Overview:
• The free parking lot in front of the County Courthouse was shut down and razed. Now it’s often hard to find free parking close by.
• The parking lot was going to be the site of the 3,000-seat, now-canceled Crown Event Center.
• Instead of rebuilding the 204-space parking lot, the county commissioners may pursue other development.
• Meanwhile, the contractors that razed the lot and prepared the site for construction of the Event Center want to be paid. Their bill is $10 million.
The Cumberland County commissioners are preparing to finish paying a $10 million bill for the preliminary construction of the canceled Crown Event Center in downtown Fayetteville.
At the same time, the commissioners are asking the public what should be put on the former parking lot where the Event Center was going to be built. The site has been a vacant field of mud since construction stopped in March.
The county is asking people to fill out an online survey to make suggestions. The survey can be accessed at surveymonkey.com/r/NZ5K58N. It will be open through Monday, September 15, county officials said on September 11.
The survey has nine questions. Some of the topics:
- Should the former parking lot be returned to a parking lot?
- If the site is developed, what types of development should go there? Business use, residential use or other economic development use? A park or open space? An entertainment venue? Something else?
- Should any development include parks and green space? Should it include a community center or library or other community-oriented use?
- How available is parking near the County Courthouse?
Free parking taken away
Courthouse employees and visitors have said it’s hard to find parking spaces on busy days since the lot closed last fall. Three other nearby parking lots the county owns and leases fill up quickly.
There are typically plenty of paid parking spaces available from the city and from private parking lot owners within one to three blocks of the courthouse.
The free parking lot in front of the courthouse had 204 spaces before it was shut down in October 2024 to make way for the 3,000-seat Crown Event Center — a performance venue with meeting and events space that the previous Board of Commissioners planned to build for $144.4 million.
Following the November elections, the newly elected commissioners began a review of the downtown Event Center project. They ultimately concluded that costs were already escalating, and that the project was a bad idea.
The board voted 5-2 on June 4 to cancel the Event Center. Now the commissioners are considering how to rehabilitate the county’s old entertainment venues, the Crown Arena and the Crown Theatre at the Crown Complex about 3 miles away on U.S. 301. The Event Center was intended to replace the Arena and the Theatre.
$29.2 million Event Center contract reduced to $10 million
When the Event Center project was still underway, Cumberland County hired T.A. Loving Co. and Metcon Inc. for $29.2 million to prepare the former parking lot site for the Event Center, according to a September 2 memo from County Manager Clarence Grier to the Board of Commissioners.
Now that the project is canceled, that cost has been reduced to just over $10 million, Grier said. The county previously paid $6.25 million, the memo says. The county commissioners are to discuss the remaining $3.8 million bill at their meeting at 1 p.m. Thursday.
Redevelop to generate revenue?
The county commissioners also plan to discuss options for the former parking lot on Thursday. Board of Commissioners Chair Kirk deViere discussed potential uses with WFNC radio’s Gilbert Baez on the Good Morning Fayetteville show on September 3.
“You could look at a public-private partnership that could go there,” deViere said, or a private developer could take over without partnering with the government.
“You could have residential and retail,” he said, while some have suggested making it a green space.
“I think you’ll hear the majority of the board talk about: ‘How can we have something that will help produce revenue, and create an impact in that area, but also fill some type of need?’” deViere told Baez.
“Obviously, a parking lot’s not going to do that,” Baez said.
“Correct,” deViere said.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
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