Cumberland County taxpayers will spend almost $2 million for Samet Corporation of Greensboro to design and do other pre-construction work for the parking deck that the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners plans to open downtown behind the County Courthouse.
The commissioners voted 5-1 on Monday to approve the nearly $2 million contract. Commissioner Marshall Faircloth, who has previously described the parking deck as “a monumental waste of money,” voted against it. Commissioner Jimmy Keefe was absent from the meeting.
Samet will also build the parking deck, which has a total estimated cost of $33 million (including the $2 million of pre-construction and design work). The parking deck is to be built behind the County Courthouse and Law Enforcement Center, on the same county government campus as the upcoming Crown Event Center, and next door to where the planned Government Services Center is to be built.
With six floors and 1,100 spaces, the parking structure is to replace parking spaces that will be lost when the Event Center is built on top of the courthouse’s front parking lot off Gillespie Street, and the Government Services Center and the parking deck itself are built on the courthouse’s rear parking lot, off South Cool Spring Street.
“We’re looking at substantial completion March 23, 2026, and final completion April 2, 2026,” Jermaine Walker, the county’s director of engineering and infrastructure, told the commissioners at their Sept. 12 meeting.
Commission Faircloth votes against parking deck
Faircloth told CityView on Wednesday that the county should explore other options for a new county government office building, ones that wouldn’t require a parking deck. For example, instead of putting a new office building on top of one of the County Courthouse parking lots, Faircloth said, two more floors could be added to the top of the courthouse. He said it was designed for that.
The courthouse has six levels — five stories plus its basement.
The Crown Event Center is the new performance venue that the commissioners plan to build to replace the Crown Theatre and Crown Arena, which are across town at the Crown Complex by the Crown Coliseum.
The Event Center is budgeted at nearly $144.5 million and to open April 24, 2027. On Monday, the commissioners voted unanimously to approve $3.4 million for the first phase of construction, which Walker said includes site work and demolition.
A groundbreaking ceremony for the Event Center was previously planned for Sept. 13. It will take place soon, County Communications Director Diane B. Rice told CityView on Wednesday, but she did not have a date for it yet.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at 910-261-4710 and pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.This story was made possible by donations from readers like you to the CityView News Fund, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization committed to an informed democracy in Fayetteville and Cumberland County.
Why couldn’t it be built on site were the old one is?. Could build it and knock old one down when new one is done and have plenty of parking
Makes total sense, John. It’s going to be so very expensive and totally crowded downtown.
Idiots are running the county and the city for that matter!!