, increasing strength and physical fitness, and relieving pain. But perhaps most importantly, cultivating mindfulness and awareness through yoga makes you better, and the world, too. In the words of Sunny, it’s helping more people not be a dick. The positive effects provided by yoga practice at the Asheville Yoga Center are both tangible and intangible—much like the healthful habits that have long shaped these hills. Asheville and her surrounding cities have long offered healing to visitors and locals alike, and by adopting new habits and hobbies like yoga, we ensure those traditions will live on.

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CAROLINA in the

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Popular Demand haywood county

Gary Lowe has finally found a tract to build a new Shoney’s in Haywood County. In March 2014 his restaurant was taken by the North Carolina Department of Transportation to improve Interchange 104 on US 23-74. Sitting high on a hill with less than straightforward access, the old location was the busiest of seven Shoney’s Lowe operated in the Carolinas, and he had been building a reputation and customer base for 35 years. The DOT offered Lowe $1.6 million as compensation, an amount he challenged in court. While the jury finally agreed to award him $2.2 million six months later, Lowe found that was not enough for land acquisition, site preparation, construction, and equipping a new restaurant, especially since he used a significant amount to

]

pay off the mortgage on the old property. After looking at a couple dozen sites, he had concluded all the good properties in Haywood County were already taken. Giving up hope, Lowe decided to sell all the kitchen equipment he had stored. But Lowe said former customers kept calling asking when he would reopen. That, and the fact that no comparable restaurant had since opened in Haywood County, motivated him to take the risk and purchase 2.5 acres between Lowe’s hardware store and the Junaluska Animal Hospital. Now 75 years old, Lowe plans to open a new 150-seat restaurant in the spring.

It'll Cost Ya western north carolina

Exactly two months after Mission Health and Blue Cross Blue Shield of

North Carolina allowed their contract to expire, the parties have reached an agreement. The decision landed Mission’s six hospitals and 500 practitioners outof-network for 260,000 people in 18 counties. The statement apologized for stress caused to persons who, during the outage, chose to pay more for medical care, forsook trusted professionals and drove long distances for in-network care, or allowed conditions to worsen untreated. But Mission spokespersons said the cost was justified for raising awareness and continuing the hospital’s viability. Mission had claimed Blue Cross did not offer it enough reimbursement to keep up with rising costs of pharmaceuticals, new technology, and recruiting and retaining top talent. Blue Cross rebutted that it had offered Mission the same arrangement accepted by 40 other hospital systems in the state. Mission has long maintained it engages in far more indigent care than other hospital systems, and analysts have claimed the rift boiled down to determining how much the insurance company was willing to cover cost-recovery markups for paying customers. Details of the new contract have not been made public; the merits of either side’s claims are deemed unsearchable in light of the number of patients treated and the arbitrary nature of coding, billing, and

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reimbursing visits, as well as the fluidity of policy that characterizes the current state of healthcare in the United States.

instead. Because of the scarcity, it was estimated consumers would pay 10% more for their trees in 2017.

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Foresters had been warning about a shortage of Christmas trees since July. Industry spokespeople explain that growers over-planted in prosperous times leading up to 2008. After the recession hit, they planted less, either to scale-down to demand or because they couldn’t afford to plant more. Nationwide, the acreage of Christmas trees planted dropped 30% in the last decade. Since it takes Christmas trees about ten years to mature, the shortage was only hitting the market for the 2017 holiday season. Expected to last another decade, it will continue to hit particularly hard, as demand has resumed with growing consumer confidence. North Carolina’s industry was already dominated by large, corporate growers, and the pinch squeezed out a lot of smaller businesses. Even so, the state remained second only to Oregon in growing Christmas trees. There, where the shortage is worse, former Christmas tree farmers have turned to other crops, like grapes and cannabis

With the passing of William A.V. Cecil, Sr. in October and his wife, Mary “Mimi” Ryan Cecil, three weeks later, some onlookers were wondering what this might mean for one of Asheville’s largest employers. The answer is: Not much. The Cecils were co-owners of the Biltmore Company, a private, family-owned business valued at $157,200,000. Inheritance taxes can claim up to 40% of properties valued at over $5.5 million. But William reportedly created a dedicated successorship and tax planning team when he and his brother split the Biltmore Company into two businesses, one of which became developer Biltmore Farms. William planned for his children, Bill Cecil, Jr. and Dini Pickering, to become the new owners and operators; both had already been very involved in the company’s leadership. Strategies taken to prevent the estate from dissolving under inheritance taxes included qualifying for agricultural deferments since much of the estate is a working

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farm, investing in life insurance policies, and splitting the estate into a number of smaller companies already run by heirs. Spokespersons say the estate has done nothing to push the limits of tax law and that the transition, to date, has been seamless from a public perspective. The estate businesses paid $1,169,062 in Buncombe County taxes in 2017.

Here’s the Deal buncombe county

Ailis Grosh’s app began as a school project while she was a student at UNCAsheville. She was motivated by the frustration she felt when she would try to find deals, only to have to keep changing screens and figure out if published content was up-to-date. A beta version of Burban is now live, with a disclaimer that since the app has not yet been released officially, information is only as-is and as-available. Grosh asks that users report any problems as final touches are being made prior to launch. The app is very straightforward. After opening it, one merely selects a day of the week and then makes a choice of food, drinks, or entertainment. Then, icons pop up where the specials are; hovering over them will release the name and address

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of the business, its Google and Yelp! Ratings, and what the special is. Filters are also available to narrow searches to family-friendly and pet-friendly venues. Data is compiled from internet listings, but businesses are welcome to more proactively keep Burban up-to-date or opt out entirely. Currently, Burban only publishes information on Asheville, but Grosh expects to expand soon.

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First Contact Addiction Ministries is fundraising for an addiction recovery facility. The group has launched a campaign to raise $2 million for a Life Enhancement Center with 46 beds to treat persons volunteering for a 7.5-month rehabilitation program. According to the fundraising website, in Henderson County, 7-10 people are treated by first responders for overdoses a week, 3-4 people die of overdoses a month, and 80% of crime is linked to substance abuse. The ministry has documented 800 people reaching out to it for help in the last three years. Director Craig Halford has already published architectural plans for the facility, which he intends to build on property owned by Mud Creek Baptist Church under a long-term lease. He will need a special-use permit, but he has not yet submitted any plans for the design review process. Facility programming would replicate that of the Christian Care Center, which has been operating in Leesburg, Florida, for the past 32 years. Candidates have to want to change, and they will be vetted, so as not to put others in the facility at-risk. Halford plans to continue fundraising after construction to pay for operations.

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| February 2018

Barkwells, The Dog Lovers’ Vacation Retreat, is opening a second location

near Brevard. The upscale resort self-describes as dog-centric, and its website instructs dogs on why they should convince their people to take them there. Ellen and Michael Winner opened the first Barkwells in Mills River in 2003. The vacation rental retreat featured 8 luxury cabins, each with its own fenced yard on 9 enclosed acres. The new location will begin with just 2 cabins on 6 acres. One is decorated in a Southern Living motif, while the other is very vintage. All cabins are equipped with doggie doors, porches, and fireplaces for the dogs; and hot tubs, cell service, wireless internet, and Direct TV for their humans. Common areas include acres of meadowland and a pond. The Winners were attracted to the second property because of the existing house, which now serves as their home and headquarters. While they are still researching its history, it is at least 150 years old, but sturdy and well-maintained with modern amenities. The couple also intends to renovate the archetypal Americana barn on the premises. Through the years, thousands of dogs have heeded the website’s command to “Come. Sit. Stay.”.

Getting Rural Doctors in the Loop henderson county

Four Seasons Compassion for Life has been awarded a $750,000 grant from the Duke Endowment to expand palliative care using the Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) model, which connects rural general practitioners to specialists in urban areas and medical colleges via a form of video conferencing and other internet technologies. It was developed as a way of handling an epidemic of hepatitis C in New Mexico’s rural communities and prisons, and it is designed to prevent disease from growing to epidemic proportions in areas where medical professionals are scarce. Grant proceeds will be used to increase the number of qualified palliative care

providers in rural communities and involve them in discussions that would normally only take place in the halls of larger medical institutions. Continuum of care services include symptom management, psychological and spiritual counseling, and planning for late stages of disease. The program is made possible through a partnership of Duke University Medical Center, Delta Care R x, the ECHO Institute, and Four Seasons.

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The Omni Grove Park Inn’s Seely Pavilion and Event Lawn is open for business. The building, located to the south of the historic inn, features a churchlike ceiling with open trussing made with reclaimed Douglas fir. It is supported by dry-stack stone columns, with similar masonry designed into the hearth of the large fireplace. Six pairs of ceiling-to-floor glass windows and doors open panoramic views to the Blue Ridge Mountains and the 18-hole golf course designed by Donald Ross. The floor is fashionable polished concrete. While sporting a rustic, craftsman veneer, the building is equipped with modern amenities for food service and entertainment. The pavilion will join the Country Club, Mountain View Terrace, and Skyline Room in the inn’s portfolio of event spaces. It was built as a year-round small-events venue, for get-togethers like business retreats, weddings, and reunions; and it is named after Fred Loring Seely, the original inn’s designer and first general manager. The project, designed by Beck Architecture from Austin, Texas, was completed on-time and on-budget by Frampton Construction, headquartered in Charlotte. The Grove Park Inn was built in 1913.

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February 2018 | capitalatplay.com

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The Homesteading Equation

How do you create a regional reality based upon selfreliance and sustainability? One homesteader at a time.

ITH

ASHEVILLE

THE

#1 places to visit lists and the #1 places to move lists, we all have the distinct experience of meeting people new to our region every day.

lee warren

is Executive Director of Asheville’s Organic Growers School

They come from all over and seem to all be in love with our mountain home. In my world, many of these people move to Western North Carolina because of the connection to local food and the desire to be involved in some way in the world of food production, sustainable living, and natural connections. And they are not disappointed. Our region is rich with tailgate markets, engaged organic farmers, never-ending do-it-yourself workshops on everything from fermentation to fire-starting, and, best of all, a community of like-minded friends. Recently, Organic Growers School hosted a daylong workshop called “Homestead Dreams,” which is an entry level class designed to help folks incorporate their dreams of self-reliance and sustainability into their actual lives. It’s an opportunity to enter an exploration of a land-based life. We don’t qualify or quantify those terms, and anyone can sign up. Whether folks are urban or rural; interested in

| February 2018

renewable energy, green building, or growing food; have little experience or a lot—the entire spectrum of folks is welcome. So my loose definition of homesteading is “to live a lifestyle that is moving towards self-sufficiency.” Among the 20 participants in the workshop, 100% of them plan to homestead, and this is what they hope to do: • Urban Homesteading. • Herbs, dairy, and aquaculture. • Small intensive gardening, including chickens and bees. • Small acreage to augment groceries and sell a little. • Hand-made body products, gardening, and a few animals.

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February 2018 | capitalatplay.com

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• Peaceful place in the country with rainwater catchment. • A quarter-acre of garden and animals, involving collaboration with neighbors. • Bees. We love teaching this class. It’s so wonderful to be around passionate folks who yearn for a more full connection to their food, to the land, and to authentic community. Right up front, the participants learn that growing, preserving, building, and tending the land is a lost art—in fact, so lost that many of us don’t even have parents or grandparents who remember these skills. With that much loss of oral tradition and land-based wisdom, these skills need to be learned anew. By helping people define their skills and resources, map out their homestead, talk to their classmates, and hear from experienced growers, they also become educated about characteristics of the natural world in Western North Carolina, including average rainfall, temperatures, slope, vegetation, wind patterns, and how to increase their observation skills and land literacy.

Of the participants in the 2017 class, 55% said that having the right piece of land is their biggest barrier to homesteading, while 44% mentioned the challenge of buying equipment and

OUR ENTIRE REGION SHOULD BENEFIT THROUGH THIS INCREASED LAND-LITER ACY AND COMMUNITY BUILDING ON THE PART OF ITS INHABITANTS.

tools, and 30% mentioned the need for ongoing support and the need for off-land income which might delay their endeavors. I know the journey from city and suburban dwelling to a self-sufficient life will be fraught with many lessons and probably none-too-few mistakes. I also know that as we educate, inspire, and support the average person in re-engaging with the

Proudly serving the Asheville area since 1968. Downtown Asheville Office Phone: (828) 258-2953 36

| February 2018

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traditions of homesteading, the following outcomes are likely as additional benefits:

1. Enhanced personal food security, self-reliance, and empowerment.

2. Expansion

sovereignty (where the eaters make the decisions on all parts of the food life cycle). And ultimately, we see this helping to establish Western North Carolina as a region committed to regional food systems, small-scale sustainable agriculture, and a food- and growing-literate population. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s exciting to help create this reality, one homesteader at a time.

of interest into other areas of sustainability starting with food production, processing, and storage, and moving on to renewable energy, natural building, and more.

3. Increased

environmental stewardship, nature and ecological awareness, best land use practices, attention to water and soil quality, focus on local food, conservation-mindedness, and overall appreciation for the web of life.

