New South End apartment ‘The Campbell’ named for former site owner with controversial past

People across Charlotte remember Jesse Campbell in different ways. To some, he was a helpful, kind man, always willing to nurse a wilting orchid back to life. To others, he is viewed with contempt due to allegations unknown before his murder .

George Koehler remembers his former boss as a complicated man: generous, goodhearted, yet angry.

Koehler, 61, worked as the general manager for Campbell’s Greenhouses and Nursery for around 30 years – from the early 1990s when Campbell hired him to help build out the place to the day it closed in 2022.

Koehler remembers feeling devastated when he found out Campbell was murdered by one of his employees in his home in 2016. He also remembers the murder trial when then-21-year-old Kevin Mauricio Arita DeJesus, convicted of killing his former boss, alleged Campbell withheld pay for weeks and pressured him and others to perform sexual acts.

“There were true aspects of (Campbell’s) life that were probably not Mr. Rogers kind of things,” Koehler said. “Was there ever sex between an employee and (Campbell?) Yes, that’s what the truth is.”

When Campbell’s greenhouse shut down it was tough, Koehler said. A sign of the rapidly developing neighborhood of South End.

Now, in the same spot where the greenhouse operated for 38 years, developers are building a high-rise apartment for people willing to pay $2,500 for a one-bedroom apartment.

Its name? “The Campbell.”

The Campbell apartment complex

Currently under construction, the new apartment complex on the edge of Dilworth and South End wants to appeal to “South End’s most discerning renters,” according to local real estate investment firm Abacus Capital.

The 12-story complex will have one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments averaging around 1,200 square-feet per unit, according to a news release. The rent starts around $2,500 per month, said Mason Ellerbe, a partner at Abacus Capital.

“It’s designed for kind of a more mature, more affluent renter than the majority of the existing stock in South End,” Ellerbe said. “South End obviously has a lot to offer beyond what it traditionally was known for… you’ve now got really great shopping and higher-end restaurants and things like that that people who are a little bit older value as well. It’s not just the kind of bar and brewery scene anymore.”

Charlotte-based Abacus Capital, along with JE Dunn Capital Partners based in Kansas City, Mo. and L&B Realty Advisors based in Dallas, Texas, acquired the 0.75-acre property in December 2022 for $5 million, according to a news release. The complex is expected to open later this year.

In order to honor the former greenhouse and the history of the new complex’s location, the group decided to name the property “The Campbell,” Ellerbe said.

“Since Campbell’s was such a well-known and beloved part of the fabric of this community, the development team wanted to ensure that the site’s legacy would live on through its next iteration as The Campbell,” Wes McAdams, managing partner of Abacus Capital said in the news release.

When asked if the owner’s past was considered when deciding on the name, Ellerbe declined to comment.

Campbell’s trial

DeJesus was sentenced to 12 years in prison for shooting and killing Campbell at his Lake Wylie home in 2016. DeJesus pleaded guilty in the case, admitting he shot Campbell. But his lawyers said there was more to the story, alleging Campbell led a “secret double life.”

Defense attorneys said Campbell had a history of taking advantage of Hispanic workers by withholding pay and coercing them into sex, according to previous reporting by The Charlotte Observer.

DeJesus allegedly traveled to Campbell’s home to demand he be paid when a fight broke out between the two of them. After a struggle over Campbell’s gun, DeJesus shot Campbell and fled, the Observer reported. A greenhouse employee who became worried when Campbell didn’t show up to work discovered him dead in his home.

Details revealed during the trial were shocking, especially to greenhouse customers who viewed Campbell and his nursery as beloved Charlotte entities, Koehler said.

Though Campbell’s family was present at the trial they did not speak on his behalf, according to prior reporting by the Observer. The Observer was unable to reach a family member as part of reporting for this story.

“The only person that didn’t say anything in defense was (Campbell.) Nobody else spoke for him either. Nobody stood up for him,” Koehler said. “People were blindsided by what was said.”

Changing South End

Koehler said it was tough to watch crews tear down Campbell’s Greenhouses and Nursery. During the nearly three decades he worked at Campbell’s, Koehler said he saw dramatic changes in the neighborhood. The area has become much safer, he said, but numerous locally-owned business have closed down.

And the Campbell isn’t the first apartment complex to replace a well-known Charlotte business.

Price’s Chicken Coop sat in South End for nearly 60 years before its owners sold it to developers in 2022 to build apartments. Zack’s Hamburgers closed after 46 years in business in 2021 and is being redeveloped into another complex.

“What’s going on with the old Campbell’s greenhouse is kind of a microcosm of what’s going on in the city in general, and what’s going on in many of the nation’s most desirable cities, which is a frenzy of real estate development,” said Tom Hanchett, a community historian. “You can see it in every part of Charlotte. It is most obvious in the areas close to the Center City.”

Hanchett said naming new developments after older things in the community is a common marketing play by developers, pointing to Atherton Mill, a mall named for a former textile mill right across the street from The Campbell as an example. New developers sweeping in and making large investments makes independent, mom-and-pop establishments harder to find, he said.

“I feel sad about Charlotte’s changes. It’s not something that anyone planned, this frenzy of development, or expected. It’s taken us all by surprise,” Hanchett said.

Koehler, who now works part time at Serenity Garden in the South Park area, has an idea about how to marry a piece of Charlotte’s history with the city’s new landscape.

“I’d like to have a Campbell’s nursery in the lower portion of The Campbell,” he said. “What better than a little greenhouse niche there?”