Welcome to ‘The Rock.’ Details on a Rock Hill headquarters for the Carolina Panthers.
They’re calling it “The Rock.” Something that will set a firm economic foundation in Rock Hill for years to come.
Carolina Panthers COO Mark Hart led a virtual community meeting Tuesday night for about 1,000 people — many of them in the design or construction business — from Winthrop University. He outlined dates and designs for what promises to be a massive economic development project set to open with the new team headquarters in 2023.
“We knew from the very beginning that it was more than just a football facility,” Hart said.
The project will include almost four million square feet of proposed development. An indoor practice facility will have 80-foot tall sliding glass doors to connect indoor and outdoor field areas. A small scaleable stadium will allow events from 5,000 to 20,000 fans, and not just for football.
“We want things to go on at The Rock 365 days a year,” Hart said, referencing the name his team uses internally for the headquarters site.
Athletic activities from road races, youth and adult sports, concerts and large events can happen there. There’s been discussion with the Rock Hill School District, Hart said, on high school football and other events at the site.
“High school football, and all types of high school sports,” he said. “Proms and gatherings and educational programs.”
The 500-seat indoor practice space largely will be used by the Panthers for football practice, but also could host events. Public, open spaces surrounding The Rock will allow access, and planners expect a variety of hotels, restaurants, corporate headquarters and other development to come at the roughly 240-acre site off I-77, between the Cherry Road and Dave Lyle Boulevard exits.
An advanced medical facility is part of the project, with world class sports medicine options planned.
“This space will be used both by the public and by the Panthers football players,” Hart said.
With all the extras, the site still will serve the football operation.
The move will be made, Hart said, to allow for space where world class training and recovery can lead to championships. Hart said he expects the four-story team headquarters to be the largest site of its kind in the NFL. It will have multiple entrances, locker and weight rooms, training rooms, corporate space, a dining hall and public tour and lobby areas.
The team broke ground in July.
Work is ongoing now on an up to $90 million interchange off I-77 that will lead to the site. Hart said traffic was congested on Dave Lyle before the team made plans to build, and thousands of daily visitors from all over the east coast will bring more traffic. Part of the development plans include a host of road improvements -- like more than 13,000 feet of new public streets.
“The (new) interchange is going to play a vital role,” Hart said. “I think traffic is going to be better than it is now.”
Project leader John West said the first of two temporary bridges to access the site is now in place. Another goes up late this month. They will be roughly where final access bridges for the site will go on Langston and Paragon roads. The first of about 9,200 tons of steel will go up in spring 2021, with a topping off ceremony expected eight months later.
“This is a very large structural job,” West said.
The headquarters building should be dried in by fall 2022 with substantial completion in summer 2023, which would allow the team to move there by camp of the 2023 season.
“I think everybody can do the math on the marching orders,” West said.
Blake Boyd and Josh Spencer with the construction management team said there will be more than 60 bid packages out for work. Utility, bridge, mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection bids are out now and could be awarded by the end of the year. Building structure, hardscape, landscape and road bids will follow.
“There’s plenty of opportunities,” Boyd told the largely construction industry crowd Tuesday night.
At peak construction there may be 700-800 workers on site at a time. In all, there may be 1,200-1,300 workers for the full project. Project leaders are using diversity consultants and contacts with local elected officials to bring opportunity for local workers in various fields.
“Lots of opportunities, especially for our local subcontractors,” Spencer said.
Hart said COVID-19 slowed the process some, from groundbreaking to governmental issues related to so large a development. He said if anyone has firm answers on how COVID will play out he’d love to talk, but said he doesn’t anticipate further construction delays.
“I think we’re past that at this point,” Hart said.
Hart said he’d like to have other virtual or in-person meetings as COVID-19 allows, to update any further changes that may come to the Panthers plans. One item hasn’t changed from discussion dating back almost two years now.
“The long range impacts are going to be, I would call them transformational,” Hart said.
This story was originally published October 6, 2020 at 9:56 PM with the headline "Welcome to ‘The Rock.’ Details on a Rock Hill headquarters for the Carolina Panthers.."