Our entire region should therefore benefit through this increased land-literacy and community building on the part of its inhabitants, subsequently leading to regional interdependence, community resilience, and local food

Primland Resort

February 2018 | capitalatplay.com 37

| February 2018

local industry

REAL ESTATE Year in Review

2 0 17

You Snooze, You Lose

The 2017 Western North Carolina Real Estate Year in Review

written by bill fishburne

February 2018 | capitalatplay.com 39

local industry

ast year, 2017, was another banner year for real estate in Western North Carolina. In 2016 we reached and exceeded pre-crash sales levels in all measures. In 2017 we exceeded 2016 in every category except inventory, which was down 10.9% from the year-before period. But as indicated by record sales, buyers are still finding their dream houses in the mountains, so the tight inventory has not yet damaged sales.

the entire state in this roundup so we limit ourselves to the WNCRMLS system, which in turn is managed for the local board of Realtors by the Charlotte Regional MLS. Our survey includes all single-family dwellings and condominium units. It does not include apartment houses or multi-unit condo buildings. Sales in 2017 were so good that they clearly exceeded those for any previous year, going back to the first days they started counting. Sales prices were also higher and there were fewer distressed property sales than there were at any previous period, including the real estate collapse of 2006-13. Finally, the outlook for future sales is better The Western North Carolina Regional MLS (WNCRMLS) systhan at any time in the preceding 12 years. tem includes Buncombe, Henderson, Haywood, Transylvania, This report focuses on what did and did not sell, what is Polk, Rutherford, and Madison counties. The larger metrostill on the market, and what expectations we have for the politan areas and townships are Asheville, Hendersonville, market in 2018 based on the market history and trends along Waynesville, Maggie Valley, Brevard, Saluda, Lake Lure, with current U.S. economic trends (both positive and negative). Weaverville, Rutherfordton, and Black Mountain, plus other Please recognize that these figures are subject to adjustment named locations that may not be populous, but do have their even as the data is presented. Sales reported in late December own local flavor. Who’s in and who’s out of the system is deterare volatile as the first two or even three weeks of 2018 roll by. mined by the local Boards of Realtors. Some determine to Our snapshot data and charts were taken with sales as reported affiliate with WNCRMLS, while others, in Boone for example, through January 5, 2018. choose the more local High Country system. We can’t cover With that, let’s get started. If you want to understand the community you’re interested in, entire mls asheville buncombe county haywood county you might want to look at the average price. 400K $364,047

Defining the Terms

December Average Sales Price

$327,104

300K

$299,274

$282,151

$290,931

$266,685

$249,246

200K

$338,642

$310,853

$223,291

$208,178

$191,281

100K

+7.0%

2015

+9.3% +10.2% +8.8%

2016

+9.1%

+11.3% +8.9%

+7.3%

2017

entire mls & asheville & buncombe county & haywood county: ncmountainsMLS, single-family & condo-townhome. each data point is 12 months of activity. data is from january 7, 2018.

| February 2018

Average Sales Price entire mls

asheville

buncombe county

haywood county

400K

350K

300K

250K

200K

150K

1-2014

1-2015

1-2016

1-2017

December Months Supply of Homes for Sale entire mls

10.0

asheville

9.5

buncombe county

haywood county

9.5

8.0 6.7

6.0

6.7

5.7 4.6

4.0

6.1

3.9

3.3

4.1

3.7

2.0 0.0

-29.5% -28.3% -31.6%

2015

2016

-29.5%

-9.0%

+12.1% +5.1%

-9.0%

2017

entire mls & asheville & buncombe county & haywood county: ncmountainsMLS, single-family & condo-townhome. each data point is 12 months of activity. data is from january 7, 2018. February 2018 | capitalatplay.com 41

local industry

OVERALL MLS FIGURES If you could buy an average house in an average location at an average price in Western North Carolina, it could best be described as follows: It sold for $291,000; it had three bedrooms and two baths; it measured 1,941-sq.- ft.; the asking price in the MLS was $310,500; the location was probably 25 miles from downtown Asheville. The prices are from the MLS, and the distance from downtown Asheville is being drawn from several regional figures which show real estate average prices decline the further you get from the heart of our regional economic center. People want to live near where they work. Tele-commuting handles the business end of many new jobs but ignores the social benefits of communities with cultural opportunities. Finally, there are average houses and there are houses that are above and below average. We hope this guide gets you going in the right direction.

Buncombe County Realtors in Buncombe County sold 4,045 residences in 2017 versus 4,135 in the prior year, a decline of 2.2%. The continuing shortage of inventory probably receives credit for most of that loss along with the resultant higher prices. At the end of 2016, there were 1,400 homes/condos for sale in Buncombe County versus 1,399 in 2017, a 4.1-month supply which is up slightly from the year-prior period when the supply was just 3.9 months. The median sales price was $253,300 in 2016, but increased to $275,000 in 2017, a staggering 8.6% upkick. The average prices kept pace with $310,853 in 2016, rising 8.9% to $338,642 for 2017. Buyers coming into the area are learning there isn’t any type of “RESET” button to change market dynamics. Fewer housing starts mean fewer new homes and therefore higher prices for existing homes. And while sellers see dollar signs in their eyes when they hear what houses are going for in their neighborhoods, they also see higher replacements costs. The downsizing family can do okay in this market, getting $400,000, for example, for the 1960s brick rancher they paid $250,000 for ten years ago. But how do they replace it? Most don’t want to go to an apartment, just as they don’t want to move to a condo with high association fees. The answer is to downsize or even to move to a nearby community with lower prices. If you look at the traffic on I-26 and I-40, you might get the idea that a 30-minute commute to Haywood or Henderson County is the option many buyers have chosen. As you will see as we look through the market data, prices are lower in the outlying communities, but you do pay a price in commuting time, you miss out on some of Asheville’s wonderful day-to-day events, and it often just isn’t practical when your planned-for 30-minute commute turns into a no-apparent-reason 90-minute traffic jam. 42

| February 2018

December Closed Sales entire mls

10K

asheville

buncombe county

9,653

9,575

9,002

haywood county

8K 6K 4,135

4,031

4,045

2,158

2,173

2,109 941

0.0

1,025 +6.4%

-0.7%

2015

+2.6%

+8.9%

1,118 +0.8%

2016

-2.3%

-2.2%

+9.1%

2017

entire mls & asheville & buncombe county & haywood county : ncmountainsMLS, single-family & condo-townhome. each data point is 12 months of activity. data is from january 7, 2018.

Asheville Seen as a subset of Buncombe County, the region’s primary economic engine has higher prices to match its dynamic business and cultural lifestyle. The median price for a home in Asheville increased 7.4% in 2017, from $269,900 to $290,000, while the average price went from $327,104 to $364,047, a move of 11.3%. Those are the highest numbers in the Western North Carolina region. Asheville is a delightful place to live. From the business and employment opportunities of downtown to the cultural events that make you grab your tuxedo, to the quirkiness of West Asheville and the elegance of Montford and North Asheville, the city is highly desirable. Growth happens, but still the city has an Art Deco flavor that is a feast for the eyes. And have you ever seen a more gorgeous city hall, an uglier courthouse, or a more elegant high school? You can walk from a downtown condo to everything you’re likely to need this week or month. And if you are concerned about schools, Asheville has some of the best in the state. But the housing market is still tight. Asheville had only 655 homes for sale at year’s end, an increase of 20 units, or 3% from 2016. That represents a 3.7month supply at the current sales rate. The market does move quickly. A glance at the real estate ads on Friday probably

won’t show you all the houses that are on the market in your range come Sunday. Nor will it show you those that went under contract in the previous few days. It is best to set yourself up with a search engine or ask your Realtor to do it for you so every morning you get the new listings in your email or text message box. You snooze, you lose.

Haywood County Living in Waynesville, Canton, Clyde, or even out in Maggie Valley can be a viable proposition for someone who works in Asheville. Certainly it’s not always convenient, but there is a great lifestyle and “feel” in Haywood that can make the driving very much worth it. And the views? “Oh my gosh,” as one client said, “this is to die for!” Waynesville has a terrific Main Street that is unchallenged in the area (except in Hendersonville) for walkability. It exudes small town charm with local stores, local banks, lots of churches, great little “secret” restaurants, and more. It’s like the theme song for Cheers says: “Where everybody knows your name.” The average home in Haywood county last year sold for a very affordable $223,291, an increase of 7.3% over 2016. The median sales price was $194,750. There were 1,118 homes sold during the year, up 9.1% from 2016. This was particularly good February 2018 | capitalatplay.com 43

local industry

If you want to know what youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re likely to pay, initially look at the median price among the houses in the area under consideration.

December Median Sales Price

2016-2017 100K

entire mls

2016: $222,500 > 2017 $242,000

buncombe

2016: $253,300 > 2017 $275,000

asheville

2016: $269,900 > 2017 $290,000

haywood

2016: $180,000 > 2017 $194,750

henderson

2016: $215,000 > 2017 $240,000

polk

2016: $216,500 > 2017 $229,000

rutherford

2016: $162,000 > 2017 $175,000

transylvania

2016: $220,975 > 2017 $250,000

| February 2018

200K

300K

+8.8%

+8.6%

+7.4%

+8.2%

+11.6%

+5.8%

+8.0%

+13.1%

news in that Haywood seemed to have a surplus of houses in 2016, with 781 units for sale at year’s end, and that has now been reduced to just 597 units, a decline of 23.6%. Maybe you’d better rush on out there. Houses are selling and the current 6.5-month supply of inventory is going fast. That figure is down 28% from 2016.

Henderson County Henderson County offers multiple incorporated communities within the county limits, each with its own personality and lifestyle. The county

entrance. Further west lies Mills River, an incorporated area that includes Sierra Nevada Brewery, most of High Vista Country Club, and the Walnut Cove community. Mills River follows NC191 through some beautiful farm country along the French Broad and back towards Hendersonville. Further south lie Etowah and Horse Shoe, with Laurel Park, Flat Rock, and other locations all having unique personalities. There were 2,038 homes sold in Henderson County in 2017, a drop of 4.0%. Searching for a cause, we first look at inventory, which dropped 15.6% year

Maybe you’d better rush on out there. Houses are selling and the current 6.5-month supply of inventory is going fast. That figure is down 28% from 2016. seat, Hendersonville, has a year-round population of 13,000 souls who enjoy mountain life at a bit slower pace than in their neighbor to the north, Buncombe County. Main Street in Hendersonville is a wide, serpentine road with pedestrian walkways on both sides and is fronted by locally owned shops and restaurants. As one visitor said at the end of his first visit to find a house, “Any town with two Irish pubs has a lot going for it.” (In fact, there might be four, but who’s counting?) The town of Fletcher borders with Buncombe County in the Arden and Fairview communities and is often seen as a haven for commuters working in the South Asheville area. That can easily include the Mission Health Care system near downtown Asheville, plus all of the Biltmore areas (Estate, Village, Forest, Park). The Asheville Regional Airport was carved out of Henderson County in the Fletcher area, making it wholly in Buncombe County and very convenient with I-26, US25, and NC280 all running right to the airport

over year with just 653 homes on the market at years-end. The obvious cause, therefore, is that the local Realtors are running out of houses to sell. At year’s end there was just a 3.8-month supply of houses available, a drop of 9.5% since 2016. As a caveat, note that this figure covers all price ranges and isn’t totally indicative of availability in any specific price range. Generally speaking, houses in the $200,000 to $400,000 ranges are selling like hot cakes. Check with your Realtor to get yourself set up on an automatic new-listing alert system and be ready to make an offer immediately when that just-right house comes on the market. For financial planning, note that the average price for a home in Henderson County in 2017 was $274,844, an increase of 14.4%.

Madison County Madison County has a total population of 21,000 spread through beautiful mountains, from the county seat of Marshall adjacent to the French Broad River, and running up through

February 2018 | capitalatplay.com 45

local industry

Average Sales Price transylvania county

polk county

henderson county

rutherford county

325K 300K 275K 250K 225K 200K 175K 150K

1-2014

1-2015

1-2016

1-2017

transylvania county & henderson county & polk county & rutherford county: ncmountainsmls, single-family & condo-townhome. each data point is 12 months of activity. data is from january 7, 2018.

Mars Hill and on to Hot Springs and the residential area and ski facilities at Wolf Laurel. Mars Hill University offers a great education and the Mars Hill Lions field pretty good teams in football and other collegiate sports. One of the delightful community events is the Lunsford Music Festival, held the first weekend in October. It is named for Bascom Lamar Lunsford, the acknowledged father of mountain folk music and a man who is rightly credited with lifting mountain music to a higher level. Lunsford researched widely and could remember songs when just a few notes were played. His unique style of playing led him to create a five-string instrument he called a “mandoline,” using a mandolin body with a banjo neck. At a young age he continually found himself fighting off the stereotyping of folk music as being performed by uneducated people in the remote mountain coves, so, being college educated, he always performed in a starched white shirt with a black bow tie. In 1928, at the request of the Asheville Chamber of Commerce, he founded the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival to bring tourists and mountain music together in a three-day event that played in the Asheville Auditorium. 46

| February 2018

And while Madison has tremendous mountain charm, it still just has 21,000 residents and not a lot of real estate activity. Only 231 homes sold there in 2017, an increase of 11.1% over 2016. The average price was a tad bit over $204,000 and was essentially the same as the prior year.

