ROCK HILL, S.C. — The future of the now-defunct and abandoned Carolina Panthers team practice facility in Rock Hill, South Carolina, will likely be decided before the end of 2023, according to one of the men helping its sale.
The city of Rock Hill and its real estate partners are moving forward with plans to sell the site and bring in a developer with a new vision.
In the last 12 months, Rock Hill, York County and the company representing Panthers owner David Tepper fell into disagreement over the project. After initially being paused in 2022, the project was canceled and abandoned, leading to the current half-built project alongside Interstate 77.
Now, Rock Hill and commercial real estate company Colliers International are shopping the 245 acres to new developers, hoping to get new bids and offers for the property before the end of 2023, according to Colliers’ Executive Managing Director Bryan Johnson.
“I think they’re really looking at a possible employment center, something that could really be a gateway into the city of Rock Hill. That would serve the community and really put a lot of jobs in that area,” Johnson said. “Maybe other types of uses that have high employment needs, that could really utilize the site to its best potential.”
Johnson said the half-built building, originally meant to host the Panthers’ practice facility and other team offices, is likely unsuitable for future developers. He said it is his opinion it was a single-use property and would likely need to be demolished, due to new developer needs and the unfinished project’s exposure to the elements the last several months.
Earlier this month, crews were out at the site, which is now owned by the city of Rock Hill, working on what appeared to be the demolition of the structure.
Welcome signs with the Panthers logo and renderings of the future facility, which once dotted the entrances to the property, have been replaced with signs proclaiming the area as Rock Hill’s property.
Johnson says Colliers International was originally brought in by Tepper’s company, GTRE, to run the listing. GTRE, Rock Hill and York County eventually went to court over the project and accusations concerning its funding, alleged broken promises and eventual bankruptcy.
“After the bankruptcy settlement, the city wanted to continue working with Colliers and my team,” Johnson added.
Johnson says the city is open to dividing the site into smaller parcels, but said it would likely be one developer to buy the property and work with the city to complete its vision.
“We hope that sometime before this year end, we’ll do a call to offers, and we’ll get all the offers in and present them to the city,” Johnson said. “We hope by year end we’ll have something executed that the city wants.”
A few miles down the road from the 245-acre lot, a local business employee says she hopes whatever the city decides to do with the land, it comes with more jobs.
“There’s a lot more houses coming, too. So, I could see that there is going to be people needing jobs around here. And I feel like, since that was coming, that was a reason for people moving here. So, they need something to back up to that,” Emely Rubio said.
Rubio, who grew up in Rock Hill, works at nearby Momo Donuts. Momo Donuts is just one of the new businesses that popped up in the last year and a half, a few miles from what was expected to be a major tourism and employee draw to Rock Hill.
“When we heard about that, me and my sister were like, that means a lot more, plus my dad was excited for that,” Rubio recalled about the original announcement of the Panthers coming to town.
Now, with the original plans canceled for the nearby site, Rubio said the whole thing is a bit of a bummer.
“I was actually looking forward to it, me and my family are actually Panther fans. So, when we heard about it we were like, something close by instead of driving all the way to Charlotte,” Rubio said. “Since now it’s not coming, it’s kind of sad and disappointing.”