- This is a production of PBS Charlotte.

- Just ahead on Carolina Impact.

- So, what's the future of Charlotte's Eastland mall like?

Well, I'm Jeff Sonier, in Richmond, Virginia, where there's a shopping center today that could be what Eastland is like tomorrow.

- [Amy Burkett] Plus, we'll take you inside a new local business that's evolved from its original plan that's now providing a much needed service to our region.

And, in honor of the Women's History Month, we'll meet a trailblazer in public health.

Carolina Impact starts right now.

- [Narrator] Carolina Impact.

Covering the issues, people, and places that impact you.

This is Carolina Impact.

(upbeat music concludes) - Good evening.

Thanks so much for joining us.

I'm Amy Burkett.

You can tell how long someone's lived in the Charlotte area by their memories of Eastland Mall.

Long-timers know the crowded shopping, and the popular ice skating rink inside.

But, many of us know Eastland as the big empty parking lot on Central Avenue.

Now, city officials say what's next for Eastland is a major makeover, similar to old malls in Nashville and Richmond.

So, how about a road trip, to show you today what Eastland might look like in the future?

Jeff Sonier has more from Richmond, Virginia, with a story you'll only see on PBS Charlotte.

Jeff?

- Yeah, lots of cities have their own version of Eastland Mall.

You know, once very popular, but then not so popular, then pretty much an eyesore.

Well, here in Richmond, that was Cloverleaf Mall, just outside of the city in Chesterfield County, Virginia.

The mall, obviously not as historic as the Virginia state capitol here, (bells chiming) But, the mall neighbors still remember the good old days, and the not so good old days.

(upbeat music with ticking clock plays) - When I first came here, it was a wonderful mall.

There were a lot of stores.

It was great shopping.

- [Jeff] Cathy Hobson bought a house and raised a family near the old Cloverleaf Mall.

Neighborhoods like hers?

Just another part of the sprawl around the mall.

- So, this is the place that I used to bring my kids.

We did all of our shopping here for clothing and shoes.

We came sometimes just to hang out.

And the food court, you know?

I mean, it was a mall.

But, then, came the mall downfall.

The stores, going AWOL.

- There were barely any stores in there.

I mean, barely any stores in there.

And it kinda hurt a little bit, because we had been coming here for so long.

- [Jeff] And finally, another old mall meets the wrecking ball.

(machinery clanking) - You come here, and you shop, and you go to the movies, and you try not to see how things are going down.

You still want to support it.

Once you see the stores pulling out, you know that the time has come where something different is gonna happen.

We don't know if there's going to be anything here for us.

That's how you felt.

- [Jeff] Cathy's scrapbook memories of Cloverleaf Mall in Virginia, sound an awful lot like the history of Eastland Mall here in Charlotte.

(clock ticking) The clock ticking on the huge vacant property where our mall used to be, with Charlotte City Hall planning a mall overhaul for Eastland's future.

But, up in Chesterfield, that future is now, y'all.

(clock ticks) Their old Cloverleaf Mall already enjoying its small curtain call.

A defunct mall does not sound like something that would be prized by developers.

- Yeah, it was quite difficult.

In fact, you know, like I said, we went through 22 different developers to get them to come on board.

- [Jeff] Chesterfield County's economic development director, Garrett Hart, says developer number 22, the one that finally took on their mothball mall, was the Charlotte company, Crosland Southeast, the same developer that's remaking Eastland Mall, hopefully once and for all.

- Crosland came in with the vision.

It helped us get this done.

Here, we saw a dilapidated mall that was getting worse with every year.

It was definitely going to go the wrong way, and, like a sickness, it was going to spread.

So, we had to stop that.

You have to bring a product to the location that the citizens now want, and they didn't want an old enclosed mall.

They wanted this.

Live, work, and play.

- [Jeff] Here in Chesterfield County, Virginia, Crosland's version of live, work, and play is now called Stonebridge.

It includes Richmond's largest Kroger grocery store, in an area that didn't have a grocery store before, plus new restaurants and new shopping, and hundreds of new homes, all within walking distance.

You could even walk to the corner Krispy Kreme.