Transylvania County Brevard is the county seat of Transylvania County and it is widely acclaimed for the Brevard Music Center. If you haven’t been to one of their mid-summer evening or Sunday afternoon concerts, please do put it on your list. Great music, terrific venue, and the best time of year for it. There were 620 homes sold in Transylvania County in 2017, an increase of 5.3% over 2016. The average price was a very strong $309,499, a 12.8% increase. Verifying that the average was no fluke, the median price was up 13.1% to $250,000 versus $220,975 the year prior. The sales pace also picked up quite a bit, with the average property being listed just 172 days before closing. Two years ago that number was 199 days, and it was 178 last year. For immediate comparison, adjacent Henderson County homes were on the market just 112 days prior to closing,

December Closed Sales transylvania county

polk county

henderson county

rutherford county

2,500 2,123

1,973

2,000

2,038

1,500 1,000

500

620

589

565 208

0.0

418

254

+4.2%

+7.6% +22.1% +11.0%

2015

2016

545

464

275

+5.3%

-4.0%

+8.3% +17.5%

2017

transylvania county & henderson county & polk county & rutherford county: ncmountainsmls, single-family & condo-townhome. each data point is 12 months of activity. data is from january 7, 2018.

while Polk and Rutherford were 177 and 155 respectively. There was a 9.2-month supply of homes on the market at year’s end, indicating the county is still a strong buyer’s market wherein the buyer has more leverage than does the seller when it gets down to determining price and other aspects of a deal and contract. Our recommendation is to discuss this concept—it doesn’t play in every neighborhood—with your Realtor whether you are buying or selling. A little bit of advice and an understanding of market dynamics can facilitate a sale.

Polk County If you haven’t been to Saluda or Tryon, you need to get on down there. Two of Western North Carolina’s most picturesque little towns make Polk County a terrific place to live. Taxes are low, the scenery is gorgeous, and commuting distances to both Greenville and Asheville are moderate, giving Polk residents real choices in where to go for big-city attractions. (For an economic report and detailed discussion about Polk County, read “Pretty in Polk” in our April 2017 issue.) Did we mention Coon Dog Day? This is held in Saluda on the 4th of July weekend, and dogs of all sizes and shapes, along with

their owners, are cordially invited. There is an enormous parade up Main Street of hillbilly fire trucks mixed in with the real trucks from nearly every fire house in a 50-mile radius. There are antique and classic cars, activities for the kids, and local food and drink—as well as the best food trucks this side of, well, heaven. Down the mountain in Tryon there is the Tryon International Equestrian Center, which is a world-class venue for everything related to horses. The entrance is actually near the little town of Mill Spring, just off US 74 at John Shehan Road. The area is dotted with old and new horse farms, and in 2018 it will host the FEI World Equestrian Games September 11-23. There has never been anything like this event in North Carolina, so you might want to get your tickets now. (And those of you attending and enjoying might want to consider settling down in our area.) Despite all, Polk is a relatively small county with just 274 home sales in 2017. The average price was $256,800, up from $252,270 the year before. Your best bets for year-round lodging with an equestrian flavor, as well as close proximity to shopping and cultural events, might lie up I-26 in Henderson County or even down the road in Inman or Campobello, South Carolina. The Realtors in the region generally have licenses in both February 2018 | capitalatplay.com 47

local industry

states, so give them a call before you wear your car out completely.

Lau Lncau nc

Rutherford County

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Thin k La ke Lure, a long w ith Rutherfordton, Forest City, Chimney Rock, Ellenboro, Spindale, and lots of rolling farmland just waiting for your decision to adopt a slower pace of life. This is Rutherford County, home to major Google and Facebook data centers, Isothermal Community College (which houses the beloved community radio station WNCW-FM), and some of the friendliest people you’d ever hope to meet. Residential home sales reached 545 units in 2017, up 17.4% from 2016. Much of this increase was due to the data centers, but there also was a lot of activity in the Lake Lure area and near Forest City. If you’re marking locations that are small but growing quickly, Rutherford County should be on your list. Housing is a bargain in Rutherford, with the average home selling for just $213,000 in 2017, an increase of 13% over 2016. Looking at the median price, Rutherford was just $175,000 last year, the lowest price in our seven county MLS system. There were 338 homes for sale there in all price ranges at year’s end, calculating out to a balanced 6.5-month supply. As we said about Polk County, take a look at it and then contact a Realtor to see if you can zero in on just the right property. In a rural area with miles and miles between listings, you can save a lot of time and mileage on the car by working with someone with local knowledge.

THE OVERALL OUTLOOK The outlook is good and getting better. December pending sales are up throughout the MLS by 2.0% over 2016. That simply means there will be more sales in early 2018, and that is good. In

Homes Sold by County

north carolina

madison

2017: 231 2016: 208 ^ 11.1%

haywood

2017: 1118 2016: 1025 ^ 9.1%

buncombe

2017: 4045 2016: 4135 v 2.2% rutherford

2017: 545 2016: 464 ^ 17.5%

henderson transylvania

2017: 620 2016: 589 ^ 5.3%

2017: 2038 2016: 2123 v 4.0%

polk

2017: 275 2016: 254 ^ 8.3%

Predictions by some observers to the contrary, there does not appear to be any bubble in sight, as new homes are not being built fast enough to meet the demand, with the new homes starts data showing we are at about half the rate as in 2006. The main issue is affordability for young couplesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;with inventory continuing to tighten existing homes are being priced out of reach. February 2018 | capitalatplay.com 49

local industry

December Average Sales Price transylvania county

polk county

henderson county

rutherford county

350K $309,499

300K 250K

$274,266

$262,494

$255,576

$212,955

$197,231

200K

$256,768

$252,270 $240,145

$231,277

$274,844

$188,452

100K 50K 0

+7.3%

+3.8%

2015

-3.9%

2016

-4.5%

+12.8% +14.4% +1.8% +13.0%

2017

transylvania county & henderson county & polk county & rutherford county: ncmountainsmls, single-family & condo-townhome. each data point is 12 months of activity. data is from january 7, 2018.

2016 we were just up .9% over 2015, so by all accounts we have made a good recovery. Predictions by some observers to the contrary, there does not appear to be any bubble in sight, as new homes are not being built fast enough to meet the demand, with the new homes starts data showing we are at about half the rate as in 2006. The main issue is affordability for young couples—with inventory continuing to tighten existing homes are being priced out of reach. We’re not going to forecast real estate sales figures, nor really do we wish to make hard forecasts with regard to the impact of the historic tax cuts enacted in late December. It looks like they would help middle class Americans have more disposable income, but it’s probably just as well to stay out of that arena which is so subject to political whim. Let’s just say we are optimistic that the current market fundamentals will not decline during the current year, pending disasters, catastrophes, or Acts of God we cannot predict. In summary, sales are up, prices are up, inventory continues to shrink, and your current house is probably worth considerably more than you paid for it, but is still a bargain for someone retiring to the area. It’s great to live in Western North Carolina. 50

| February 2018

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: All data from CarolinaMLS. Report provided by Charlotte Regional Realtor® Association. Data deemed reliable, but not guaranteed. Powered by10K 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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THE OLD

NORTH

STATE [

news briefs

Forbes Approves raleigh

North Carolina came in first place in Forbes’ Best States for Business 2017. In prior years, only Utah and Virginia had enjoyed the title. While North Carolina has never come in first before, it is the only state to rank in the top five every year for the last 12 years. It was also the only state to rank in the top 20 in the analysis’ six categories: business costs, labor supply, regulatory environment, economic climate, growth prospects, and quality of life. Celebrated features included low costs of doing business, government incentives, a young and educated workforce, and a great university system. The state ranked second last year, but this year’s ratings improved due to upgraded prospects for employment and relatively low utility and tax rates. Among

| February 2018

]

highlighted achievements were the recruitment of the NBA’s 2019 All-Star Game and the expansion of Credit Suisse, the latter promising to create 1,200 jobs paying on average more than $100,000. Also working in the state’s favor was the low level of unionization, which kept labor costs 10% below the national average.

The Green Ferry manns harbor

The Ferry Division of the North Carolina Department of Transportation has entered into contracts for two new vessels. One, a $4.15 million deal with Armstrong Marine of Port Angeles, Washington, is for a 98-passenger catamaran. The boat is being constructed in Swansboro, and it should go into service

this summer. Charging a premium for express service, it will carry up to 98 passengers at a time, but no cars, between Ocracoke and Hatteras. (Once in the village at Ocracoke, carless visitors will find businesses renting golf carts and bicycles.) The other contract is for a ferry that can haul 38 cars, a 50% increase over current capacities. It was awarded to Bollinger Shipyards of Lockport, Louisiana, for $9.7 million. This boat should go into service in March of 2019, allowing a 22-year-old ferry to be retired. The Ferry Division says this is the beginning of a long-range plan to phase-out smaller boats. While expanding services for demand in peak hours, division authorities expect to save $100,000 a year in fuel costs by shutting down less-popular winter and evening routes.

Energy Towards It raleigh

Edward Finley, Jr., chair of the North Carolina Utilities Commission, denied a request by the Sierra Club to hold a fourth public hearing to collect testimony on Duke Energy Carolinas’ proposed rate increase. Attorneys representing the Sierra Club argued Duke customarily

holds five public hearings, and making people travel further to comment, will discourage those expected to be hardest hit by the rate increases from commenting. Hearings are scheduled to take place in Charlotte, Franklin, and Greensboro. Citing “security issues,” Finley said the hearings had to be held in courthouses with security forces, among which it was difficult to find any willing to stay open after hours. Furthermore, anybody interested in commenting is welcome to submit remarks in writing. While it won’t be testimony per se, it will be added to the case file. Duke’s latest rate hike is more controversial than former ones because the utility is expected to spend billions of dollars closing its coal ash ponds and invest more in green means of power generation and transmission.

carolina in the west

national & world

the old north state

by other companies. The agreement will allow Reneo to research, develop, and commercialize vTv’s peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor delta (PPAR-delta) program for undisclosed purposes. vTv is in the business of researching and developing orally-administered, small-molecule treatments for significant diseases. Administrations of one drug in the program, HPP593, have been correlated with lower concentrations of “bad” cholesterol in test animals and humans and a reduction in type 2 diabetes in various animals. No serious side effects have been noted. In exchange for handing off the program, vTv will receive an upfront payment that includes shares of common stock, with opportunities for future payments when milestones in development and commercialization are attained, and royalties from any sales of approved vTv products.

for income to support locals in need and in crisis. The property in question had been rented by a dentist, and now the church needs to refurbish the space for more generic use. The property also needs electrical, plumbing, and handicap accessibility upgrades to meet current codes. Representatives from the city explained they are not treating the church differently from other applicants. The grants are for parties seeking to make lasting repairs to downtown property and create jobs, and they are awarded on a first-come, first served basis to any projects meeting a threshold in the scoring process. A microbrewery was among projects receiving grants earlier this fiscal year. If successful, this would be the second time the church scored a Business Improvement Grant, the first having funded repairs to the space now occupied by Eclectic Jewelry.

We Mean Anybody

Not a Banana Split

elizabeth city

kannapolis

Christ Episcopal Church has applied for a $20,000 Business Improvement Grant from Elizabeth City. From time to time, the church inherits properties from parishioners, which it in turn rents

Dole is trying to sell Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on an offer to bake them a banana cake for the royal wedding in May. The offer follows a rumor that the couple was going to break with tradition

Secret Potion high point

Biopharmaceutical researcher and developer vTv Therapeutics has entered into a global licensing agreement with Reneo Pharmaceuticals. Reneo, based in San Diego, California, is a private biotechnology company that seeks medical applications for drugs developed

Sandy Farnam Sellers Sandy Farnam Sellers ™ ASP™ Broker, ASP Broker,

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February 2018 | capitalatplay.com

the old north state

and, instead of celebrating with the traditional tiered fruitcake, serve something “banana-flavored.” Seizing the marketing opportunity, Dole offered the services of Mark Allison, director of culinary nutrition at the Dole Nutrition Institute in Kannapolis. Allison is considered a leading authority on cooking with bananas and other fresh fruits and vegetables. He revealed he’s toying with a couple of recipes: One would be a royal twist on traditional banana cake, and the other is a gluten-free recipe. He would build at least three tiers and match the icing to the bride’s dress and flowers. Bananas appear to have special meaning to the couple. Markle posted a banana meme after the two started dating; and the prince, according to a former palace chef, liked banana everything as a boy. As part of its petitions for royal indulgence, Dole has already launched a banana meme campaign on social media.

Absorbing Bullets wilson

When Canada’s Ballistics Technology International pulled its manufacturing operations out of North Carolina, plant manager Mark Fulford decided to keep a good thing going. The expertise, customer base, and good crew were already in place, so he purchased the facility and founded a new company called MOUT Solutions, short for military operations in urban terrain. The change in ownership has been described as seamless as MOUT continues to make firing ranges and training villages for the Department of Defense, law enforcement agencies, and private parties. The company is currently fulfilling major contracts with the Army, Navy, and Marines in various parts of the country. The last piece to fall in place was securing a patent license from the United States Army to continue producing SACON (Shock-Absorbing Concrete). SACON is a low-density, fiber-reinforced concrete foam that absorbs bullets rather than causing them to ricochet to parts unknown. To date, the Army estimates the use of SACON in arms training facilities has saved it $180 million in EPA cleanup costs.

When “That’ll Do” Won’t Do aberdeen

Spiritus Systems, a manufacturer of nylon tactical gear used primarily by law enforcement officers and military personnel, is going to double the size of its manufacturing operations. Owners Zane Vogel and Adam and Nicole Holroyd were granted a conditional use permit to expand into an adjoining space within the same building. The idea for Spiritus was sprung on a snowy mountain in the Hindu Kush. Soldiers thought they “could do this better, that we could care about it more, that we could do it with more integrity.” While they continued to serve in the military, they would spend their nights sketching designs for improved gear. That built the foundation for the 54

| February 2018

business that strives to listen carefully to users’ needs and meet them. They source only quality products from within the United States and handle all stages of production at their facility. The entrepreneurs describe themselves as “no-nonsense.” In light of the serious jobs their customers perform, they price everything so low they don’t have time for retail games, and they don’t make promises they can’t keep.

