Downtown Raleigh store with checkered past to be demolished. What’s next?
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- Empire Properties bought four downtown lots, including Taz’s, for $2.7 million.
- Owner Greg Hatem plans to demolish Taz’s and build a six‑story mixed‑use complex.
- Taz’s closure follows a 2023 fatal stabbing, and $1.3M settlement.
The former home of Taz’s Supermarket on South Wilmington Street has changed hands and is slated to be torn down.
The move closes the chapter on a troubled downtown Raleigh property nearly three years after a fatal stabbing inside the store led to the owner’s murder conviction and a $1.3 million wrongful death settlement.
This month, Empire Properties, run by Raleigh real-estate magnate Greg Hatem, purchased a cluster of mostly historic buildings at 104 E. Hargett St., and 201, 205 and 209 S. Wilmington St., including Taz’s, for $2.7 million, according to Wake County records.
Phillip and Ellen Horwitz were the sellers. Triangle Business Journal first reported the transaction.
The properties are in the Moore Square Historic District, though not all are considered contributing buildings.
Taz’s sits on the non-historic Wilmington Street sites. It closed on Jan. 16.
The firm said it’s now working with the city of Raleigh to raze Taz’s building and develop a six-story, mixed-use complex with retail, office and residential.
“For decades, the corner had been underutilized, with virtually no maintenance, care or financial investment to stave off deterioration,” Hatem told The N&O in an email on Monday.
He added: “There’s no specific date planned for its removal.”
The most historic space, 104 E. Hargett St., is home to Nicolson’s Barber and Style Shop. The corner space at 201 S. Wilmington St. is leased by Tattoo Supreme.
Hatem said he plans to restore both of those buildings.
The total investment: $9 million, which includes the purchase, restoration and new construction.
Empire started in 1995 when Hatem and partners bought and renovated a 1950s warehouse on West Street in downtown Raleigh.
The firm now owns more than 80 buildings across downtown Raleigh and Durham, including multiple Fayetteville Street landmarks and restaurant properties. Among them: The Raleigh Building, The Raleigh Times and The Mecca.
With his latest project, Hatem said the goal is to “restore the last building on the Wilmington Street side back to a contributing structure.”
End to a checkered past
Taz’s closure coincides with a wrongful death settlement to the family of Mark T. Garrity, a 27-year-old who was stabbed to death over a bottle of Gatorade in April 2023, The News and Observer previously reported.
Taiseer “Taz” Zarka, 62, the former owner, was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to over five years in prison in December 2024.
In April 2025, Garrity’s mother, Amy Garrity, filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Wake County Superior Court against Zarka, his company Jasmen Corp., and its landlord, Phillip Horwitz.
The lawsuit stated that Taz’s Supermarket was regularly and repeatedly the site of criminal activity, generating over 900 emergency calls in the five years prior to Garrity’s death.
On Jan. 16, the defendants agreed to pay $1.3 million to settle the lawsuit.
