News

EpiCentre Threatened With Foreclosure

CHARLOTTE, N.C.,None — Customers attending an Alive After Five event Thursday evening at EpiCentre said they were surprised to learn a bank has filed to foreclose on the entertainment complex in uptown Charlotte.

"They just built it and it seems to be doing really well," Alan Buchwold said. "There's always people here."

The EpiCentre has been open for a little more than two years.

On Thursday morning, the bank behind a $90 million loan filed to foreclose the property. The lawyers behind the move said the owner hasn't paid his debt on time.

"The filing will in no way affect the operations or the businesses within EpiCentre," owner Afshin Ghazi said. "This is just an issue with restructuring the project loan."

Thursday was a busy night at Blackfinn, which was one of the first businesses to open at EpiCentre.

"Nice weather brings people out," said manager Jeremy Ashe.

Ashe didn't know about the foreclosure filing until Eyewitness News told him.

"I have no comment, I don't have control over that," he said. "My owners are the ones handling that."

Center City Partners released a hopeful statement about the filing.

"The EpiCentre has been a transformative project for uptown....We look forward to working with Afshin as he works through his capitalization issues," it said, in part.

A court hearing has been scheduled for September, but Ghazi said it won't be necessary.

"That is nothing," he said. "It will never come to that. This will be worked out with our lenders."

Ghazi hasn't said how much of the $90 million debt he still owes.

The Charlotte Chamber of Commerce had no comment about the foreclosure filing.