Ransom Wears on You mecklenburg county

Mecklenburg County government computers were locked after an employee opened an email attachment unleashing ransomware demanding $23,000. The attack affected 48 of the county’s 500 servers before it was quarantined. The City of Charlotte, which makes up most of the county, was able to safely disconnect its systems and avoid infection. With systems down, the tax office had to reject electronic payments, and bookings at the jail slowed as inmates had to be processed by hand. Builders had to drive to the county and manually search records instead of just pulling them up online. More tragically, the Department of Social Services had to try to reconstruct the 1,600 rides scheduled on the county’s paratransit calendar. Staff had to periodically check the domestic violence hotline because calls were going straight to voicemail. Fortunately, 911 calls were not affected, as they are handled by Charlotte. Mecklenburg refused to pay the ransom, instead opting to restore backup data to rebuilt systems.

Cynthia H. Thornton Broker

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Stage Coaching waxhaw

For the third consecutive year, Carolina Spaces claimed the title for Best Residential Interior Staging in the Luxury Property Over $1 Million category in the Lake Norman Home Builders Association’s fourteenth annual Best of the Lake Design Competition. Carolina Spaces has won the title every year since the category was created. This year, the winning property was a $1.6 million new construction in Waxhaw. It had been listed for eight months without an offer, and then it sold for its full asking price just 21 days after it was staged. Joan Inglis, founder, owner, and lead designer of Carolina Spaces, said a lot of people are jumping into Charlotte’s hot real estate market as stagers, but it takes more than ambition to do the job right. Her company has always specialized in luxury properties, working on homes marketed at up to $10 million. Since 2004, Carolina Spaces has helped sell over $1 billion in real estate. To do so, they maintain a full inventory of new, name-brand furnishings appropriate for luxury homes. Inglis credits her success to paying attention to nuances in scale, color, and style.

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February 2018 | capitalatplay.com

PRESENTS THE

We are leveraging our extensive network of local businesses to give special access to our hyper-local readership! How it works – Each month we will give out a new passcode (February is LOVE AT PLAY, used verbally in store, or online when available) granting access to unique offerings and huge deals at businesses throughout Western NC. Each month’s passcode is available in each edition of the

magazine, in our once-a-month email newsletter, and on our Facebook and Instagram pages. Bonus – We will also be giving away items from those businesses each month (eight separate items worth over $1,500 in February alone) in a special readers’ contest.

To make sure you get the passcode each month, keep reading the magazine, or follow us on social media, or sign up for our once-amonth e-newsletter. If you want to win one of the giveaway items, we will choose at random from our e-newsletter members. Sign up today! For more information visit: capitalatplay.com/coop

| February 2018

leisure & libation

LOVE AT PLAY February Passcode

Romantic Gifts & Getaways written by shawndr a russell

Flirtatious Romantic Sensual The natural beauty of Western North Carolina creates quite the romantic backdrop for those seeking to spend quality time with their sweetie. In fact, the Blue Ridge Mountains alone have made their way into more than 2,000 song lyrics, and many of the creatives, innovators, and entrepreneurs that help make a romantic date possible were drawn here precisely for the regionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s scenic landscapes, bounty, and endless inspiration. February 2018 | capitalatplay.com 57

leisure & libation

To help you indulge this Valentine’s Day—or whenever the mood strikes— we’ve collected a few of Western North Carolina’s romantic destinations and goods that will ensure your next date night is one to remember. To that end, during the month of February we’ve also secured selected special access for you with the businesses profiled below in the “flirtatious,” “romantic,” and “sensual” sections— your passcode: LOVE AT PLAY—and they are also giving away special gifts in a contest for our readers, including the grand prize: a two-night staycation at Half-Mile Farm in Highlands, North Carolina. See the full details on p. 56. How does one define these categories? Flirtatious might best be described as making that initial connection—or, perhaps a bit more accurately, following up on that initial connection with a small gift, gesture, or invitation, to signal additional interest. Meanwhile, romantic is pretty straightforward: Think a relatively intimate setting or scenario wherein two predisposed individuals—“predisposed” thanks to the successful deployment of the aforementioned flirtatiousness—can easily relax, drop their guards, and slip into mutually engaging communication and simply enjoy one another’s company. And sensual, of course, suggests a capping, a crème de la crème, a crowning culmination, of connectivity: a couple of nights’ getaway to a spot designed for extended intimacy. 58

| February 2018

Flirtatious

> >french

broad chocol ates

> >wild

mountain bees

The story behind the evolution of French Broad Chocolates sounds like a rom-com. “Boy meets girl. Boy and girl fall in love. Boy and girl drop out of grad school and move to Costa Rica via 40-foot, veggie oil-powered school busturned-RV to start a business together…” explains co-founder Jael Rattigan. Once in Costa Rica, Jael and her husband and business partner, Dan, opened a cafe and dessert shop. As their love of chocolate and their family grew, the couple decided they were more mountain than beach people and beelined to Asheville aboard said school bus. Today, French Broad Chocolates are carried in retailers in half the states as well as several locations in Canada, and the Rattigans own and operate a bean-to-bar chocolate factory and massive chocolate lounge in Asheville that stays packed. “Chocolate is one of the most romantic foods in history!” says Jael, knowingly.

Like chocolate, honey has a reputation as a seductive food dating back to legends about Aphrodite, the ancient Greek goddess of love and pleasure. Western North Carolina is home to three of the 62 certified Bee Cities in the USA—Asheville, Hayesville, and Hendersonville. In Weaverville, Wild Mountain Bees is doing their part to educate folks through their diverse selection of classes, like mead making, DIY balms, and beekeeping. “One of our favorite things as beekeepers and Ashevillians is getting our hands dirty—celebrating all the hard work of a season past with DIYs and crafts,” says Marketing Coordinator Kathleen Taylor. “Many of us here are gardeners, herbalists, and home cooks, and herbal honeys are fun and easy to make. With just a few pointers, participants will be able to make and enjoy their very own honey infusion.” Wild Mountain Bees also sells gear for beekeepers.

Use the passcode while visiting &

receive a FREE special confection.

get 15% discount on jars of honey.

LOVE AT PLAY February Passcode

photo by Erin Hebbe

> >little

jumbo

Enough about food—time to talk cocktails! This cozy spot has seating for about 50 inside and a small outdoor patio, and it’s tucked away in a former grocery store built in 1920 that greets visitors with its historic black and white, original penny tile. Inside, low lighting, a stamped tin ceiling, and vintage chic decor invite intimate conversations plied by cocktails made with five ingredients or less for quicker service. The menu is divided into Refreshers, Classics, Favors the Brave, and After Dinner, with Manhattans and Highballs poured as “Jumbo Service” for two. “The Manhattan for Two is one of our most popular date-night options at the bar,” shares co-owner Chall Gray (also a contributor to Capital at Play). The inspiration for Little Jumbo derived from a New York City bar owned by Harry Johnson (author of Bartenders’ Manual) that he operated under the same name in the 1880s. Use the passcode while visiting &

get a free Dirty or Pistachio Highball.

photo by Christina Hale

> >metro

wines

> >vavavooom

If you’re looking to stock up on wine for your date night, head to Metro Wines, 2017’s “Best of WNC Wine Shop” first place winner. Owners John Kerr and Gina Trippi pride themselves on being more than just a store, but a resource for their guests to find the perfect bottle, with wines grouped by fun categories like “Bad Hair Day” and “Bucket List.” Tastings happen daily at Metro, and they keep a full calendar of date-worthy events like film screenings, classes, and exhibits. And never fear—if you run out, they will deliver wine to your door. Kerr, who writes the Capital at Play wine column, says he chose the bottle for our giveaway “because of its unusual history, its symbolism for love, and because it’s a great wine. The blend is unique and better than the grapes individually, much like each couple’s love.”

What comes after delectable foods and drinks? Lingerie, of course! At VaVaVooom, couples will find intimate apparel and toys that have been carefully curated by owner Lisa Ziemer, who describes her store as a “boudoir boutique.” Couples will find an array of gifts from silky robes to an adult toy room that is decidedly more upscale than your typical novelty store. “At VaVaVooom, we cover the spectrum of possibilities and make available all sorts of items to enhance pleasurable connection,” explains Ziemer. She is also committed to only stocking sexual health and wellness products of the highest quality, including natural oil massage oils and candles, and her goal is to help women feel strong and sexy, but also tender and feminine. Ziemer and VaVaVooom, incidentally, were profiled in the February 2017 issue of Capital at Play.

Use the passcode while visiting & get 25% off the regular price of Metro’s rose wines, still and sparkling.

Use the passcode while visiting & get a special 20% discount an any single wellness (adult) item. February 2018 | capitalatplay.com 59

leisure & libation

Romantic > >chestnut Rated one of the top restaurants in Asheville’s Foodtopia, Chestnut occupies part of a beautiful 1920s building that “has the look and feel of an early 20th century French restaurant,” says co-owner Kevin Westmoreland. “The warmth of the wood, the cozy, private booths—it’s the ideal place for a special night out.” After dinner, he suggests enjoying the fireplace and a nice drink at The Grand Bohemian in Biltmore Village, one of his and his wife’s favorite things, to complete a great night out. Chestnut is the sister restaurant to Corner Kitchen, another Asheville favorite. Westmoreland and co-owner Joe Scully opened Corner Kitchen in 2004, but waited nine years before opening their second venture. Scully attended the Culinary Institute of America in New York, where he earned a fellowship before holding executive chef positions at prestigious restaurants, including Indigo Coastal Grill and The Druid Hills Golf Club. One of the many reasons locals love supporting Westmoreland and Scully’s establishments can be attributed to their philanthropy. Each quarter, they donate a 4-course meal to eight people at the Chef’s Table, which nonprofits then use to raise money at auctions or as a thank you to loyal donors. In 2018 the duo is starting a new fundraising program, Cheers for a Cause. On Wednesdays throughout the year, a portion of all wine sales will support a local nonprofit, with the first recipient being Our Voice, Buncombe County’s rape crisis and prevention center. Chestnut’s menu consists of locally-sourced ingredients provided by several local farms, including Hickory Nut Gap, Sunburst Trout Farm, Dry Ridge Farms, and Imladris Farms. They also rely on Eat More Bakery, City Bakery, Round Mountains Creamery, and No Evil Foods for the best plantbased protein. Start with the lobster bisque, made with cream that incorporates Troy & Sons Oak Reserve whiskey. Then, opt to share some medium plates like braised beef tongue pierogi, rabbit pot pie, and sesame-crusted black sea bass, or go for bigger entrees like cider-braised pork shank or stuffed boursin chicken. Add an award-winning wine list and craft cocktails like De La Terre Rose (made with Cathead honeysuckle vodka infused with De La Terre tea, Lillet Blanc Rose, rose water, and fresh lemon juice), and your evening is planned.

| February 2018

LOVE AT PLAY February Passcode

photos by Sandra Stambaugh

> >wake

foot sanctuary

Arguably one of the most romantic gifts you can give is the gift of relaxation, especially of the pampered variety. At Wake Foot Sanctuary, services are feet first and always start with your choice of 10 distinct soaks scented with natural, nourishing ingredients that recharge your feet in 45 minutes. And since foot health is tied to your overall health, giving the gift of Wake Foot Sanctuary soaks makes for a thoughtful gift, too: Foot soaks can increase circulation, relieve pain in other parts of the body, reenergize us, and eliminate toxins, among numerous other benefits. Lindsey Kugler, Director of Guest/Media Relations for Wake Foot, comments on one such soak they offer, saying, “The sensual but subtle combination of frankincense, cardamom, and cedarwood creates the light scent reflected in the soak, while almond oil leaves your skin soft and touchable.” Plus, sitting still in a plush chair, with a warm neck collar and soft blanket, will certainly put you in a zen state of mind, ready to connect over dinner, drinks, or conversation. “Wake Foot Sanctuary is such a unique date night experience—it’s both

intimate and social at the same time, and guests feel transformed after taking some time to truly relax. Nothing grows the feeling of love better than being able to completely leave your cares at the door and truly enjoy your partner’s company while you both are getting pampered and doted on,” says Kugler. Two of their soaks have earned the description of evoking a sensual scent, which makes it perfect for a Valentine’s Day outing: Good Vibes, a combination of vetiver, patchouli, and coconut oil, and Salty Beach Rose, which combines lavender, jasmine, and detoxifying rose salts. Massages can be added on for three problem areas: foot and lower leg, hand and lower arm, or head, neck, and shoulders, with the ultimate goal to leave you tension-free so you can enjoy the rest of your romantic rendezvous in a relaxed state of mind. Up the romance factor by opting for the truffle and tea add-ons, too! Use the passcode while booking &

receive a 30-minute woodsy soak and 10-minute head/neck/shoulder massage for $38. February 2018 | capitalatplay.com 61

