Down on the town.

• Author: Catanoso, Justin
• Position: Charlie Madison Shelton and Reid Edwin Shelton, Winston-Salem, North Carolina developers

DOWN ON THE TOWN

The tale of two brothers who found fame and fortune in the big city -- then decided it wasn't big enough. By all appearances Charlie and Ed Shelton are so entrenched in Winston-Salem that it would take one of their earthmovers to uproot them.

In the 13 years the city has been their business home, the brothers have built an immensely successful commercial-development company and given freely of their time and money to local institutions and civic organizations. Close relationships with top CEOs have led to lucrative projects, seats on all the right boards and foundations, awards of community appreciation.

But the Winston-Salem the Sheltons made their mark on is not the Winston-Salem they operate in today. The city's once rock-solid economy, tied to the fortunes of Reynolds, Hanes, Wachovia and Piedmont Airlines, is fractured and struggling. Leadership is in flux. Morale is low. And the Sheltons -- proven leaders with a record of accomplishment -- are bailing out.

At an age when many wealthy businessmen put their careers on cruise control, Charlie and Ed Shelton are opting for an overhaul. In April, they'll move much of their business, and their homes, to Charlotte. Along the way, they'll transform one of the state's most-successful real-estate businesses into an untested financial-investment company.

Doing so, they insist, is a business decision, pure and simple. Real estate is dead, they say. Having accumulated a mountain of capital, they're shifting gears and moving to a more vibrant, investment-oriented city. But those who know the brothers -- their country roots, their unpretentiousness, their desire to wield clout -- think something else might be driving them away.

"I believe it's partly opportunity and partly petulance," a friend says. "Charlie has just one way of playing: his way."

A business associate recalled a conversation with Charlie Shelton a few years back. Shelton spelled out his plan, and the associate took issue with some points. Shelton retorted: "I'm not going to fuss with you. We're either going to do this my way, or I'm not going to be a part of it."

The brothers' current view of Winston-Salem sounds similar.

"Somewhere along the line, we started letting people have a lot of input in this community," Ed Shelton, 50, says. And often, he implies, some of these people just don't know what they are talking about. "I feel until it can find a way to allow people who have accomplished certain things and who give things ... to have a bigger say-so and supports those people, then this community is going to talk about its problems and never do anything about it."

But his brother, Charlie, 55, is quick to add, "That has nothing to do with our decision to do what we're doing."

As they explain their move, the Sheltons sit across from each other in the board room of their Winston-Salem headquarters. Charlie, his eyes dark and intense beneath a full head of silvery hair, perches on the edge of his chair, his hands folded. Ed leans back, crosses his leg at the ankle and puts his hands behind his dark, wavy hair.

That two brothers could work together so long, and by all accounts so successfully, is evident in the way they relate to each other. They defer to each other, amplify each other's thoughts, praise one another, laugh at the other's jokes. "We have a disagreement about once a day," Charlie says. "But we never go home at night without having that disagreement solved." Charles Madison Shelton is named for his two grandfathers: Charles Lee Badgett, a blacksmith and farmer, and James Madison Shelton, a carpenter. Reid...