Sonja Nichols Celebrates Southern Lion Grand Opening

Blacklion had stood as a staple of the south Charlotte community for nearly 30 years when it shuttered its doors in 2023. While many wondered if anything would take its place, self-described serial entrepreneur Sonja Nichols said she felt she was sent to fulfill the task.

“God put it in my spirit one day for me to go and find out if the Blacklion was for sale,” she said. 

She drove to the store — a marketplace that housed all types of local artists and vendors selling everything from furniture to art — and found that, though the store had already sold, many of the Blacklion vendors would be left without a home to sell their wares. 

“I’m like, ‘Okay, I don’t know why God sent me down here, but I think I’m supposed to help you all find a home,’” Nichols told Queen City Nerve. 

Blacklion’s previous owners, Bob and Nita Emory, retired and sold the property where the store was located, closing the store for good in February 2023. Their daughter retained the business name and relocated to Chicago to open a furniture store. 

Nichols’ new concept Southern Lion, a portmanteau of the business’s two inspirations Charlotte, Southern Christmas Show and Blacklion, opened in 2023 as a pop-up vendor market in the former Sears space in Pineville’s Carolina Place Mall, just a mile away from the original Blacklion location on Park Road. 

Since then, Nichols has turned the pop-up into a permanent marketplace, hosting more than 150 vendors in the 82,500-square-foot space. To celebrate, Southern Lion held a grand opening on July 13. 

In describing the store, Nichols proudly described how Southern Lion has become a one-stop shop for folks interested in browsing and patronizing local merchants — a one-stop shop that rotates its merchandise regularly, making it a new experience on every trip. 

“This is a shopaholic’s happy space because all they have to do is just walk around, and then all these merchants are bringing stuff from all over the world. They can go look at it in one location,” said Nichols. “Then they got the nerve to change the merchandise every other day, or at least once a week.” 

The road to retail

If Nichols’ name rings a bell for you, there could be any number of reasons why. She once owned a security business staffed by military veterans; she ran for state senate in 2020, losing to NC Sen. Jeff Jackson; she serves on the UNC System Board of Governors; and she helped launch two local chapters for Jack and Jill of America, an organization dedicated to nurturing future African-American leaders by strengthening children through leadership development, volunteer service, philanthropic giving and civic duty.

Nichols’ endeavors also include serving on boards for different museums and as president for multiple organizations. While she has loved these projects, she felt she needed to do something different.

“I’ve done a lot of community work, philanthropic work, but I just decided, I’m ready to do something that I would actually make money doing it versus me always raising money,” she explained.

Though she knew she wanted to take a different path, she wasn’t sure what that path might look like. All she knew was that, whatever it turned out to be, she would be in charge.

“I knew I was going to own a business because I’m clear that I’m an entrepreneur at heart,” she said. “I’m used to leading things and running things. I’m not good in an organization if I’m not running the show.”

When Nichols heard the call to get into retail, she knew she could handle the challenge. She grew up in an entrepreneurial family and felt comfortable entering that field. 

“I’m not too far out of my league in terms of running a store. It’s all about hospitality and how you make people feel when they come in,” Nichols said. 

During the transition, Nichols said she was able to retain 85% of Blacklion’s former vendors in her multi-vendor marketplace. She also added 56 more merchants, including 25 Black artists. 

With a focus on furniture and home decor, Southern Lion offers a wide range of products that includes art, plants, carpentry, concrete crafts and designs, even vendors who specialize in building out homes from scratch. 

Southern Lion also has a space for those who don’t want to shop but are tagging along — a “man cave” called The Lion’s Den with several BarcaLoungers for people to get comfortable while watching four big-screen TVs. If visitors get hungry, Southern Lion has vending machines offering a litany of items from Charlotte-based caterer Something Classic. 

“We’re trying to be all things to all people,” Nichols said.

Driven by faith

To be led by faith and not by sight, as 2 Corinthians 5:7 states, might not come easy to some, but Nichols insists that’s what drove her as she pursued her vision for Southern Lion.

“As with just any project, only God could have gotten me through this,” she said. 

Before she could get started on her new retail venture, Nichols had to secure a loan. She was turned down by four banks before she finally got approved. 

“Part of the headache is you try to sell this idea to people, and most people didn’t get it,” Nichols said. “The banks didn’t get it … but God.” 

Nichols received divine favor in the form of Kevin Dale, senior vice president at Truist Bank. Dale grew up going to Blacklion with his family and understood what Nichols was trying to do.

He understood that Nichols was not a startup in the traditional sense but was building on the legacy that the Emory family built. 

From there, Nichols’ dream started to come together, but not without a few more hurdles to clear. The Sears building that Southern Lion currently occupies had been vacant since 2018. 

Because the building was so old, Nichols said she ran into almost every infrastructural problem you could imagine – the escalators, air conditioning and elevators all had issues.

 She said many people thought she was crazy for trying to accomplish such a huge undertaking, but she had the right people surrounding her.

“I have the best husband in the world in Richard Nichols,” she said. “He believed in me. He believed in this dream.”

Having the vision and the support propelled her to keep going. She had something she believed in and she wouldn’t back down from it. 

“God told me to do this, and so I’m going to do it,” she said. “It has been scary, it has been hard, it has been tiring. It has also been the most fantastic adventure I could have gone on in my entire life. It has been the most fun I’ve had in my life, other than being with my husband. I’m having an absolute, complete ball doing this.”

Nichols didn’t previously have a relationship with the founding family of Blacklion; she said she was “nothing but a customer.” She felt it was the best place to hang out on a lazy day or take your family and friends for an outing. 

She said she wants to make the previous owner, Bob Emory, proud. He has a front-row seat to the project, after all, as he is one of the 150+ merchants with a stall at the market. 

“I wanted him to be proud because we took his legacy, and he helped us to take his legacy to the next level,” she said. 

What Nichols most enjoys now is seeing customers enter the store wide-eyed and overjoyed at their options, which inspires her to keep working to make the store better. She feels confident that she has carried the Emory’s legacy on to new levels. 

“Again, big fan of Blacklion, enjoyed being there, but I would have to tell you, and I say this without blinking, the Southern Lion is the bomb, and I’m clear,” she told Queen City Nerve. 

And she isn’t stopping there. Currently filling the bottom floor of a two-story space in the mall, Nichols wants to open an antiques shop on the upper floor, calling it Metro Lion as an homage to the Metrolina Expo.

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In addition to Metro Lion, she said she wants to expand the business further, though no concrete plans are in the works just yet. 

“We’re going to see what God does, but this will not be the only Southern Lion,” Nichols said.