Sensual

leisure & libation

> >half - mile

farm by old edwards

For those seeking an adults-only luxury country inn, Half-Mile Farm, located outside Highlands about an hour and 45 minutes southwest of Asheville, is the answer. One can choose between a room in the historic farmhouse (“for cozy elegance,” promises the inn), a courtyard room (“spacious luxury”), or a charming cabin (“a rustic-luxe getaway”), several of them two-story. Upon arrival, guests are greeted with a glass of champagne before heading to their guestroom or cabin, some with gas fireplaces, jetted tubs, and furnished balconies overlooking the lush mountain forest. And the inn’s strict zero-tolerance noise policy means you’ll get an excellent night’s sleep whenever you stay. “The fact that only guests of age 18 and older stay at HalfMile Farm means that you are going to enjoy a serene retreat where you can re-center and decompress,” explains Director of Marketing and PR Amanda Sullivan, noting that the inn also boasts a heated mineral pool and jacuzzi. In 2015 the folks behind famed Old Edwards Inn and Spa in Highlands purchased the inn at Half-Mile Farm and got to work renovating this special location. Owners Art Williams, a retired 62

| February 2018

successful insurance entrepreneur, and his wife, Angela, knew a thing or two about designing romance, having previously overseen a multimillion-dollar renovation of Old Edwards Inn; it subsequently earned a top ten spot on Travel + Leisure’s list of Most Romantic Hotels and was named by TripAdvisor as one of the top 25 hotels in the United States. (The Old Edwards Inn also includes the acclaimed The Spa at Old Edwards and The Fitness Center at Old Edwards.) The couple travels to Europe frequently and always have an eye out for new furnishings and decor they can bring back to furnish the individually-appointed rooms at their three properties. When it came time for the Williamses to transform the HalfMile Farm, says Sullivan, “The idea was to preserve a historic property while bringing it up date with touches like those found in a modern Napa Farmhouse, and also to bring the experience in line with the Old Edwards standards. Now, guests alternate stays with Old Edwards Inn and Half-Mile Farm, depending on the type of vacation they are in the mood for.” Weekend evenings at Half-Mile mean live music by the fire in the Woodland View room, while days can be filled with dips

in the outdoor heated mineral pool and hot tub, stand-up paddle-boarding or canoeing across the six-acre Apple Lake, casting a line in the glistening waters, or hiking along one of the trails winding across the 14 acres of streams, green fields, and forest. Other tasty perks include a chef-made breakfast each morning and hors d’oeuvres reception each afternoon. Half-Mile Farm guests can also enjoy experiences at Old Edwards Inn hassle-free, as room-signing privileges apply to any spa service or dining experience. Since Old Edwards is located only three miles away, on Main Street in Highlands, why not book the Bliss for Two Massage or treat your partner to the heavenly Four Hand massage that features two massage therapists working simultaneously? The lengthy spa services menu at Old Edwards Inn also includes unique facials like the mountain quartz energy facial, therapeutic body work and treatments, acupuncture, and even a luxurious bath ritual that starts with exfoliation and ends with a massage. One can also take advantage of the full-service salon for haircuts, manicures, pedicures, and waxes so guests can get glam before enjoying dinner at the Inn’s on-site farm-to-fork restaurant, Madison’s Restaurant and Wine Garden. Incidentally, the charming town of Highlands is well-worth exploring, with its downtown web of restaurants, art galleries, antique stores, and boutiques. There’s also the Highland Playhouse for summer theater, the Performing Arts Center, The Bascom Center for Visual Arts, the Highlands Cashiers Chamber Music concert series, outdoor concerts in summer, and the Highlands Greenway network of trails in town and on the outskirts. And the surrounding area, like Half-Mile Farm, has hiking, fishing, lakes, waterfalls, and streams, all with impressive mountain views. Although guests coming to the Half-Mile Farm have high expectations for a peaceful getaway, Sullivan notes that “the sense of serenity and relaxation seems to take many guests by surprise. They aren’t expecting this expanse of land and lake so close to downtown Highlands, and they always comment at how peaceful they feel immediately after arriving and how refreshed they feel after their stay.” Plus, the country-inn feel also extends to the staff. “Guests always relate to them and say that their warm hospitality makes such a difference in their stay,” Sullivan adds. One timely tip: For regular bookings, guests can get the best rates and packages January through May, especially weeknights, and enjoy a 2PM late checkout on weekdays in the winter.

LOVE AT PLAY February Passcode

Use the passcode while booking in the month of February & receive “We Love Locals” rate: $125 per night at Half-Mile Farm (weeknights only), 20% off at Madison’s Restaurant, $125 spa treatments at The Spa at Old Edwards plus use of the spa amenities for the day, and $15 fitness and yoga classes at The Fitness Center at Old Edwards.

February 2018 | capitalatplay.com 63

leisure & libation

Flirtatious

Romantic > >little

jumbo

A free Dirty or Pistachio Highball. 241 Broadway St, Asheville Littlejumbobar.com

> >french

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column

The Flip Side of Murphy’s Law

It’s important to be prepared for life’s inevitable changes.

l aur a webb ,

CFP®, is lead financial advisor at Webb Investment Services, Inc., in Asheville.

T ’ S I M P O R TA N T T O BE PR E PA R E D F O R life’s inevitable changes. For years, I joked that I was a “Murphy’s Law” person, but I had never looked up what it really meant. When I did, I was surprised to learn the old adage’s meaning:“ANYTHING THAT CAN GO WRONG, WILL GO WRONG.”

Not what I thought it meant, and not what I believe. My philosophy is more like, “If you properly prepare, then things are much less likely to go wrong. If you do not prepare, then you are tempting fate.” And, if, by chance, things go wrong anyway, you will have prepared to navigate those circumstances, too. Several years ago, my father was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease, also known as ALS. If you know about how that disease progresses, you know how long and painful the decline can be. Our family started to think about how to help our parents stay in their home as long as possible. The two biggest needs were making the home’s entrance and their bathroom handicap accessible. What a tedious process! Construction during a time of crisis is not optimal. After my father came over for dinner one night, I started thinking about my own life and the house I share with my husband. It would be nearly impossible for anyone with a physical disability to enter our home. There are stairs from the driveway, stairs to the front porch, and steep and narrow

| February 2018

stairs from the garage. What would we do if one of us suffered an injury or longer-term debilitating illness? With my interpretation of Murphy’s Law, I knew we needed to figure this out now, while we were both healthy. I asked myself, “What are our options?”

1. We could move to a house that had no barriers to entry.

2. We could modify our existing house to accommodate any long-term needs.

3. We could do nothing. Given my penchant for “flip side” Murphy, the last one was not an option. When I first brought up the subject to my husband, he joked, “What are you going to do, put in an elevator?” When I said yes, he looked at me like I had three heads.

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I did my homework. I talked to an architect about plans, asked my real estate friends what it would do to the resale value of our home, and worked on solutions, even if it meant sacrificing a bedroom and John’s workshop for an elevator. Those who know me well are not surprised that I did not let the topic drop. So, we put in an elevator, modified our basement to make it more house guest (or caregiver) friendly, and added a whole new man-cave/shop for my husband. It made sense for us to take on such a significant project while we were both still working and healthy, as opposed to when we retired or were having a health crisis. I am thrilled to be prepared for the future. And, there were unexpected benefits to the elevator. We have a sweet, 15-yearold dog, who is not moving around as well as he used to. When he started struggling with the steps, we had a remedy: the elevator. So, until we need the elevator for something worse, we use it for our old dog’s comfort, and to move packed luggage through the levels of our home. Murphy is a good motivator for me, including when I work with my clients. Planning can make life easier for them and, maybe more importantly, for those who love them.

It can be as simple as:

1. Letting the right person(s) know where important

documents are housed. Create a list or complete an Estate Organizer like the one I use with clients.

Ask your financial advisor to help conduct a Beneficiary Review to make sure the beneficiaries on your retirement plans, insurance policies, and annuities are up to date. You might be surprised how often people have forgotten to update those after a death or divorce.

Simplify. See if it makes sense to reduce the number of banking relationships or investment relationships you have. Fewer statements to read and file, and fewer passwords to remember.

4. Keep your estate documents up-to-date. Share with

your loved ones where to find them (maybe the attorney’s office or a certain file drawer at home).

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We highly recommend having computer access to these, especially for your spouse’s and your Health Care Power of Attorney and Living Will. This will come in handy if you are away from home and need to provide those to a healthcare provider. We use something called The Vault with our clients, so they can retrieve important documents from anywhere.

5. Hold a planning meeting with your key family

members and your professional advisors to have those introductions made long before some type of crisis or health related event. Tell your professional advisors what they have your permission to share.

6. Consider developing a Capacity Agreement with

your professional advisors, outlining with whom they have permission to share information if you exhibit certain signs of cognitive failure. Agreeing upon the terms ahead of time helps everyone look after your best interests.

CAPFeb18

1/11/18

12:40 PM

Some of these preparation steps might take some time and effort. But being prepared for life’s inevitable changes is a smart and kind thing to do. And tell Murphy that you got things covered, so nothing will go wrong. And that you will see him on the flip side. Laura Webb, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ practitioner and lead financial advisor at Webb Investment Services, Inc. Securities offered through Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. Member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Raymond James Services Advisors, Inc. Webb Investment Services, Inc., is not a registered broker/dealer and is independent of Raymond James Financial Services. Any opinions are those of Laura Webb and not necessarily RJFS or Raymond James. Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. owns the certification marks CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and CFP® in the U.S.

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UPDATES FOR

NATIONAL WORLD [

news briefs

Not Buying It atlanta , georgia

Delta announced the purchase of 100 Airbus A321neo passenger planes with an option to buy 100 more. The list price for the single-aisle, 197-seat planes would be $12.7 billion, but major carriers are expected to enjoy discounts on deals like this. Powered with Pratt & Whitney engines, the new planes are expected to consume 40% less fuel than the 1990s McDonnell Douglas MD-90s, Boeing 757s, and Airbus A320s they will be replacing. Deliveries will begin in 2020. The move is viewed as another slight to Boeing, whose 737 Max 10 design had also been in the running for a contract. Following Delta’s purchase of 75 C Series jets from Canadian manufacturer Bombardier, Boeing filed a complaint with the United States Commerce Department, charging

]

the jets were priced below the cost of production due to illegal subsidies. The commerce department subsequently said it would impose tariffs totaling 300%, which Delta, denying the legitimacy of Boeing’s complaint, says it will not pay. Boeing has 367 orders from 16 other customers for the 737 Max 10.

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$4,000-$10,000 a month by letting anyone—from local sports teams, supermarkets, and banks to Comcast and Apple—paint their building exteriors with ads. The controlling ordinance went into effect in the late 1990s when ads predominantly featured smoking, drinking, gambling, and inappropriately-dressed women. Existing signs were grandfathered-in, and city officials only began enforcing the ordinance last year. The new reason was to prevent the city from becoming a little Times Square. Penalties began with $200 fines that could escalate to $1,500. Businesses remaining uncooperative risked being charged with criminal misdemeanors and forfeiting their property. Outdoor advertiser Brooklyn Outdoor, which has been removing the signs, reports it has turned away several brands eager to advertise in the new year.

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Anil, the telecommunications and power operations. Then Mukesh launched his own telecommunications company, Reliance Jio, to compete with Anil’s Reliance Communications. Mukesh caused turmoil in the telecom sector, investing profits from his oil business in Jio so he could offer customers the first six months of 4G service free. The deal attracted 100 million subscribers and left existing providers slashing costs and merging to try to stay competitive. Anil ended up putting his assets, including bandwidth, 100,000 miles of optic fiber, and 43,000 cell phone towers, up for bid in what was described as a legal and transparent process. And, as “luck” would have it, Mukesh submitted the winning bid, buying his brother out on their father’s birthday. Anil will use the proceeds to start paying down $7 billion in debt while retaining his data center, IT services, and real estate holdings.

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Following the death of their father in 2002, billionaires Anil and Mukesh Ambani struggled to cooperate in running the family business, so their mother brokered a deal in which Mukesh was given charge of the oil and gas interests;

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as a partnership of the European Union, the United States, Russia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, and Switzerland. If successful, it will demonstrate that nuclear fusion—not the fission used in existing power plants—might be a viable source of utility-scale power. If testing validates theory, ITER will generate 500 megawatts for 20 minutes using only 50 megawatts of input. The heat produced will not be harnessed. Instead, another project, already in the design phase with the name DEMO, will serve as a proof of concept for generating electricity to power the grid. Nuclear fusion is deemed safer than fission because it runs off deuterium and tritium. Processing and reacting leaves almost no carbon footprint; and the radioactive byproducts, having very short half-lives, don’t require extensive waste management protocols. Begun in 2013, ITER was supposed to be operational by 2013, but the project is now running 400% overbudget with a new completion date of 2035.

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Apple has purchased Shazam, a company best-known for its app that identifies ambient music and provides

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the user with the names of artists and song titles. It works by matching audio signals to a database of over 11 million “acoustic fingerprints.” The app was released in 2002, but since the launch of the new App Store in 2008, it has been one of the most popular products, having been downloaded more than a billion times. Shazam has also developed applications of augmented reality for advertising. As an example, a bottle of Bombay Sapphire gin can be made to appear to undergo a series of makeovers when a phone with Shazam’s app is pointed at it. Industry analysts, however, tend to believe Apple is interested in the song-identifying app since Google offers a similar feature with its Pixel 2 smartphones. While details of the acquisition have not been made public, Apple is believed to have purchased Shazam for around $400 million, making the deal one of the tech giant’s larger acquisitions in recent history.

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The San Francisco branch of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has deployed a security robot to deal with homeless camps in front of its offices. Rather than breaking up the camps, the robot is equipped with scanners and sensors to detect humans and GPS for reporting incidents to authorities. The security robots, manufactured by Knightscope, rent for $7 an hour and are used by at least 20 clients, including Microsoft and Uber. Since the robots have been deployed, the encampments have dispersed, the sidewalks are more sanitary, and the number of car smashand-grab incidents has decreased. While some third parties have expressed gratitude for the robot’s efforts, others have asked why the animal-rescue organization is making an exception for humans. Homeless people have reportedly challenged the robot’s presence by putting a tarp over it, knocking it over, painting it with feces, and smearing barbecue sauce over its sensors. As for the authorities, they are okay with the robot so long as it can generate revenue. The city has fined the Society $1,000 a day for operating it without a permit.