Stonebridge is also five minutes away from 5,000 jobs at this nearby office park, with more offices, and homes, and retail planned around the former mall.

Including this mostly-empty shopping center across the street.

Another potential mall windfall.

- Once we put the flag in, everybody started seeing the vision.

All the roads you see here, all the water and sewer, all of the public spaces, were all financed using the incremental taxes that this project generated.

None of that happens without this.

- [Jeff] And, coming soon to the open space at this old mall, a new hotel and conference hall.

Right next door to where they play volleyball.

The Richmond volleyball center here at Chesterfield's former mall is similar to Croslands plan for a soccer academy, and soccer fields at Eastland Mall, a place where teams and leagues for kids and adults can practice and play ball at the mall.

Winter, spring, summer, and fall.

- They have league play every night, so this facility is in use every day of the week.

And, they bring in thousands of players on an annual basis for tournaments, from outside, really up and down the East coast.

It's become a destination for volleyball.

- [Jeff] And a destination for neighbors of the old mall, with this county rec center sharing the same four walls.

- We've never had anything like this in our area.

(players hitting balls) Exercise classes, there are art classes, And they come here because it's like a family.

We have built, like, a family here.

- [Jeff] Cathy Hobson even found a job here at the recreation center.

And, she finally sold her old house near the mall for a new home at the mall.

Where do you live?

- I live right back here, (they laugh) in these apartments.

- [Jeff] Wow.

So you're walking distance?

- I can walk over, probably, in about three minutes or less.

- [Jeff] Wow.

I guess you like what they replaced Cloverleaf with.

- [Cathy] You couldn't get any better.

This has been home, you know, for the last 36 years.

It's funny, because people, they'll call and they'll say, "Well, I don't know quite where you are."

And I say, "Well, do you remember Cloverleaf Mall?"

And they say, "Yes!"

That's where we are.

- [Jeff] Of course, there's no guarantee that what worked here in the Richmond area, will also work in Charlotte, but since they were similar malls with similar replacement projects, well, the hope is that the current success in Chesterfield County, Virginia, could be the future success at Eastland Mall.

Amy?

- Thanks so much Jeff.

To find out more about Eastland Mall's past and future, head to pbscharlotte.org.

We'll link you to an Eastland Mall Historic Landmark commission map.

And, there's also a link to a website called Envision Eastland, with lots of information on the plans for Charlotte's mall makeover.

Well, over the course of this year, it's been incredibly challenging.

And, we've been hearing a lot about the rising numbers, the numbers of coronavirus cases and deaths, and also the rising number of lost jobs, income, and closing businesses.

What we haven't heard a lot about these days are businesses opening and thriving during the pandemic.

Carolina Impact's Jason Terzis has found one local business that's evolved from its original plan to provide a much needed service to the community.

(children chatter and play) - [Jason] It's a rite of passage for children their age.

- I'm six!

- I'm six!

- I'm six!

- [Jason] Not just reading, but actually living out the classic Dr. Seuss story, "Green Eggs and Ham."

- So, Maya, we're going to turn our eggs green.

Donning chef's hats and aprons, the kids stir up the eggs, drop in the green food coloring, then help assist as their teacher cooks them in the frying pan and serves them up to the class.

- [Children Chanting] "I do not eat them here or there, I do not eat them anywhere!"

- [Jason] But, this classic lesson isn't being taught in kindergarten, or even at a school for that matter.

But, at Idea Lab Kids in Ballantyne.

- There wasn't anything as comprehensive as Idea Lab Kids.

- [Jason] The Houston-based company is a S.T.E.A.M.-focused learning center for kids ages four to 14.

Science, technology, engineering, arts, and math.

- What really pivoted me to actually choose Idea Labs were the actual activities that they have in place.

- [Jason] The new Ballantyne location, the first in Charlotte is, owned and operated by Kosal and Tanisha Chea, a husband and wife combo that individually and together, have lived seemingly everywhere.

- I'm from Connecticut originally.

- I was born in Cambodia.

- I went to college down in Atlanta, Georgia.

- Immigrated to southern California.

