Shawn Kennedy, a local developer, has unveiled a $7.8 million plan to demolish and rebuild the Excelsior Club on Beatties Ford Road — a plan that calls for $3 million in taxpayer support.

Kennedy, founder of Kennedy Property & Development, unveiled the plan on Tuesday at a Charlotte City Council committee meeting. He will present it again today to a county commissioners’ committee.

At the heart of Kennedy’s plan is a 3700-square-foot, two-story building that would sit on the site where Jimmie McKee, a Charlotte businessman, opened the original Excelsior Club in 1944. That building, which once housed a popular gathering spot for Charlotte’s Black elites, has been closed since 2016 and is said by some to be structurally unsound.

In his presentation to the city, Kennedy said his rebuilt Ex

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