A Black-owned business’ lease is terminated early at SouthPark. Owners want to know why.

This story was updated at 8:20 p.m., March 2, 2021:

Charlotte’s well-known Black-owned barbershop No Grease is losing its SouthPark mall space after setting up shop there less than two months ago.

Brothers Damian and Jermaine Johnson opened Knights of the Razor by No Grease in January at the mall under a temporary one-year lease. Damian Johnson told the Observer on Tuesday that when mall management asked to meet with them last week, he thought they were going to be offered a permanent lease. Instead, they were told another tenant would take No Grease’s space and their lease would be terminated effective April 1.

“Why didn’t they offer it to us?” Damian Johnson asked. “We know the difference between business and bad business, and this is bad business.”

The Johnsons have been seeking clarity since. While they understand a temporary lease can be broken at any time, Damian Johnson said a permanent lease was never provided as an option to them at the current site or anywhere else on the mall.

“You can best believe the community is going to want to know why,” Johnson said.

Simon Property Group, which owns SouthPark mall, said in an emailed statement to the Observer on Tuesday night that the working relationship with the Johnsons has been positive and that it is open to adding more locations in the future based on their interest. No Grease has locations at other Simon malls, two shops at Concord Mills in Concord, Charlotte Premium Outlets and one at Sugarloaf Mills in Georgia.

“With respect to their Knights of the Razor by No Grease barbershop at SouthPark Mall, which is on a temporary lease, we have reached out to them and are currently in conversations to resolve the situation in a fair and equitable manner,” the statement from mall management said.

Missed opportunity

In an email to the Observer on Tuesday morning, activist Colette Forrest, a former leader of the Black Political Caucus of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, asked if the lease termination is related to race.

“In this era of post George Floyd and both a public and personal acknowledgement on the part of Corporate America to rectify financial inequity when dealing with Black Owned businesses and a sincere commitment to conduct business with Black owned businesses in a more authentic and financially impactful way, one must ask themselves, is SouthPark racist?” she wrote.

She did not immediately respond to emails and calls for comment Tuesday.

Damian Johnson said he doesn’t believe the decision was based on race but said it’s a missed opportunity to promote Black-owned businesses at the mall. The only other Black-owned business in SouthPark mall is the women’s boutique Captivate, owned by Charity Washington.

“I think about the opportunity they have considering everything in America right now,” Damian Johnson said. “We went in there with good intentions and we felt like they were doing the same thing.”

Opening in SouthPark

Since opening their first barbershop 24 years ago at 3731 N. Sharon Amity Road, the Johnson brothers and partner Charlie Petty now have 10 shops in both Carolinas and Georgia, and a barbershop school on Wilkinson Boulevard. They began franchising in 2017.

The latest shop to open was at SouthPark. Damian Johnson said they signed the lease in October and opened Jan. 10 after some delays and sinking about $70,000 into setting up the new shop.

The Johnsons were excited to bring No Grease to the upscale mall. They signed the temporary lease, Damian Johnson said, with the understanding it could eventually become permanent.

“It was a relationship-building opportunity,” he said. “We thought SouthPark was a natural evolution for us.”

Johnson said they were comfortable with the temporary lease, even though it could be broken at any time, because they’d done business with Simon Property for almost a decade.

Plus, the Johnsons’ understanding was that malls offer a temporary lease with the intent to build a permanent relationship. In 40 days, Johnson said the new shop was on the heels of matching business at their other top barbershops.

“We’ve had a great experience, even from (mall) management, who gave us kudos,” he said.

Washington, owner of the women’s boutique, said she, too, has been under a temporary lease since opening 14 months ago with about five employees. She’s moving into a bigger space April 1 next to Apple store.

“They were extremely nice to me and treat me the same as everyone else,” Washington said of mall management. She said it’s mostly been a “friendly experience,” although she said once some customers learned it was a Black-owned business, they left.

Black community ‘legacy’

BJ Murphy, on his podcast “20 Minute Morning Show” on Tuesday, compared the Johnson brothers to Hugh McColl, a fourth-generation banker and the former chairman and CEO of Bank of America. McColl has helped shape Charlotte’s growth and a champion helping minority-owned businesses.

“This is your legacy in Charlotte, I think you two are the cornerstone of building Black Charlotte,” Murphy said to the Johnson brothers during the show. “When I look at y’all, those two brothers right there, are the key to building Black Charlotte wealth.”

The Johnsons talked on the podcast about why being Black-owned matters in an upscale mall.

“It doesn’t really get any whiter than SouthPark in Charlotte, and it doesn’t get any Blacker than No Grease in Charlotte, so we thought the two could coexist at SouthPark mall,” Damian Johnson said.

One person said on No Grease’s Facebook page announcing the SouthPark store closing: “I just bought a $435 bottle of cologne from a store out there just a week ago. It will be my pleasure to return it. I will spend my money with people that are kind to my people.”

Keeping growing

Damian Johnson said the mall hasn’t explained why the Johnsons weren’t offered a permanent lease or another location. And, if the mall wasn’t going to honor the one-year lease, No Grease could have opened as a pop-up shop instead.

“That would have made the expectations clear. We took a risk,” he said.

Now, the SouthPark shop’s seven employees will be relocated to the other locations.

The Johnsons are still planning for growth. They have plans to eventually open a new school for barbers at their original location on North Sharon Amity Road, after buying the building a few years ago. And, Damian was in Greensboro on Tuesday morning looking for potential spaces, he said.

“We’re going to keep doing what we’re doing,” Johnson said.