- And then, my first job out of grad school, I moved to Kentucky.

- Spent my adult life in Seattle - And then, I moved to California.

And then, I went to London.

Then I went back to California.

- I went back to California, met, married Tanisha.

- Then we moved to Tampa, Florida.

And then, from Tampa, we moved here.

- [Jason] Tanisha was crowned Miss Georgia in 2005, and has spent her working career in marketing for a number of national restaurant chains.

Kosal spent nearly two decades working in education, but everything changed with the birth of their twin sons three years ago, right around the same time they moved to Charlotte.

- I was Googling franchises that I can spend time with my kids, or businesses that I can spend time with my kids, and found Idea Lab.

(Tanisha laughs) - So we flew to Houston, where there are some centers there.

Loved the concept.

- And realized that this was actually a perfect mesh of the two of us.

- Based on her marketing experience, and my educational background, we thought that was a perfect melding of our skillset.

- [Jason] Leaving their full-time jobs behind, and taking money out of their retirement savings, the Cheas invested several hundred thousand dollars, turning what used to be a bank into a multi-classroom learning center.

But, just as they signed the lease early last year, the world came to a grinding halt.

- It was like a tidal wave that was coming.

And, we really did sit down and have, like, a hard think, like, "Should we do this?"

- You know, we were nervous, because kids have to be in this space.

- We trusted God, we're Christians, and we prayed on it, trusted God.

You know, made some educated financial decisions, and took the lead.

- [Jason] They opened the center last June, starting with camps.

Teaching kids about things like coding and robotics.

But, what really caught on was Kosal teaching free online classes, broadcast from his kitchen.

Viewership steadily increased.

- Getting the word out by being free, and providing a service to people, and being a resource for people during that time, I think really helped to get our word out.

- And at the end of the summer, as parents started to shift to the school year, they basically said, "Are you going to support remote learning?"

So, we pivoted to do remote learning support.

- What presented itself was an opportunity to serve our community, and to be a place where kids could come and do their remote learning.

- [Jason] Helping with remote learning, as well as implementing their own programs, Idea Lab Kids now serves about 30 to 35 kids each day.

- I love this place.

We get to do enrichments when we're not in school, and they help us with school, and all kinds of stuff.

- So, we have five distinct classrooms.

There's visual arts, there's a maker-space, where there's engineering and electronics, a tech room for coding, 3D printing, movie-making, culinary arts kitchen, kids learn how to bake and be safe in the kitchen, and a science investigations room, where they do things from biology to chemistry, to medical, veterinary sciences.

- So, I knew that my daughter would actually be engaged with these types of activities.

- There are other educational concepts here in Charlotte, but they mostly focus on one area or one kind of discipline.

And, what we loved about this is that this was multi-disciplines.

- They learn how to collaborate.

They learn how to problem solve.

They learn how to work out through disappointments, and failures, and pick up their projects, and do it again.

So, those are great skills that we're preparing our kids for the future for.

- [Jason] Leaving their previous careers behind, raising three-year-old twins, and starting a new business, all in the middle of a pandemic.

It sure has been a wild ride.

- I fundamentally believe that anybody who started a new business during this pandemic and is still around, and has survived it will continue to thrive.

Because the skillset and the pivots that you had to make during this time will only benefit you when things are great and easy again.

- [Jason] But a wild ride that's allowing themselves, their careers, and their family to only keep growing stronger.

For Carolina Impact, I'm Jason Terzis reporting.

- What an interesting business concept that came at the perfect time.

Well, thanks so much, Jason, for sharing it with us.

Assuming things continue to get better with COVID, the plan is to open two more Idea Lab Kids locations over the next two-to-three years, one in Huntersville, and one in the South Park area.

Well, it's national Women's History Month.

And tonight, we introduce you to a Charlotte resident who broke one important barrier in public health care.

Beatrice Thompson has more on the woman whose journey in Mecklenburg County opened doors for so many.

- And I always wanted to be good at my classes.

I never wanted to be the best, but I wanted to be right up there.

So, I worked hard.

