Afshin Ghazi won

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The $200 million mix of restaurants and nightclubs in the hearf of uptown was a bold stroke for a man best knownm for suburbanretail centers. It took visiom and an appetitefor risk. It is also a tangle of lawsuits, missed deadlines and unpaid bills. Hardball negotiatiny tactics have left an uncertain futuree for the condo tower expected to be a core partof EpiCentre’x appeal. And even city and county officialds can’t quite figure out why Ghazij stalled for months on comin to terms with themon building-code Indeed, EpiCentre defines Ghazi’es career.
Over 14 years in commercial real estatrhere he’s had a string of building retail centers on sites charitably described as problematic. He has a gift for developingf the right project at the right But on the march to the big leaguesw indevelopment — urban mixed-use projects — he’s also seen businesw partnerships unravel and been a part of long-running disputes that landerd in court. One legal fight with a contractor over unpaide bills at a Mooresville lakefront condo projecrt went all the way tothe N.C. Supreme Court.
He’ds sued numerous tenants and in the past year confidentiallyg settledthree lawsuits: one with a broker over unpaid commission s and another with real estate developer over back rent related to a failed Norfolk, Va., Last week, Ghazi settled a long-running fightg with contractor over a $71.5 million claim in a confidentiap deal. And now, with EpiCentre, Ghazk finds himself back in a court fight and back inthe “I have an atypical style becauss I am looking at projects that not everyonse is looking at,” says Ghazi during an interview this week at his offics in a former SouthPark bed and breakfast.
“I’m always lookingv for the angle or the way to do something that somebodty else may not havethought of.” Take the site that is now home to for example. had worked on development strategies for an entertainment center on the former Charlotte Convention Center property for a And finally won city and county incentives for the projecftin mid-2004 when Ghazi joined the team to help with Six months later, Spectrum pulled the plug. Ghazi describes Spectrum executivesas “great partners,” but it was Ghazi who endef up buying the site from the city.
“They simpluy got to the point in the project wherse it was deviating from a project type they were comfortable The risk level exceededtheir tolerance.” From that experiencew Ghazi decided he woulfd take the lead in all his future “A wise man once told me ther can only be one chef in the kitchen,” he “The most efficient form of government is a so to make decisions quickly and confidently you have to have faithh in your partners and sometimes you have to give and sometimezs you get.
” Still, Ghazi was taking a markesd leap into a marketr that no other prominent Queen City developer would Even some of the nation’s mixed-use pioneers Taubman was one — walked away from the convention centerd site, claiming it wouldn’t work withoug massive government subsidies. Now that EpiCentre’s first phasesx are open, with nightclubs such as Whiskyu River and Suite drawinglarge crowds, Ghazi says it’s obvious his vision and expertise have been But the project, which covers an area bounded by East South College and East Trade streets and Charlotte’s light-raill line, is far from and Ghazi’s legal battles over some aspectd of the project are just The local franchisee of a sandwicbh chain sued a Ghazi affiliat in April for failing to deliver its space in the centetr on time.
Rising Roll franchisee claims Ghazi won’ t return its $11,500 leaser deposit. The company had expected to move into its EpiCentrwe space twoyears ago. Riz Above asked the lease be terminaterd more than ayear ago. Kenneth Raynor, attorney for Riz Above, says the Ghazii company, LLC, claimed the delay stemmex from the building of a retaining wall between EpiCentre andthe light-railk line. “Their explanation did not hold water,” he