by Charly Mann

James Paul Goforth was the most financially successful person in Chapel Hill in the 1980's. He created a home real estate empire that started in Chapel Hill in the 1970's and eventually spread throughout the eastern part of North Carolina. Goforth built quality homes in every price range from condos in the low $70,000's to magnificent executive estates that often sold for more than $300,000. He was Chapel Hill's greatest developer, creating more than half a dozen meticulously designed and beautiful communities. He built real neighborhoods instead of housing tracts. Goforth dedicated almost every waking hour of his day to his business. J.P. was also an honorable man who worked hard to be fair to his customers, while maintaining the highest quality standards in construction. Today, twenty years after his death, his name is still often attached to a real estate listing to denote a house of quality.

This is a Goforth Properties of Chapel Hill advertisement from 1982. Note fixed rate mortgages are 14 7/8 percent and variable rate are 12 3/8.

J.P. Goforth came to Chapel Hill in 1968 to attend UNC in the same freshman class as me. He was from a poor farm family that lived near Statesville. As an undergraduate he began working as a real estate salesman to help pay his way through school. By the time he entered UNC law school in 1973 he had already started Security Building Company, and in 1976 formed Goforth Properties to develop subdivisions. A partial list of the local neighborhoods he created are Stoneridge, Village West condos, Ironwoods, Falconbridge, Northwood, The Oaks II, Sedgefield, and Coker Hills. By the early 1980's, J.P. also owned Triangle Mill Work, Chapel Hill Grading, Boyce Supply, and Chapel Hill Electric, all of which supported the building trade. His companies employed more than 180 people.

Entrance to J.P. Goforth communities Stoneridge and Sedgefield off Whitfield Road in Chapel Hill

Real estate development and construction are extremely cyclical businesses. The 1980's was volatile period for real estate in North Carolina. Despite this, J.P. seemed to have the Midas touch and weathered the 1980 to 1983 recession better than any of his peers. Starting in 1984 J.P. began to expand his empire throughout the entire eastern half of the state, broadening his model of well-designed upscale communities into areas that were demographically different from Chapel Hill. By 1990 the United States found itself in another economic recession, this time brought on about primarily by the sudden collapse of the real estate housing bubble that started in 1984. Housing prices crashed throughout the United States, especially in the high end market that Goforth specialized in. J.P. had large investments in land that had become unviable for development, and also had a huge inventory of houses that could not be sold.

J.P. Goforth built home by his company Security Builders in Chapel Hill

Goforth's businesses were under a mound of debt, and tax officials from Orange and Durham counties were hounding him to pay property taxes on the land and houses he could not sell. J.P. was a master businessman, but because of complications from kidney surgery he was no longer able to dedicate himself fully to his business. His cash flow was now well below what he needed to pay his suppliers and employees. Almost everyone who he owed money to, including the state, agreed that Goforth was an honorable and nice person, but they all wanted their money. Goforth worked diligently liquidating assets to slowly pay off his debts, but it wasn't fast enough for District Attorney Carl Fox .

Stoneridge tudor style house in Chapel Hill built by J.P. Goforth

Goforth saw his world closing in around him. He knew that being out of work for much of the last few years had hurt his business. He also admitted that he miscalculated the severity of the real estate downturn. Several of the largest developers and home builders in the state filed for bankruptcy because of the real estate bust, but this was  anathema to J.P.'s honor. The final blow came on Friday April 13, 1990 when DA Carl Fox made a media splash announcing a call for the State Bureau of Investigation to look into Goforth's business. Fox was concerned that Goforth had been bouncing checks and not paying his real estate sales people commissions they were owed. That evening, J.P. Goforth, 49 years old, took his own life.

Another house built by J.P. Goforth and Security Builders in the heavily wooded Stoneridge neighborhood in Chapel Hill 

For J.P. Goforth suicide was not painless or a coward's way out of a problem. Like most of us, he feared death far more than what seemed like the financial collapse of his company and the ruin of his reputation. However, because some recent investors of his businesses who were worried about his health had insisted he take out a $12.5 million life insurance policy, he saw that his death was the best way for him to honor his obligations. Because of the insurance policy, after all the suits and claims were settled, his estate was able to pay off his $7.4 million in debts and still have $5 million dollars left. James Paul Goforth is buried in Statesville at the cemetery of the Hebron Baptist Church.

J.P. Goforth's Goforth Property sold primarily houses his companies built, but the Lake Forest home at the bottom right is not one of his homes. 

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