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Crowdnext claims to be the first crowdsourcing venture capital firm to trade in cryptocurrency. Crowdnext’s edge is based on the Ethereum network’s smart contracts. Smart contracts are digital programs designed to transfer cryptocurrencies and digital keys in accordance with agreed-upon terms. For example, a transfer of funds in the blockchain can trigger the release of an access code. If terms and conditions are not met, refunds and/or penalties will automatically be exacted and access codes changed. There is no need for lawyers, notaries,

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During the recession, Subway sandwich shops and dollar stores were among the few businesses that were growing and thriving in small-town America; the proliferation of Subway was attributed to the relative ease of acquiring a franchise. Then, as the economy recovered and more competitors were able to attract market share, it was inevitable the Subway bubble would shrink. In 2016, a net 359 Subway stores closed in the United States, marking the first time the company had ever closed more than it opened. In 2017, a net 909 US stores closed. Globally, the store count is now 44,014, down 471 from 2016, and store traffic has fallen 25% in the last five years. Corporate leadership, which has always stressed the importance of supporting franchisees, is trying to drum up business with a new store design, a digital loyalty program, and the reintroduction of the $5 footlong subs. Franchisees disagree about the efficacy of the latter move; no fewer than 400 of them have reportedly signed a protest petition.

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Cineworld, the second-largest theater owner in Europe, has agreed to acquire Regal Entertainment Group, the second-largest theater owner in the United States. Cineworld is offering $3.6 billion in cash, which would be funded with new debt, plus another $2.3 billion in equity raised from existing investors. The deal, pending the approval of Cineworld shareholders, would close in the first quarter of 2018. The new company, Cineworld-Regal, would operate 9,500 screens in ten countries. Motivating consolidation in the industry are market saturation, a slow summer in spite of higher ticket prices, and onerous instructions from studios on how to screen potential blockbusters. Prior to the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the only hits of the season were Wonder Woman, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and It. Regal’s brands include Regal Cinemas, United Artists, and Hollywood Theaters. AMC Entertainment, owned by the Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda, will remain the number-one theater owner in both regions.

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BRENT MANNING & BRIAN SIMPSON

| February 2018

THE

MISSION

CONTINUES

With a major expansion currently under way to meet the steadily-growing demand for their artisan product, letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pay another visit to Ashevilleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Riverbend Malt House. written by jennifer fitzger ald

photos by anthony harden February 2018 | capitalatplay.com 75

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From Beans to Brew

Darrin Williams

The Enviable Com

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MALT On a Mission pson, ng and Brian Sim with Brent Manni Malt House. of Riverbend ve Statement on the Cover Image Article on p. 50 See

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capitalatplay.com

| February 2018

to The Capital at Play guide rn summer camps in Weste North Carolina p.38 p. 48. on s Camp of Listing March 2016

Editor’s Note: In the March 2016 issue of Capital at Play we published “Malt on a Mission,” a profile of Brent Manning and Brian Simpson, who had started Riverbend Malt House in 2010 as the only craft malt manufacturer in the Southeast—and at a time when most craft brewers were sourcing their malt from Canada, the Pacific Northwest, or Europe. Located on Pond Road near the Western Carolina Farmers Market in West Asheville, Riverbend had rapidly grown to the point that the two owners were already mulling over a significant expansion far sooner than they had anticipated. For the first in what we intend on being an ongoing series devoted to “updating the files,” so to speak, on past Capital at Play profilees, we decided to revisit our original Riverbend story, written by Jennifer Fitzgerald, and report on how things stand now, in 2018, with the successful company.

B THEIR NEW 75,000 -SQ.-F T. space has vastly more room for malt and equipment when compared to their older space shown below.

rent Manning and Brian Simpson took a leap of faith when they started their business, Riverbend Malt House, in October of 2010.

Their goal had always been to produce locally farmed artisan malts for local brewers, while lessening the impact on the earth. But they had much to learn about the craft and how to connect the local farmer and brewer. “We knew that if we didn’t take a risk, because of the nature of the growing season, it was going to be 18 months before we could work with North Carolina grain,” Brent explained, speaking to Capital at Play in 2016. “As luck would have it, by the spring of 2011, we had a strong business plan and we signed a lease on 2000 square feet.” Added Brian, “This whole malt renaissance has re-connected brewers to the agriculture side of their business. Until we came into play, brewers just made phone calls and the malt showed up at their door. They didn’t know where it came from. We are in a position now with craft beer that there are unique opportunities showing up all over the place and we just have to be one of them. Getting good grain and getting our farmers into our program has been an interesting side to the business that we didn’t know anything about.” Brent and Brian would go straight to the farmers and negotiate a contract price prior to planting in October. They also did a lot of extra work to make sure the farmers had good seed to start with and good growing conditions, and their farmers found that the grain worked well with crop rotation in putting nutrients back into the soil. And for their brewers, Riverbend could bring a unique flavor profile. Riverbend’s process was almost like craft brewing—they were just craft malting. They brought little nuances to the process to contribute to the flavor of their malt, similar to the brew process. Plus, with the malt locally produced and regionally sourced, it offered the brewers an opportunity to cut their own unique footprints, the high quality of the malt providing them a chance to use a nice ingredient in the beer, and also promote the locally made malt in their marketing plans to sell more beer. This was a very artisan approach for Riverbend, and the process called for unique equipment and offered a challenge for Brian and Brent. “When we started, we didn’t know what kind of equipment we were going to have,” said Brian. “We had to build everything ourselves. We would draw it on a piece of paper and had someone fabricate it. We knew the science behind what we were trying to achieve.” For example, Brian designed the rake used in the germination process by looking at old textbooks on malting and then adjusting the scale to the room size. The rake weighed about 40 pounds and offered the feeling of plowing through a field. In a large malt house, this process would have been done with a machine, but Brent and Brian loved, in their words, “playing off the old world/ new world thing.” As it turned out, Riverbend was profitable in three years from the launch of the business. Some of that time was driven by an educational curve, and also having to work through supply chain issues. The two men had to figure out the best and most efficient way February 2018 | capitalatplay.com 77

THE BARLEY being raked.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is important the way WNC and Asheville celebrates the entrepreneur, celebrates local focus, community involvement, and environmental sustainability.â&#x20AC;?

| February 2018

Vacuum system being used to transfer grain for malt processing. to buy the grain, store it, and move it from point A to point B. That took time and money to figure out. The creative culture of Asheville and the craft beer economy helped publicize what Riverbend was doing when they launched their business. As Brent and Brian both noted, if they had started in a smaller city with just one or two breweries, there would not have been enough synergy to drive things for them. “It is important the way WNC and Asheville celebrates the entrepreneur, celebrates local focus, community involvement, and environmental sustainability,” said Brent. “We fit into all those groups and that really helped us publicize what we are doing and get off on the right foot.” Riverbend malted 40,000 pounds of grain their first year in business. As of 2016, they had been on track to malt 470,000 pounds a year. Their biggest obstacle, in fact, was production— they didn’t have the ability in their current location to meet the demand for their product. They subsequently were looking to expand again, as they had maxed out of their current facility in a mere 16 months—they had originally anticipated it would take three years. Brent and Brian described their journey to date as “Malt with a Mission”—developing a relationship with the farmer and the brewer, creating artisan malts, and lessening the industry’s impact on the planet. Call it a “triple bottom line” approach that guided how the pair conducted business on a daily basis.

***

Well, that was then—and this is now. The last two years have been a wild ride for Riverbend founders Manning and Simpson. They saw continued growth of their business to the point of having more demand for their product than they could meet.

Scott Hickman joined them as CEO of the company in August of 2016, and soon they brought on additional investors and raised funds that took them from a 10,000-sq.-ft. space on Pond Road to a new facility—at 75,000 square feet in size, considerably more expansive—in South Asheville on Gerber Road, located behind Gerber Village. They began 2018 in the new facility, which has state-of-the-art equipment, 85 percent of the new gear having been purchased in North America. Riverbend produced 700,000 pounds of malt last year, and they predict the company will be on track to triple that amount in 2018. The basic steps for making malt remain the same: steep— germinate—kiln. (Even at this large scale, you can’t rush Mother Nature.) However, at the new facility, Riverbend is doing what they did before but better—developing new products; having more flexibility for research and development; forming key partnerships with breweries and even distilleries. New equipment will allow them to expand their product line with malt that includes flaked and roasted grain, as well as expanding on their 2-row and 6-row products. With the expansion, Riverbend finds themselves as one of the five largest craft malt houses in the United States. Their “Malt with a Mission” remains the same—developing a relationship with the farmer and the brewer, creating artisan malts, and lessening the industry’s impact on the planet—and their passion for their business and product is ever constant. Hickman was kind enough to sit down and answer a raft of detailed questions from Capital at Play regarding the expansion (including how it was planned and financed), Riverbend’s corporate structure, how the company has evolved since we originally profiled Manning and Simpson in our March 2016 issue, and what the outlook for the future is. February 2018 | capitalatplay.com 79

as President of the Craft Maltsters Guild [based in Asheville]. This is a pretty full plate, so we are actively seeking a Director of Sales to drive our sales activities. Brian has responsibility for production—including the monumental task of getting our new facility and equipment up and running smoothly—safety, quality, and delivery. This is again a huge role, and we recently hired a Vice President of Engineering, Adam Demchak, to support the technical and operational aspects of our rapidly growing production system. My responsibilities include developing strategic direction in concert with our board, finance, legal, human resources, and anything that falls through the cracks. Brent and Brian like to say that I’m the “spreadsheet guy.” Our founders, Brian and Brent, remain the heart and soul of the company—their knowledge of malt, craft beer, and distilling, and the relationships they have built with farmers and customers, are a critical asset of the company. They are also stewards of “Malt with a Mission” —ensuring that as we grow we continue to adhere to Riverbend’s founding principles which they established.

Scott, now as the CEO—was this a contingency of you becoming a primary investor? And how are duties divided now between you, Brent, and Brian?

SCOT T HICKMAN

*** C@P: At the time of the March 2016 profile, Brent characterized the division of labor between him and Brian thusly: Brent called himself the CEO, handling a lot of bookkeeping, sales, interviews, and the agricultural side; while Brian was the COO, keeping a tight eye on the product, fixing equipment, and brainstorming how to make production more efficient. Brent the “phrase turner,” and Brian the “wrench turner,” is how he put it. How has that relationship evolved or changed since then? SCOTT HICKMAN: As Riverbend has evolved into a larger and more complex organization, we have increasingly focused on more specific roles, with greater responsibility, for our team members. An analogy we sometimes use is progressing from a second grade soccer team, with everyone simply running to the ball, to a team in which each player has a defined position. From a practical standpoint this means that Brent is focused on product development, farmer and supplier relations, and sales, as well as providing industry leadership in his capacity 80

| February 2018

Yes, I was only interested in a CEO role, having been one previously, and my investment was contingent upon that. And this is really the only role where I can add a lot of value to Riverbend; I’m not a great maltster like Brent and Brian, and I never will be. Additionally, our investors and bankers—many of whom are people I have known for some time—wanted to have someone with prior CEO experience in the Riverbend CEO position as a precondition for investing.

Were Brent and Brian originally the only shareholders in the company? Riverbend has been in business since 2010, and originally they were the only two owners. At times between the startup and the recent capital raise, there were at times passive, minority investors; they are no longer involved with Riverbend.

How did the change in corporate structure happen—were you approached by investors, or did you make the decision to seek outside investment in order to expand? Brent and Brian had developed a good first draft of an expansion budget—equipment, facilities, and people. We had

a pretty good sense for how much money we would need to fund the expansion. I felt the amount we needed—about $5 million—could be raised through a combination of angel investors and bank debt. After I joined Riverbend, we put together an equity offering and were highly gratified by the interest level—we were oversubscribed within 16 days of putting the offer out.

Riverbend is listed as originally being an LLC—what is the structure now, S-corp or C-corp? How do you feel the company benefited by making the change? Prior to January of 2017, Riverbend was a Nevada corporation for tax reasons. We felt that being “local” was such a critical part of what Riverbend was all about that it should be reflected in our corporate structure, so we made the decision to reincorporate in North Carolina. And we decided to reincorporate as a “C”-Corp versus a pass-through entity, such as an “S,” as a bit of a bet that something like the corporate tax rate changes which were just passed would occur.

Tom Oreck, who bought the portrait that we featured on the Riverbend cover, created by local artist Jason Rafferty, of our March 2016 issue, is an investor. Are Oreck and other investors now on the board of Riverbend? R iverbend is absolutely thrilled to have Tom Oreck—yes, as in Oreck vacuum cleaners—as both an investor and a director. We have an outside heavy board consisting of four investor-directors, our two founders, and myself. We are big believers in good corporate governance and transparency and wanted to be sure that our investors’ interests were being protected. Additionally, we selected the directors based on specific skillsets that they bring to the company, not just their willingness to invest. We believe that our board gives us a significant competitive advantage. Back to Tom Oreck for a moment: He did purchase the gorgeous portrait which was featured on the Capital at Play cover, and he did so before he was aware of Riverbend. When I first sat down with him to discuss the possibility of investing and we realized that it was he who had purchased the piece, all I could utter was, “You’ve got to be kidding.” While Karma isn’t generally considered to be a technique for raising capital, it has its place. February 2018 | capitalatplay.com

As of March 2016, Riverbend had three full-time employees, and now has nine, with openings for two more. At your current rate of expansion, do you expect the hiring to continue in 2018? How many employees do you anticipate several years down the road? We have an expansion plan which shows us growing to 21 positions over the next three to four years, including incremental employees later in 2018 if we execute according to our plan. I’m a manufacturing guy, and the opportunity to create decent paying manufacturing jobs in WNC is part of the reason I joined Riverbend—it’s part of what we mean when we speak of “Malt with a Mission.”

