How Gastonia Honey Hunters owner sees city’s resurgence playing out

The Charlotte region was introduced to Brandon Bellamy, CEO of Maryland-based commercial real estate firm The Velocity Cos., at a socially distanced event at the Gastonia Conference Center in July 2020. The ceremony revealed Bellamy as the owner of Gastonia's new professional baseball team — now named the Honey Hunters — that would play in a new ballpark at the heart of Gastonia's FUSE District. The ballpark was not yet complete, nor were any new developments in the FUSE District, but local leaders touted the plan as a catalyst for Gastonia's future growth.

Bellamy is now in his third season as owner of the Honey Hunters. The team is 21-9 so far this season in the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. At the FUSE District, the first projects have been completed and several more notable investments are on the way as the city is capitalizing on the growth coming to the area around CaroMont Health Park. Bellamy, who became professional baseball's only Black majority owner upon taking leadership of the Honey Hunters, is at the center of the FUSE District's success.

Cramerton-based Lenox Development Group is leading two adaptive-reuse projects at the former Coca-Cola bottling plant site at FUSE. Lansing Melbourne Group has completed its revitalization of the old Trenton Mill building into loft apartments and is plotting another investment at FUSE. Charlotte-based Highline Partners is planning to begin next year on its mixed-use project at the former Central Branch YMCA site.

There are more parcels available at FUSE as well, including several surrounding the ballpark that Bellamy is eyeing for future development.

Bellamy has also emerged as a leader in the Charlotte region's business community. Last month, he spoke at an event for the Charlotte chapter of Bunker Labs, a national nonprofit aiming to aid veteran entrepreneurs. At that event, Bellamy spoke with the Charlotte Business Journal about his run as owner of the Honey Hunters, the growth of Gastonia, the FUSE District and more. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The highs are higher than I thought they would be. And the lows are lower than I thought they would be. But I wouldn't change a thing. That community deserves it. They've been so supportive. It's really all about continuing to do what we're doing and being patient. We're looking for incremental improvement. We can't do everything overnight. I've got that. But as long as we get a little bit better and a little bit better, if we keep doing that we're going to look around and go, "Holy smokes."

And I will say that Gastonia has so much development going on right now in that FUSE District, and I would like to think that I've played a small part in the exponential growth that they are having.

On the baseball side, the first season we were in last place. In the second season, we were statistically the best team in the league. We had more stolen bases as a club than the entire league combined. I say this all the time to our team, to baseball operations, the front office, to all of my companies actually. You can't control outcome but you can control effort. And they're putting it out there, and they're getting results.

And you've got to say that our front office is primarily women. Our COO is a woman. You're talking about a team that was in last place, the COO was a woman in the second year, and now they're in first place. And her front office staff is predominantly women. Come on man, give women a shot. Stop playing around.

It's all helping. Trenton Mill, thank goodness for LMG. They are doing great work. They are going to do another project. There is a development coming online at the YMCA site across the street with Highline. Loray Mill was purchased, now they're going to do their second phase. Center City Crossings is another 90 units downtown.

Since we bought the team, you're talking about five major developments. That is going to bring more people, more energy, more pedestrian traffic. That means more restaurants, more office, more housing, more tax revenue to put into our schools so our schools can be better. If you're not rocking with Gastonia, I don't know where you're at.

One hundred percent. This is exactly what we thought. I didn't know it would be this exponential. I didn't know it would be this fast. It creates opportunities for us to do other deals as well. Not just in Gastonia, but in Gaston County, the Charlotte metro region, North and South Carolina. We've got a nice foothold here. I think we've done our part to be a great neighbor. We've shown that we love this community. We put our hard-earned blood, sweat and tears and our money in it.

We're working aggressively on the development of Parcel C, which is out past left field. We will see a lot more images about that at the end of the season or beginning of the fall.

The way that I operate our businesses and the way I push forward is not just so I can make money, it's also so people can see and say, "Oh yeah, I can do that." Because it uplifts their families and their communities where they are. I'm never going to meet their family or their community, but if I did something that might have inspired them to do something and they go and it helps a bunch of people, then that is what I was looking to do in the first place.

Join the CBJ at the Westin Charlotte for an exciting evening celebrating the 2023 Most Admired CEOs!

The Charlotte Business Journal's 2023 Power 100 program will identify the region's leading players in building a more diverse and inclusive Charlotte. Start your nomination today!