This week we sit down with Adam Williams, a Charlotte native who has watched South End evolve from a corridor of barred windows and break ins to one of the most competitive retail streets in the Southeast. Adam grew up in the neighborhood long before Patagonia planted a flagship and long before national brands lined up for space along the light rail.

He walks us through the turning points how the GFC pushed him into second-gen restaurant deals how buying and reinventing a 1960s bowling alley taught him to think like an operator why South End rents jumped from the twenties to the sixties and which neighborhoods will define the next wave of growth as Plaza Midwood, NoDa, South Park, Dilworth, and the suburbs all heat up.

Adam also breaks down his current work on 110 East and Midblock, the density that is reshaping South End, and why Cha ...