In our 2016 story, Riverbend indicated that among the goals for the future was to “include more living wage jobs, more connectivity to local farmers, interaction with the community, and continuing to work with nonprofits in town.” Do you feel you’ve achieved those goals? I’m not sure that we’ll ever feel that we’ve completely achieved those goals, as we can always do better. But we’ve made meaningful progress: For our employees, we have increased our minimum compensation level to $14 per hour—above living wage—and last year we implemented employee health insurance coverage. We bring in a physician’s assistant once a month to meet with employees one-to-one, in complete confidence and on company

BRENT PERFORMING THE 'hot steep' method to analyze f lavor, color and quality of malt products.

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time, to discuss any health care related topic. Through this benefit we offer flu shots, blood pressure checks, blood sugar level checks, eyesight test, etc. It’s a way for us to signal to Riverbend’s employees just how important they are. Regarding farmers, we have extended our supplier network to include farmers from North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina, and we’re working on Georgia. (Some of our customers prefer grain that is not just local, but from their home state.) All of our grain comes from farms located no further than 500 miles from Riverbend and much of it is grown in closer proximity. For example, we are proud that the Biltmore Estate is one of our farm sources. Every one of the farms Riverbend is currently sourcing grain from is a family-owned farm. We continue to pay premium prices for premium quality grain, which helps our farmer suppliers, and of course the more malt we are selling, the more grain we are buying. Recently, we introduced a new product line called “Southern Select,” a two-row barley malt which is spectacular. The myth was that two-row couldn’t be grown in the South, but in working with our farming partners we’ve disproven that myth and given our farming friends a whole new potential revenue stream. We continue to be active in the community and, given our expansion plans, this will only increase.

Do you only sell regionally in the Southeast, or has your market expanded significantly beyond that? (Originally stated that your goal was to have a 400-mile radius.) The vast majority of what we sell is within a 400-mile radius, but, in contrast with our corporate value of sourcing grain locally

(i.e., within 500 miles), we do occasionally sell to customers located at greater distances—in fact, we have one craft brewing customer located in Canada. Many of our customers want to source from a local maltster. However, for some the product quality alone is sufficient to purchase Riverbend malt. We’re not going to turn down an order from a customer simply because they are located 501 miles away.

Brent and Brian also told us in 2016 that the company’s biggest obstacle was production—they didn’t have the ability at the current location to meet the demand for their product, as they had maxed out of the current facility in 16 months even though they had anticipated it taking three years. Please outline how you subsequently prepared for expansion and what action plan you implemented. Brent was absolutely correct. Riverbend was selling everything it could make and was turning down two pounds of orders for every pound it accepted. That’s a nice problem to have—for a little while. So we knew we had to expand. In developing our plan, we looked at a combination of factors, including (a) how large was the potential market / how much of it did we think we could get / how quickly; (b) how much capital did we think we could raise in a short period of time; (c) what revenue levels did we need to achieve to justify the investments we wanted to make; and (d) what were the logical incremental increases in capacity enabled by the equipment we intended to purchase. Once we had the answers to these questions, we raised

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R AW BARLEY and water being mixed together at the beginning of the steep cycle

the capital, negotiated our capital equipment purchases, and found our long-term home over a period of several months—and then moved into execution and demand creation.

What was on your checklist as you began your search for the new facility? Our checklist included: Important to be in Asheville or as close as practical. Lots of good things happen just by being in close proximity to the amazing Asheville craft beer scene. Available in the time frame we needed, available for a long term lease, at a price within our budget constraints, with room to expand. Minimize any negative commute impact on our employees, so as close as possible to the then-current facility. Something which was not on our checklist but which has worked out quite well is that we have an excellent landlord in Bob Harrison. He’s one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet, and, because AAC Building Materials—his business—is located in the same building as Riverbend, we have easy and regular access to him.

How did you arrange the financing for the expansion? We looked at the opportunity from an investor perspective, developing both a macro- and bottom-up analysis, backed by independent market data. Using that, we put together some 84

| February 2018

of the standard pitch tools you might expect: a pitch deck, a one pager, et al., and then developed a formal equity offering. In parallel, we engaged with a number of banks to discuss our debt options. We were fortunate to wind up with an attractive proposal from HomeTrust Bank. They were helpful and encouraging and put together an offer which was dependent upon our raising a certain amount of equity. We closed on the equity offering and, shortly thereafter, closed on the debt.

Were there multiple locations you viewed or was the 12 Gerber Road one immediately available and ideal? We scoured the market, doing site visits to over a dozen existing buildings. We also looked at three greenfield sites, but eliminated those from consideration based upon the expected costs and construction times. We feel pretty confident that in 12 Gerber, we’ve found the best option available for us.

What are the most noteworthy aspects of 12 Gerber? Well, perhaps the most obvious feature is that this facility was built to last—if the North Koreans nuke us, 12 Gerber is where we’re all headed for safety. The facility is in very good shape. The concrete pad is thick—eight inches or more in places—and the ceilings are high, which turned out to be a very good thing for several of the pieces of equipment we wanted. Gerber also has good access to roads—there’s even a railroad spur available.

" SUPER SACKS" hold 2,000 lbs. of grain, so moving them is no easy feat.

Does 12 Gerber provide you with the space and ability to continue expansion if production demand exceeds your forecast? Our business plan has defined three successive capacity growth phases over the next few years; what we have today is simply Phase 1. Gerber has adequate space for us to implement all three phases—and perhaps more.

What additional machinery and automation have you put in place in order to achieve your expansion efficiently? And is the raking still done manually? Brent has developed a robust, multi-year product roadmap including multiple varieties of 2- and 6-row barley, wheat, rye, and roasted and flaked grain. And, as mentioned, we anticipate significant growth. To accommodate that, we have added the equipment necessary for roasting, flaking, and crushing malt, and we’ve added a sophisticated, high volume sorting/ separating/bagging line. We, of course, continue to manually rake a portion of our malt—that’s a signature activity for Riverbend and we will likely always produce a portion of our malt by floor malting. To meet the needs of our customers, much of our production growth will come from our new, state of the art, higher-volume GKV (Germination-Kiln Vessel) system developed with our equipment supplier that takes the malting February 2018 | capitalatplay.com 85

knowledge Brian and Brent have built up over the last eight years to the next level.

What have been your best decisions for Riverbend to date? Have there been any notable missteps? Personally, the best decision I made was to go into business with two people who know malt as well as Brent and Brian do. Corporately, some good decisions we made included recruiting a very experienced board of directors and our new VP Engineering, Adam Demchak. Regarding missteps, fortunately there hasn’t been anything too concerning (yet!), but I would note that we underestimated just how difficult it would be to design and implement a never-done-before malting system. The blizzard of decisions and details was at times a bit overwhelming.

With your obvious success, have other malt houses started up in your wake—regionally or nationally—that you are aware of?

Brent Manning is the president of the Craft Maltsters Guild (CMG), an entity of which Riverbend was a founding member. Through this organization we are able to loosely track the number of craft maltsters in the United States. There are now well over 50—most fairly small—located all over the country. Craft maltsters tend to be fairly collegial and gregarious—like craft brewers—and there is a lot of information sharing that goes on. We’re very excited that the very first annual CMG meeting will be taking place in Asheville in February, and we’ll take advantage of that event to show off our beautiful new facility to our industry peers. I don’t think we’d claim that other maltsters are following “in our wake,” but we do note with pride that, to the best of our knowledge, we were the third craft maltster in the nation and the first one east of the Mississippi.

What partnerships have you formed with local/regional businesses, such as the Biltmore Company? An important way that we differentiate ourselves from the huge, multinational agricultural firms which sell 98% of the

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malt purchased by craft brewers is that we don’t simply take orders, we work individually with the brewmasters and distillers to understand what style, flavor, and color profiles they are trying to achieve and make suggestions about how our malt can help them to make that special beer or whiskey they are envisioning. We strive to be a “trusted advisor” and, in that sense, we consider every customer we have to be a partnership. The Biltmore Estate is a unique partnership in that they are both a supplier and a customer. Biltmore grows high quality 2-row and 6-row barley on the Estate, Riverbend malts the barley, Highland Brewing brews beer based upon recipes co-developed by Biltmore, Riverbend, and Highland, and ultimately Biltmore serves its craft beers to its guests on the estate. It’s a very local story, and providing guests with exclusive beers fueled by malt made from grain actually grown on the estate is just one more way that Biltmore provides a unique experience to its guests. Riverbend is honored to be working with the Biltmore Company. Some of the academic partnerships we’ve been fortunate enough to forge include North Carolina State University Agricultural Extension, A-B Tech, Blue Ridge Community College, and South College. Also, Riverbend regularly participates in charitable collaborations; recent ones have

included Grape and Grain with Sierra Nevada and the Biltmore Company, benefitting Riverlink, and FEAST with Oskar Blues, benefitting schools. We have several more interesting ones in the planning stage—stay tuned! The Craft Maltsters Guild’s “2018 Craft Malt Conference” that Hickman referenced above takes place February 3 and 4 in Asheville at A-B Tech, and will included seminars and workshops discussing the latest topics and research in the craft malt field, as well as best practices relevant to businesses in the craft malt supply chain. Among the scheduled talks: Malting Technology, Grain Handling & Storage, The Business of Brewing & Distilling, Building Branding & Marketing Strategy, Production of Malting Barley in the Eastern US, Distilling Science & Sensory, and Quality Assurance in the Malthouse. There will also be a keynote roundtable, “Building Value from the Ground Up,” that includes Riverbend’s Brent Manning among the panelists. Registration details and full schedule: Craftmalting.com/2018-craft-malt-conference

February 2018 | capitalatplay.com 87

People Play at

1. (Center) Tommasanne Davis, Mission Health 2. Dawn McKinney, Biltmore Estate 3. (L) Amy Jackson, Asheville Chamber, and Renee Floyd, Reich LLC manufacturing.

| February 2018

4. Sarah Hutcheson and Sara Hall, GE Aviation 5. Derek Edwards, NC Works 6. (R) Joy Wilson, Express Employment Professionals

7. (L) David McCartney, Aloft Hotel 8. (L) Christina Corey and Carol Schlueter, The Family Health Centers

Economic Development Coalition & Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce 12th Annual Homecoming Career Fair WNC Agricultural Center | Fletcher, NC | January 17, 2018 Photos by Jared Kay, Amplified Media 8

9. Kevin Manion, Kanuga ConferencesÂ 10. (R) Shawn Oldham, Baxter International

11. (L) Roger Ward, Fun Depot; Parker Utter, Goodwill; Daniel Day, Fun Depot 12. Shelley Booth, Fox Factory bicycle products

13. (L) Elliot Avery, Berkshire Hathaway 14. Renee Floyd, Reich LLC manufacturing

February 2018 | capitalatplay.com 89

events

february

EVENTS

dilemmas of two girls coming of age in upper- and middle-class England in the 1700s. This is a production of the Aquila Theatre Company.

>Tickets: Adult $40, Student $35, Child $20

february 2

13th Annual Groundhog Day Celebration 10AM-12PM Chimney Rock State Park 431 Main St, Chimney Rock, NC

> 828-257-4530 > dwtheatre.com february 3 & 4

Greta the Groundhog will be out in her glory to predict our future weather. Prices remain discounted while the elevator’s out of service.

> Admission: Adult $13, Child $6 > 828-625-9611 > chimneyrockpark.com february 2

Sense and Sensibility

8PM Diana Wortham Theatre 18 Biltmore Ave, Asheville, NC Jane Austen’s classic romantic comedy provides insight into the social

The Asheville Home Builders Association’s Build & Remodel Expo 10AM-6PM (Sat), 11AM-4PM (Sun)

Davis Arena, WNC Ag Center 1301 Fanning Bridge Rd, Fletcher, NC Expert exhibitors can help with building a home from scratch, making an existing home more environmentally-friendly, choosing a color scheme, pulling a toilet, or getting those stainless appliances, granite countertops, and sideways subway tiles like they’re always doing on TV.

>Tickets: $10 > 828-299-7001 > buildandremodelasheville.com

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february 3

Rotary Beat the Winter Blues Ball 6:30-10PM

YMI Cultural Center 39 South Market St, Asheville, NC The Asheville-Metro club is raising funds for the Coins For Alzheimer’s Research Trust. Everyone is asked to dress however they think “Asheville chic” is to enjoy “heavy snacks” from Strada, an open bar, and music from WestSound. Most amazing of all is the auction. Folks will get to bid on stuff signed by the Stones, Tom Petty, 18 NFL Hall of Famers, and stars from Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. You can pick up your jaw, now.

>Tickets: $50 > purplepass.com/BeatWinterBlues february 3

Hamlet 8PM

Diana Wortham Theatre 18 Biltmore Ave, Asheville, NC The Shakespearean classic has been described as “one of the most complete portrayals of the human psyche in

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Western Literature.” Aquila Theatre’s production probes the motivations and collateral damage associated with a drive for excess in a dysfunctional landscape. Pretty timely at that, eh?

