STARTING OVER‘TOUGH CHICKS’ TAKE BUSINESS DISPLACEMENT IN STRIDE
“They made big plans: They signed a 10-year lease at a prominent location on J.W. Clay Boulevard in University City and filled their time working 14-hour days, experimenting with new flavors and ways to improve family recipes.
Within months, business was booming. When their small business survived one of the worst recessions the country had seen, they thought they had made it.
But in 2011, everything changed.
The city altered plans for the Lynx Blue Line Extension. A plan that would have brought heavy foot traffic past the bakery shifted. The new plan: Demolish the Nona’s site to make room for a parking deck.
It was a change that forced Morlando and Clementi out of the location they once fell in love with – six years before the end of their lease.
It’s a change that, for the first time in her life, has left Morlando in debt.
“I was taught that if you worked hard, you would always get what you deserved,” Morlando said. “We worked hard, and they just came in the door and took it from me.””
McCabe, Catlin. Charlotte Observer 23 June 2013.