Lake Norman estate owners rile neighbors with proposed waterfront event venue

Yahoo

03-05-2025

Lake Norman neighbors are protesting a Cornelius family's plan to add an event facility to their two-mansion waterfront property.
Sunset Cove would host weddings and small corporate gatherings and feature a 6,000-square-foot permanent event center between the mansions, Cornelius senior planner Aaron Turk told the Cornelius Board of Commissioners on April 21.
'We'll cater to a higher-end clientele,' Mike Griffin, whose family members live in the mansions, told the board, according to a recording of the meeting posted by the town on social media. 'No 'Animal House'-type events.'
'Plus, we're the closest neighbors,' brother Larry Griffin Jr. said, meaning his family wouldn't tolerate a rowdy venue.
The homes overlook the lake on 8.6 acres at 18311 and 18323 Nantz Road.
Larry Griffin Jr. and his wife, Virginia, own one of the homes. His father, Larry Griffin Sr., and mother, Sheree, own the other mansion, Mecklenburg County public tax records show.
On April 21, Cornelius commissioners heard a zoning change request for the properties from Mike Griffin and Larry Griffin Jr. The request includes 103 parking spaces.
The Town Board also heard from five neighbors concerned about the proposal in their residential community, but commissioners didn't vote on the zoning request.
First, the Cornelius Planning Board must make a recommendation at a meeting to be announced. The Board of Commissioners, which has final say, will then vote on the request at another of its regular meetings, also still to be scheduled.
The proposed events venue 'really is just to preserve this land for generations of our families,' Mike Griffin said. 'It's our homestead preservation plan.'
Nantz Road dead-ends at the lake. The road is off West Catawba Avenue, which leads from Interstate 77 Cornelius-Lake Norman exit 28.
The Griffin properties border the forested southern end of county-owned Ramsey Creek Park and lie across a cove from the peninsula that includes the park's public swimming beach.
A mansion owned and torn down by NBA great Michael Jordan, presumably to build a bigger home, also is across the cove from the Griffin mansions.
'We've had people spin around on our lawn,' Nantz Road resident Ken Miller said, referring to beach goers. 'The police have done a helluva job keeping things straight, but they can't keep up with it.'
Neighbors worry the events venue would mean more congestion and wrecks and lower property values.
Mike Griffin said the idea sprung from a family wedding on the properties.
As the family becomes empty nesters and downsizes, 'we realized it's a wonderful place to share on a limited use with others that could have the same opportunity,' Mike Griffin said.
Sunset Cove would host about 12 events a year and smaller corporate events, according to the family's zoning change request.
'It's a really unique property in that the sound buffering from the 43-acre park that's heavily forested is just a perfect site for this,' Mike Griffin told the commissioners.
The venue would be similar to the one at Pine Island Country Club in Charlotte, which the Griffins own and manage, Mike Griffin said. The families would still live on the properties, he said.
The family agreed with Cornelius planners to allow no more than 250 people and 125 cars at an event, according to Cornelius Planning Board documents.
Built in 2008, Larry and Virginia Griffin's two-story, 9,362-square-foot home at 18311 Nantz Road has a 2025 assessed value of $4.1 million, according to county tax records.
The home has six bedrooms, six bathrooms, stucco and hardcoat exterior walls, a $40,000 terrace, a $3,700 covered pier, $8,800 boat slip, $31,400 pool and $8,000 spa-tub, its tax listing shows.
Built in 2001, Larry Sr. and Sheree Griffin's home at 18323 Nantz Road is valued at $4.3 million.
The two-story, 9,619-square-foot home has five bedrooms, five bathrooms, a $19,100 pool, $15,800 deck and $10,200 spa-tub, tax records show. The home also has stucco-hardcoat exterior walls.
The family's Charlotte-based Griffin Brothers Cos. started in 1961 when Larry Griffin Sr. opened the first Griffin Brothers Tire Sales store, according to the company website.
The company later expanded into commercial and residential real estate development. Griffin Bros. developed such properties as the Harris-Teeter-anchored Waterside Crossing mixed-use community at N.C. 16 and N.C. 73 in eastern Lincoln County near Lake Norman and Mosaic Village in Charlotte, which includes housing for students at Johnson C. Smith University.
Griffin Bros. also acquired and developed landfills in the Carolinas.