>Tickets: Adult $40, Student $35, Child $20 > 828-257-4530 > dwtheatre.com

february 9

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo

7:30PM (Thu-Sat), 3PM (Sun) Hoey Auditorium, at WCU 176 Central Dr, Cullowhee This Pulitzer-winning play tells the Biblical story of Job in a circus tent. Circus acts, sans animals, are part of the production. Unlike most plays these days, this one is written in free verse.

february 6

Principles of ATHENA Leadership Dinner

5:30-7PM Kanuga Conference Center 204 Kanuga Rd, Hendersonville, NC The C om mu n it y Fou nd at ion of Henderson County has now posted all eight of the principles: live authentically, learn constantly, advocate fiercely, act courageously, foster collaboration, build relationships, give back, and celebrate. Old pros are encouraged to sponsor an aspiring leader.

>Tickets: One $50, Two $80 > 828-692-1413 > hendersoncountychamber.org

february 8 -11

J.B.

>Tickets: Adult $20, Senior $15 > 828-227-7491 > wcu.edu

february 10

Ice Skating Fundraiser

10AM-8PM (Fri, Sat), 10AM-5PM (Sun) Davis Event Center, WNC Ag Center 1301 Fanning Bridge Rd, Fletcher, NC

5-6:30PM Appalachian Ice Arena 940 Ski Mountain Rd, Blowing Rock, NC

Vendors will showcase their latest innovations in the largest expo of its type in Western North Carolina.

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The troupe was founded in 1974 to make fun of ballet. Imagine ripped, muscular men in tutus exaggerating fru-fru clichés of the art. The dancers are actually very skilled.

>Tickets: Adult $35, Student/Child $15 > 800-841-2787 > theschaefercenter.org

february 9 -11 Mountain RV, Boat, & Recreation Show

> Admission: Adult $5, Child (0-12)

7PM Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts 733 Rivers St, Boone, NC

Skilled members of the App Ski Race Team will give lessons to raise funds for the Appalachian Ski Education Foundation.

>Tickets: $10 > 828-295-7828 > appskimtn.com

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events

Give the Gift of Intention

february 10

The Marcus King Band

(and don’t forget yourself)

7PM Beech Mountain Resort 1007 Beech Mountain Pwy, Banner Elk, NC

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Asheville Symphony: Masterworks 4

8PM Thomas Wolfe Auditorium 87 Haywood St, Asheville, NC

The “Master works” series latest, “Scot Free,” the Symphony, under the conduction of Garry Walker and featuring violinist Elena Urioste, will perform Arnold’s Four Scottish Dances, Debussy’s Scottish March, Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1, and Mendelssohn’s Scottish Symphony.

>Tickets: $24-$69 > 828-259-5736 > uscellularcenterasheville.com

service

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The jazz fusion sound is reminiscent of the genius behind the original CTA album. The funk, soul, chord progressions, layering, and professional finesse are top-notch. Youthful King has played with the best of them and made the cover of Guitar World.

| February 2018

february 10 -11

2018 Women’s Tennis Fed Cup

US Cellular Center 87 Haywood Street, Asheville, NC

Asheville gets the first round of this international sporting event, and the arena’s seating capacity of 5,000 is expected to sell out. The best-of-five

match pits the United States team (which beat Belarus in Minsk last year for the title) against the Netherlands, with two singles matches, two reverse singles, and a doubles. Winner advances to the semifinals in April

>Tickets: $25-$125 per day. > 888-334-8782 > usta.coom/fedcup FEBRUARY 13

The Artist Table: Jazz NOLA Style

6PM The Gallery at Flat Rock 2702-A Greenville Hwy, Flat Rock, NC This is the first in what is hoped to become a series of dinners intended to bring artists and collectors together for interaction more serious than the flitting encounters characteristic of opening receptions. Featured creators will be the Richard Shulman Trio, Chef Todd Mallin, vintner Alan Ward, and painter Marsha Hammel.

> Admission: $75 > 828-698-7000 > galleryflatrock.com FEBRUARY 13 & 14

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo

8PM Diana Wortham Theatre 18 Biltmore Ave, Asheville, NC

Prove your love by taking her to the ballet—of heavily made-up men in tutus making fun of the art. These guys are real ballerinas, so expect poise, grace, and technical precision.

>Tickets: Adult $45, Student $40,

Child $20 > 828-257-4530 > dwtheatre.com

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February 23 8:15-9:45 a.m. KEY SCHOOL OPEN HOUSE Grades 2-8

April 12 8:30-11:30 a.m. Lower School INSIDE THE CLASSROOM Grades Pre-K/5

Learn about our division for students with language-based learning differences at our open house. Talk with teachers and Key School parents.

Drop-in to experience our Pre-K/5 faculty and students in action. Choose the classes you will â&#x20AC;&#x153;attendâ&#x20AC;? and talk with current parents and teachers.93 February 2018 | capitalatplay.com

events

FEBRUARY 15

Jim Brickman: An Evening of Romance

8PM Orange Peel 101 Biltmore Ave, Asheville, NC

Brickman is a multi-award-winning pianist specializing in the adult contemporary genre. He has sold eight million copies of his albums and written three best-selling books. Perhaps his most astonishing accomplishment has been holding down a radio show for 20 years.

>Tickets: Advance $49, Door $54 > 828-398-1837 > theorangepeel.net FEBRUARY 16 & 17

Umphrey’s McGee 3rd Annual Blue Ridge Rockway 8PM US Cellular Center 87 Haywood St, Asheville, NC

Marcus King Band, both nights. Serious fans are invited to pursue an “umVIP” package via the group’s website.

>Tickets: Advance $35, Door $38 > 800-745-3000 > uscellularcenterasheville.com FEBRUARY 16-18

The Ancient Art of Chair Caning 11AM-4PM Grovewood Gallery 111 Grovewood Rd, Asheville, NC

Brandy Clements will show how to cane chairs with cattail rush in the Ancient Egyptian fashion. She and husband Dave Klingler, profiled in our June 2017 issue, run Silver River Center for Chair Caning in the River Arts District.

> 828-253-7651 > grovewood.com FEBRUARY 16-19

Umphrey’s returns with the band’s it’s not us tour. To drastically understate the situation, the masters of music and mood will be joined by the same in The

Presidents’ Day Weekend Celebration 9:30AM-11:45PM

Appalachian Ski Mountain 940 Ski Mountain Rd, Blowing Rock, NC The venue has arranged to provide family fun for four days. Extended hours, fireworks, 2-for-1 deals, and fun food are the previewed attractions.

> 828-295-7828 > appskimtn.com FEBRUARY 17

Sweetheart Soirée

1-4PM Blowing Rock American Legion Hall 333 Wallingford Rd, Blowing Rock, NC Blowing Rock Parks and Recreations invites seniors, 55 and up, to a romantic afternoon of hors d’oeuvres, live music, and slow dancing from days gone by. If you don’t have a sweetheart, it’s OK to go stag. RSVP to the number below by February 7.

> 828-295-5222 > townofblowingrocknc.gov FEBRUARY 17

Bebel Gilberto

8PM Orange Peel 101 Biltmore Ave, Asheville, NC

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For a change of pace, why not try some smooth bossa nova? Her voice is as pretty as her name, like Astrud with the rough edges knocked off. Call it elevator music or echoes of the night, the sounds will still flash you back to a chiller time.

>Tickets: Advance $30, Door $35 > 828-398-1837 > theorangepeel.net FEBRUARY 17

Asheville Lyric Opera 18th Winter Gala 7-10PM Country Club of Asheville 170 Windsor Rd, Asheville, NC

Scheduled is the world premiere of a new art song by Clint Borzoni and Gavin Dillard and the vocal talents of Jennifer Bryant Pedersen, Matthew Queen, Will Jones, and Barry Pate. Included is a 3-course meal, plus live and silent auctions. Special optional pre-party at 6pm will include hors d’oeuvres and champagne with the concert artists.

> 828-236-0670 > ashevillelyric.org

FEBRUARY 17-18

Hanji Flower Lamp Techniques

11AM-4PM Grovewood Gallery 111 Grovewood Rd, Asheville, NC PamElla O’Connor will demonstrate how to make Korean paper lanterns from the bark of Asian mulberry bushes. Hanji can be easily formed and textured into durable furnishings.

> 828-253-7651 > grovewood.com FEBRUARY 21

Archaeologist Karen Britt – Mosaic Discoveries

7:30-9PM Humanities Lecture Hall, UNC-Asheville One University Heights, Asheville, NC The archaeologist will provide an illustrated tour of recent art unearthed in a Roman synagogue in Lower Galilee.

> 828-251-6290 > unca.edu

february 22 - 25 Totally ’80s Retro Ski Weekend 8AM (Thu) – 5PM (Sun) Beech Mountain Resort 1007 Beech Mountain Pwy, Beech Mountain, NC

Dust off your day-glo ski pants and sweatbands. The weekend brings back good times with tribute bands, a retro parade, and contests like best costume, Name That Tune, and a Ms. Pac Man tourney. Special appearances will include the Ghostbusters’ Ecto-1 and “the South’s top Bret Michaels lookalike.” Skiing is optional.

> 800-438-2093 > beechmountainresort.com FEBRUARY 23

Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

8PM unch Unitarian Universalist kend br of eCongregation e w g in v Asheville: Now s1erEdwin Place, Asheville, NC In their program Vienna to Hollywood, h d brunc nwill e k e e w the acclaimed musicians interpret ving Now ser

Schubert’s “Fantasia in F minor, D.940”

Now

limited memberships now available. visit biltmore.com/bscc or call 828-257-5959 for membership information.

sunday brunch and $5

bloody marys and mimosas starting at 10am!

weekend serving

kend ving wee r e s w o N

brunch

mention this ad and receive a free round of sporting clays when you join ($30 value). February 2018 | capitalatplay.com 95

events

and “Fantasia in C major, D.934”; and Korngold’s suite for 2 violins, cello, and piano left hand, “Op. 23.”

>Tickets: Adult $38, Youth (0-24) FREE > 828-575-7427 > ashevillechambermusic.org FEBRUARY 24

Sharon Shannon Band

8PM Diana Wortham Theatre 18 Biltmore Ave, Asheville, NC

The Irish musician is known for her virtuoso accordion and fiddle skills—she gained early fame as a member of The Waterboys—and in addition to Irish folk tunes she knows her way around a rock number or two, having worked with everyone from Steve Earle to Sinead O’Connor. Her ’91 self-titled debut is the best selling album ever of traditional Irish music.

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

FEBRUARY 27 – MARCH 30

50th Annual Juried Undergraduate Exhibit

10AM-4PM (Tue, Wed, Fri) & 10AM-7PM (Thu) Contemporary Gallery, Western Carolina University 199 Centennial Drive, Cullowhee, NC All undergraduate students at WCU are invited to submit pieces, but juror Beth Hinderliter gets to choose what she deems the best of the best. The event is among the most treasured at the school.

> 828-227-7211 > wcu.edu

FEBRUARY 27

Natalie MacMaster & Donnell Leahy

7PM Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts: 733 Rivers St, Boone, NC Two fierce fiddlers from Canada, now married, throw down with variations on the Celtic art like it’s a rock concert. Past collaborators include Yo-Yo Ma, Alison Krauss, Béla Fleck, and Shania Twain. Their program especially for children earlier the same day sold out fast.

>Tickets: Adult $25, Student/Child $15 > 800-841-2787 > theschaefercenter.org MARCH 1-5

2018 SoCon Basketball Championships US Cellular Center 87 Haywood St, Asheville, NC

Back by popular demand and the hard work of the Sports Commission, tickets are sold singly or in packages, with various opportunities for discounts or VIP status.

> 828-259-5736 > uscellularcenterasheville.com MARCH 2-3

Asheville Train Show

12-7PM (Fri), 9AM-5PM (Sat) Expo Building, WNC Ag Center 1301 Fanning Bridge Rd, Fletcher, NC Amidst at least 10 working layouts, over 180 vendors will help with curiosities, collecting, and repairs. There will be enough to keep kids busy. The event is brought to you by the WNC Model Railroaders.

> Admission: $6 > 828-699-0983 > asheville-trainshow.com | February 2018

MARCH 6

Chamber Music Tuesdays

12:30PM First United Methodist Church 204 6th Ave West, Hendersonville, NC The Brevard Music Center collaborates with the Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra in the first of three concerts this year.

> 828-862-2100 > brevardmusic.org MARCH 7 & 8

BODYTRAFFIC

8PM Diana Wortham Theatre 18 Biltmore Ave, Asheville, NC With raves from critical acclaimants, this youthful troupe tells stories with movement, and they can dance to anything. It doesn’t have to be musical.

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

To Our Readers: If you haven’t yet read our “Romantic Gifts & Getaways” feature on pages 57-65, don’t forget to check it out, and make sure to take note of our passcode that will net you specials at local businesses during February!

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.

February 2018 | capitalatplay.com 97

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YOUR PERSPECTIVE.

Homesites from $100K–$950K | Homes from $500K–$3M+

SCHEDULE YOUR PERSONAL TOUR TODAY 877.922.LAKE | ReserveAtLakeKeowee.com 98

Obtain the Property Report required by federal law and read it before signing anything. No Federal agency has judged the merits or value if any of this property. This does not constitute an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy where void by law.

| February 2018

ASHEVILLE:

Historic Biltmore Village 9 Kitchin Place 828-274-2630

STORE HOURS:

Mon. - Fri. 9:30am-7pm Sat. 9:30am-6pm Sun. 12pm-5pm

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| February 2018