HILDEBRAN — Owners of a local investment company are doing their part to help breathe new life into a Burke County downtown by not only refurbishing the interior of a long-standing building but by making the exterior an attractive and welcoming piece of art.
Derek Cline and Roger Decato, owners of D and C Investments of the Foothills LLC, recently contracted with muralist and Caldwell County native James Smith to add some color and interest to their property located at 521 U.S. 70 East and the corner of South Center Street in Hildebran.
Cline, who grew up in Hildebran, said he and his business partner purchased the building about four years ago, but he knew from a young age that he wanted to own it.
“I’ve been eyeing that building since I was about 11 or 12 years old,” Cline said. “I always hoped I’d own that building one day and the opportunity just happened that the right timing came and I made the right phone call and, the next thing you know, we had it.
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“The whole thing about that building is that I care about that little town and I wanted to see it revamped and rehabbed somehow, knowing that change in a small town is not always that easy. It comes with challenges.”
Once they purchased the multi-unit building, Cline said they began to do some rehabbing on empty retail spaces and decided to paint the exterior. He spoke with long-time tenant and owner of FPS Pawn Shop, which occupies the corner unit, and she helped get them connected with Smith.
“So we came up with something, not anything controversial, but something that would give the town a new look with a name on it,” Cline said. “We didn’t want it to be just another brick building with 60 years of age plus on it. You can rehab and paint it, but for about the same amount of money, looking at rehab data, we can make something pretty and make something different and unique.”
While some elements of the mural, like the bird, were born from a collaboration, Cline credited most of the ideas for the mural to Smith’s sense of artistry.
“I’m not an artist, but he [Smith] said ‘We want people to sit there and talk about that bird,’” Cline said. “So when you come down from CVS coming into Hildebran you see that bird, and it’s pretty massive ... and then start seeing the color on that building.”
Smith said they gave him the creative control to add more elements that represent Hildebran.
“We worked on it together but this is kind of my vision with the old school building, and the [water] tower near the railroad tracks,” Smith said. “I felt like public art really wasn’t around here so I didn’t want to do anything that would be too shocking, if you will. So I think this just fits the narrative in that it’s something really positive and vibrant to look at when you drive in.”
Smith, who now lives in Los Angeles, has also done several murals in downtown Hickory and more all over the country, but he always enjoys coming home to help leave his stamp on the area where he grew up.
He hopes that the people of Hildebran will enjoy his work and it will give them a good feeling about the town.
“I think this building had been here a long time and no one had seen it painted really ... so I hope it just brings some positivity and uplifts the people who drive by and also helps them understand that people really care about this area and are continually trying to update it and beautify it.”
Now that one side of the building has been completed, Smith said people can look forward to more color to come as he’s been contracted to do more work on the opposite end of the building.
“We’re doing two separate murals on this building,” he said. “Most people really don’t know about the other side.”
While Cline has been wanting to get the mural done since purchasing the building, he said the timing has actually been perfect.
“If it would have been sooner, we probably wouldn’t have the amount of activity with phone calls and people stopping by and getting their pictures made by the building for the last four days,” Cline said last week.
With the recent grant they received for improvements to the Hildebran Auditorium, along with the new park and sidewalk project happening in town, Cline hopes the building upgrades will only further propel progress in the downtown area.
“We wanted to make this corner be a staple in the centerpiece of new growth and also get people excited about the new changes that are coming,” Cline said. “We wanted to do something everybody would be proud of ... and I think people see that it’s so tastefully done. We were wanting something that makes the town happy and it all brings some new life into a small town.”