- [Bea] To see this graceful Southern lady surrounded by the pictures of her family, and memories of her life, you wouldn't know she's a hero in her own right.

More than 50 years ago, this quiet woman with a calming presence broke a barrier in public health that allowed others to move forward.

But, long before that, the girl who loved to play basketball dreamed of going to North Carolina A&T on a scholarship, and becoming an artist.

But, growing up in the South in the Forties and Fifties, her mother gave her a dose of cold reality.

- But my mom said, "You..." And I know why she said, "You cannot make money as an artist.

If you go to nursing school, I'll help pay for it."

- [Bea] She worked at Charlotte's segregated Memorial Hospital during high school.

In 1956, she got her nursing degree at St. Augustine's college in Raleigh.

Coming home, she worked for Mercy Hospital, in a wing for black patients, and taught nursing arts at the all-black Good Samaritan Hospital, where others told her, "Try the county's health department."

But, there was a catch.

- At that time in, order to be hired by the Mecklenburg County Health Department, as in other agencies, someone who was your race had to retire or die.

- [Bea] It was no effort to increase the number of black people who were...somebody else had to die for you to get in?

- For me to get in.

And that's exactly what happened.

- So began Madie Smith-Moore's journey in public health, knowing that her work and her impact were being closely watched.

- I knew that whenever there needed to be something done, and no one was doing it, I would volunteer.

From that time on, there was a lot that was offered me.

The opportunity to go to UNCC to become a certified child health specialist.

- [Bea] She was Mecklenburg county's first certified child health specialist in the early Seventies, assisting doctors, and clinics, and schools.

But it didn't come easy, or without confrontation.

- There were attempted sabotage.

And, I even considered getting an attorney.

But, I always tried to keep my cool.

And, it was hard not to become hurt.

And oft times if I cried, it was after I got home from work, or in my car at lunchtime.

And then, I would put my powder puff on, and go right back to work.

- [Bea] Yet, for this quiet woman who would simply straighten her crown and go on being first was not her goal.

- It was just important to have a good job, to be able to do things for my children.

Send them to daycare and know that they were taken care of, that was what was important to me.

And to try to be a good wife.

- [Bea] She went on to become the supervisor of the North team, covering child health clinics.

Ironically, her next step up came after the death of the program supervisor.

- I was not paid, but I was really the program team for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Child Health Program.

And, I just happened to be black.

- [Bea] She remained in that role until retirement.

For those following in her footsteps, words to keep going and achieve.

- I encouraged them to go get their graduate degrees.

Because I knew that that was gonna be their best opportunity.

I did not have a graduate degree at that time, but it was going to be their best opportunity to ever get to where I was.

- [Bea] And, for that young girl who wanted to be an artist?

Well, she's now in the ninth decade of her life.

A proud mom and grandma, and more than a decade ago, the widow found love and marriage again with retired NBA Warriors champion player, Jackie Moore.

So, how do you summarize such a life?

In Ms. Madie's words, very simply.

- I am grateful.

I feel blessed.

And I thank the Lord.

- [Bea] There's an old spiritual that says, "May the works I've done speak for me."

For Mrs. Madie Smith-Moore, they speak loudly.

For Carolina Impact, I'm Bea Thompson.

- Thanks so much, Bea.

This month, the Health Department's village heartbeat program, called "Convening Our Tribe," awarded its first Trailblazer Award in the name of Mrs. Madie Smith-Moore.

Well, finally, tonight, there's a trend in Charlotte where people are combining caffeine with a little cat companionship.

Cat cafes are becoming popular across the country.

Customers find a friend, and the cats hopefully find a forever home.

Carolina Impact's Todd Wallace takes us for a furry visit.

(upbeat rock'n'roll plays) - [Todd] Here at Daily Mews, (cat meows) it should come as no surprise that the big story is cats.

- [Tamara Leicester] So, Daily Mews is a cat cafe.

And, if you're not familiar with the cat cafe, it's basically a foster environment for rescue cats.

- [Todd] Tamara Leicester and her husband Andy have owned Daily Mews Cat Cafe for about three years.

It was a purr-fect idea for the couple, born out of their mutual love for cats.

