Cumberland Commissioners Pick Contractors to Rehab Crown Arena, Theatre

Construction firms T.A. Loving of Goldsboro and Metcon of Pembroke will jointly renovate the Crown Arena event space and Crown Theatre performance auditorium, the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners decided on Monday.

The decision to hire the companies to manage and build the renovations—to serve as what’s known in the construction industry as the construction manager at risk—came 11 months after commissioners voted to cancel construction of the 3,000-seat Crown Event Center on Gillespie Street in front of the Cumberland County Courthouse in downtown Fayetteville. That $145 million project had been underway from October 2024 to March 2025.

Before commissioners canceled it in June 2025, the downtown Crown Event Center was intended to replace the 58-year-old Crown Theatre and Crown Arena. Now the county plans to modernize the old facilities.

T.A. Loving on social media described its partnership with Metcon as 50-50.

In January, commissioners hired SfL+a Architects to design the renovations and Turner & Townsend Heery to oversee the project. Turner & Townsend Heery evaluated the construction manager at risk applicants and said the T.A. Loving-Metcon team was the best qualified.

The two venues, linked by a lobby and concessions building in between them, are on U.S. 301, also known as Gillespie Street and Interstate 95 Business, in southeast Fayetteville.

The 2,400-seat Crown Theatre and 11,552-square-foot Crown Arena were dedicated on January 23, 1968, as the Cumberland County Memorial Auditorium and Exhibit Hall, according to newspaper accounts.

The county added a 60,000-square-foot exposition center to the campus in 1988, The Fayetteville Observer reported. This facility is now called the Crown Expo Center. The 10,000-seat Crown Coliseum opened in 1997, and the campus of entertainment, sports, and event venues later was named the Crown Complex.

County commissioners over the last decade pursued replacing the old arena and theater with an events and performance venue downtown, and construction got underway in October 2024. But then, following the November elections, three new commissioners replaced three who supported the downtown site. The newly constituted board stopped the Crown Event Center project in March 2025 to review it. Citing concerns about limited parking and escalating costs, the board canceled the downtown Event Center three months later.

Cost: $82.5 Million? $100 Million? Undecided?

There are mixed messages on what the Crown Arena and Event Center renovations could cost.

The price is yet to be determined, Commissioner Henry Tyson told CityView. It will be sussed out, he said, as commissioners work with the companies and the architect to settle on the details and extent of the renovations. Then, commissioners will choose a figure, called a guaranteed maximum price.

Tyson would like the guaranteed maximum price to be between $80 million to $100 million, he said, while the six other commissioners may have different figures in mind.

When the county advertised in late January that it was seeking a construction manager at risk, its paperwork said, “The project budget for the Crown Theatre and Arena was originally $82,500,000 with a construction budget of $65,000,000. The budget will be developed when the decision has been made to modernize and/or renovate the Crown Theatre and Area.”

T.A. Loving on May 5 posted on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn that the Crown renovations will cost $100 million.

“This $100M project will modernize the existing Crown Theatre and Arena, enhancing accessibility and bringing new life to the venue,” the company said in its social media posts. “Planned upgrades include a new lobby, rooftop space, and improved facilities, with SfL+a Architects serving as the architect and Turner & Townsend Heery providing oversight.”

Tyson was puzzled by T.A. Loving’s comments about the cost and the planned upgrades.

“I know the board has not approved or given guidance on that project cost,” he said. “I would think we would upgrade the lobby, but when they say a rooftop space … we haven’t discussed that.”

Commissioners Chair Kirk deViere also said no cost or details have been locked in. The commissioners will receive a draft scope and recommended budgets, he said, then discuss them and make a decision.

When the county in January advertised for a construction manager at risk for the renovations, its paperwork listed 18 additions or improvements that the county wants in the project. Some of these:

• A grand lobby entrance.
• A loading dock with multiple truck bays for operations and show loading.
• Compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act for patrons with disabilities. An ADA lawsuit filed in 2014 led the county to pursue the effort to replace, and now upgrade, the theater and arena.
• A variety of acoustical finishes and acoustical wall construction for room performance and sound isolation.

The paperwork said the county wants the renovations finished by April 1, 2027, but that date is not final. “We are currently evaluating the date and will provide an update once the scope of the project is defined,” County Manager Clarence Grier told CityView.

5-1 Vote to Hire Contractor

Commissioners voted 5-1 to pick T.A. Loving and Metcon to be the construction manager at risk and to build the project. Four other contractors competed for the project, according to a county document.

Commissioners deViere, Tyson, Marshall Faircloth, Veronica Jones, and Pavan Patel voted in favor. Commissioner Glenn Adams voted against. Commissioner Jeannette Council was absent.

Adams questioned why commissioners are hiring the contractor before the plans have been designed.

“I just don’t understand how we do a construction manager at risk when we haven’t even gotten any of what we’re trying to do out there,” Adams said. “It seems as though you’re putting the cart before the horse. And so with that, I think we’re moving out of sequence.”

Tyson, who is co-owner of Tyson Commercial Real Estate, has experience in building renovations. He told CityView that this process, with a construction manager at risk hired up front to manage and build the project, provides advantages and protections to the county, versus having the architect prepare a design and then the county putting the project out for bid to potential contractors.

With the contractor involved early in the process, he said, the project should move more quickly because the contractors can be consulted as the design is developed.

Ultimately, Tyson said, the contractor and the county will reach an agreement on the design and the total cost—the guaranteed maximum price.

For example, he said, the county could decide it wants a certain set of amenities with a guaranteed maximum price of $80 million.

“They’ve got the experience where they’re going to go, ‘Hey, we can accomplish this, this and this for the $80 million, but we can’t accomplish this maybe,’” he said. “So it’s really just about setting the expectations early, having somebody involved in the process early, so that when we get to the point that we’re ready” to start the construction.

If the contractor ends up spending more than the than the guaranteed maximum price, Tyson said, the contractor covers that cost, not the county.

Depending on the terms of the contract, Tyson said, if the actual cost is less than the guaranteed maximum price, “those savings can be passed, actually, back to the person or the entity that’s doing the project. Which is kind of nice.”

Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.

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