The Cumberland County commissioners on Monday gave contractors the go-ahead to resume working on the $145 million Crown Event Center in downtown Fayetteville after a 30-day pause. But on Tuesday, after the commissioners continued their discussions, board Chair Kirk deViere said they still are evaluating the project and a 1,000-plus-page investigative report.
The new, 3,000-seat downtown performing arts center and meeting venue is supposed to replace the aged Crown Theatre and Crown Arena about three miles away at the Crown Complex on U.S. 301. The current Board of Commissioners met for more than two-and-half hours in secret — in what is known as “closed session” or “executive session” — with county attorney Rick Moorefield on Tuesday. For more than an hour of that time, they also met with three people from an architectural firm.
When the three people left the meeting, one carried a document that appeared to be the title page of a report or a PowerPoint slideshow. The page appeared to say “Crown Theatre Modernization Facility Comparison.”
The three people were not from architectural firm EwingCole (the company that is the subject of the 1,000-page report), deViere said during a news conference on Tuesday. But he would not name their company.
“They provided us analysis of the scope and budget of the project,” deViere said.
“Does that also include possibly rehabilitating the old Crown Theatre?” a reporter asked.
“They provided us an analysis of the current scope and budget of the project,” deViere replied.
“So what are your thoughts on rehabbing the old Crown Theatre?” the reporter asked.
“I’m speaking to you as the chairman of the board today, not my personal thoughts, and so again, the architect provided us an analysis of the scope and budget of the existing project,” deViere said. “We needed some additional information. We wanted to have that information and another architect provided us a look at the scope and the budget of this project that we’re doing, this $145 million project for this community. We thought that was important, and so that’s what we asked, and that’s what was received.”
The commissioners will meet at 1 p.m. Monday next week to discuss the performing arts center project further, deViere said. Next week’s meeting, which deViere said would be in a session that is closed to the public, will follow more than four hours of closed-door conversation about the project on Monday and Tuesday of this week.
He said due to a need to keep information from the county’s lawyers confidential, he was limited on Tuesday in what he could speak about publicly.
Since the Crown Event Center work got underway in October, the former courthouse parking lot has been cleared of asphalt and concrete in preparation for construction of the building. It’s now a field of mud inside a construction fence.
“We’re at about $35 million invested so far in this project,” deViere said. “And that’s various pieces of it, including architectural design, site work and in preliminary planning.”
What happens to that investment if the county commissioners decide not to proceed?
“I don’t want to guess an answer to that, or make any assumptions,” deViere said.
$1.9 million fee stopped construction
The commissioners on March 5 voted to pause construction for 30 days and hired consulting attorney J. Scott Flowers to investigate an “additional architect’s fee” of $1.9 million from the EwingCole firm, which designed the Event Center.
Flowers met with the commissioners in Monday’s closed-door session. His report is more than 1,000 pages long, deViere said.
Following the commissioners’ Monday session, the board voted to allow the Event Center contractors to start working again.
DeViere said he hopes to be able to provide the public with more information next week after Monday’s special meeting.
“As you can imagine, we’ve had a lot of information thrown at this board in about a 24-hour period,” he said. “You have a full report from an attorney that’s over 1,000 pages. You have a scope and budget analysis from an architectural firm that we need to digest.
“Quite frankly, and I thought it was prudent that we provided the board time to review that information, digest that — we all operate and consume information in different ways — and then be able to ask questions back to the staff in advance of the special meeting.
“My hope and my goal would be to be able to come out of that special meeting and get into additional detail,” deViere said. “But right now, I need to let the board digest the information before we discuss that information further.”
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
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