Street Smart: Both brash and bookish, Marty Kotis builds on his family's real estate and restaurant tradition with an artistic twist.

• Author: Tosczak, Mark

In the 1990s, Greensboro developer William "Marty" Kotis III was building two stores for Lowes Foods. The Winston-Salem-based chain had positioned itself as a low-cost grocer, and its stores were typically fronted by inexpensive concrete masonry. Kotis wouldn't build that.

"I did two brick buildings with big glass windows, an arch and really made them look attractive. And they fought me on it," he says. "They didn't pay me any more in rent. They didn't want me to do it that way."

Kotis planned to own the property for a long time and didn't want to take a shortcut. That vision, plus a willingness to work hard and a knack for attention-grabbing marketing, have been the foundation for a lengthy development career. "He's someone who kind of marches to his own drum," says Greensboro City Councilwoman Nancy Hoffmann.

Since following his father, William "Bill" Kotis Jr., into the commercial real estate business in the early 1990s, he has taken a different approach. The elder Kotis, 80, owns mostly older properties that offer lower rent than newer structures. His son, 50, favors more modern structures.

Once a thriving restaurant chain, Dartj'/'s may get a rebirth as Kotis envisions new units in three cities, joining his Greensboro establishment.

"While it costs me more on the front end to do that, I don't have to go back in and renovate these buildings, and they're not throwaway buildings," Marty Kotis says. In addition to development, his 30-employee real estate company has brokered properties across the Carolinas and, at times, owned developments in Alabama, Ohio and Virginia.

Nearly 30 years after starting his career, Kotis' business has expanded to include operating restaurants and entertainment properties, a division that employs about 35. He's also made a specialty of adorning many of his Greensboro properties with murals.

"I'm a big fan of architecture and changing the landscape of the city," he says. In two areas, he's clustered businesses he owns with rent-paying tenants. Much of his focus is on the busy Battleground Avenue northwest of the city center where he owns 45 acres.

Several years ago, he started referring to the area as Midtown. In 2016, the city followed suit, putting up signs using the term. The area now includes Kotis' best-known properties: the RED Cinemas luxury theater and restaurants such as the Pig Pounder Brewery and Burger Warfare. He has plans to add apartments and 22,000 square feet of retail space next to the theater.

Global inspiration

Many of Kotis' Midtown properties are adorned with murals. He first noticed the eye-catching street art in Berlin, London and other European cities. "This is part of his brand now," says Laura...