- We've always loved cats.

My husband and I adopted cats.

It was one of the first we ever did as a couple, before we were even married, we adopted two rescue cats.

- When we first heard about the concept, it was around 2016, and it was a fairly new business concept that had come over.

It originated in Taiwan, and spread to Korea, came to the U.S., there were only a handful back then, and we researched it, and there wasn't one in Charlotte at the time.

And, we thought it was something that we could do together, as a team, husband and wife team.

♪ But I got cat class, and I got cat style ♪ - And, we combine the idea of a coffee shop, a boutique, and cat fostering.

So, you can come here, get a cup of coffee, get a drink, get a glass of wine.

And then, we have a cat lounge where all the cats live.

And you can take your drink in there, and spend some time with the cats.

(Disney's "Everybody Wants to be a Cat" plays) - [Todd] And you may also enjoy purchasing several items from the cafe's boutique, from coffee mugs to other items.

Thirteen-year-old Yasmeen Alqoloq says The Daily Mews is... - Awesome.

In one word, awesome.

- [Todd] This isn't Yasmeen's first time visiting Daily News Cat Cafe, and the way she sounds, it won't be her last.

- Because I really love cats.

Cats are just cool, cause they can be chill, and they can also be, like, fun.

Like, crazy outgoing.

- And, they have the ideal environment to have all the fun they want, too.

Just like their much larger cousins ruled the jungle, these cats are also the kings and queens of their domain.

The lounge is really an open space where cats can sleep, play, or climb, or simply relax in one of the two garden windows here.

- And we have lots of high ledges for cats that wanna be up high, and kind of looking down and surveying the landscape.

We have cozy little nooks.

We have beds, and places for them to go into, like, their cat caves and cocoon.

And be cozy.

- [Todd] Keeping up with these free-roaming felines can be a big time job.

Kathleen Bryan is a senior cat care specialist here at Daily Mews.

But, she jokingly says that's not always the title she uses.

- Unofficially, I tell them what I do, is I'm paid to be a cat janitor.

And I scoop the poop, and I clean up in between every day to make sure it's sterile and healthy for the cats.

But, it's basically providing a healthy place for cats.

- It's very, very heartwarming.

It's very satisfying.

- [Todd] Cat care specialist, Jonathan Chiaverini, says taking care of them is a passion project.

Especially since anywhere from 12 to 14 cats stay at Daily Mews Cat Cafe at one time.

- I mean, it really just comes down to loving all of them.

Wanting them to have the best possible life, and find them a forever home, and make sure that they're happier and healthy the whole time that they're here.

- [Todd] The cafe has two primary rescue partners, Monroe Animal Hospital, which is right next door, and Cat Smart Coalition, a volunteer group that traps, neuters, and returns cats, but in the process, also finds cats who have been abandoned.

Tamara and Andy say, as of March, around 325 cats have been adopted, or more than 100 every year since they've been open.

But, the cats aren't the only ones who benefit.

- It's known spending time with animals has a relaxing effect.

It's therapeutic.

It just brings your blood pressure down.

And, especially cats, because, you know, cats are experts at relaxing.

- [Todd] Even with these relaxed surroundings, caring for so many cats can be a lot of work, but there's great satisfaction seeing them transform and then watching them go home.

- It's just so rewarding to see them come in with scraggly fur, just freshly vetted, and timid and shy, and watch them slowly grow better coats, and come out of their shells, start playing with the other cats, and then go home to a place where you know they're going to be cared for, and healthy and happy for the rest of their lives.

♪ I don't bother chasin' mice around ♪ - [Todd] The saying is that "Cats have nine lives."

Just in case that's not true, Daily Mews Cat Cafe is making sure they have at least one good one.

For Carolina Impact, I'm Todd Wallace reporting.

- Thanks so much, Todd.

The owners say all touch surfaces are disinfected between sessions, and they've installed air filters and sterilize the air.

Well, that's all we have time for this evening.

We always appreciate your time, and look forward to seeing you back here again next time, on Carolina Impact.

Good night, my friends.

(upbeat music plays) - [Narrator] A production of PBS Charlotte.