The public may learn this week what the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners will do with the stalled $145 million Crown Event Center performing arts and meeting venue in downtown Fayetteville.
The commissioners received reports about the project on Monday morning from the county manager, commissioners’ Chair Kirk deViere said during his monthly “Chats with the Chairman” news conference. The board plans to meet at 4 p.m. Wednesday to discuss the findings. The meeting will be in room 564 of the Cumberland County Courthouse.
“My goal is to have as much dialogue as we can in front of the public, because this is a public matter of over $145 million and how we’re going to move forward,” deViere said.
During Monday morning’s meeting of the Board of Commissioners, County Manager Clarence Grier told the the commissioners he had placed at each of their seats in their meeting room three documents:
- An updated estimate of the construction cost, factoring in inflation and any added costs generated by President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imported items and materials.
- An evaluation of what it would take to modernize the existing Crown Arena and Crown Theatre — the old event venues several miles away at the Crown Complex on U.S. 301 that the downtown Event Center was intended to replace.
- An architect’s report on parking at the county’s downtown campus where the Event Center was intended to be built on the eastern end of downtown, next to the County Courthouse and the Law Enforcement Center. The Event Center project has taken away a county parking lot. Last year the board had plans to build a parking deck.
CityView has requested copies of these documents from the county and as of Monday afternoon was awaiting a response.
Downtown performance venue on the bubble?
The 3,000-seat downtown Crown Event Center has been in the works for years. Construction began in October with site preparation and the clearing away of a large parking lot on Gillespie Street, in front of the County Courthouse.
The Event Center is intended to replace Crown Theatre and Crown Arena, which opened in the late 1960s as the Cumberland County Memorial Auditorium and Exhibit Hall. These venues routinely have concerts, stand-up comedy shows, stage shows and other events and activities. The president has held campaign events in the Arena and attended a memorial service in the Theatre.
Previous county commissioner boards evaluated the costs and benefits of rehabilitating and modernizing the 57-year-old facilities. They decided it was a better investment to build a new performing arts center.
This board of commissioners, which added deViere and two other new members after the November election, temporarily suspended construction in March for an investigation into an architect’s fee. Although construction was allowed to resume in April, there has been little sign of activity on the site since.
In the meantime, the commissioners in April ordered a new evaluation of the construction costs of the new facility, and they hired an architect to examine what it would take to modernize the old Arena and Theatre. These activities have worried downtown Fayetteville business owners and advocates who want the performance arts center to be built downtown. They have lobbied the commissioners to “keep the crown downtown.”
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
Did you find this story useful or interesting? It was made possible by donations from readers like you to the News Foundation of Greater Fayetteville, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization committed to an informed democracy in Fayetteville and Cumberland County.
Please consider making a tax-deductible donation so CityView can bring you more news and information like this.
