Former PTL tower in Fort Mill is finally coming down. ‘What everybody wants’

The decades-old debate and subsequent litigation over whether Fort Mill’s most prolific unfinished tower should be demolished or senior living should be allowed on the site appears to be settled. It’ll be both.

MorningStar Fellowship Church will tear down the more than 240-foot tower in Regent Park that was once meant for Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s scandal-ridden Praise the Lord ministry. MorningStar then intends to build a 340-unit senior living complex beside where the tower stands, the church confirmed to The Herald on Thursday.

“This is what everybody wants,” said MorningStar Ministries Vice President and General Manager Mark Yow. “We’re all in agreement.”

MorningStar is working with York County on both parts, but a timeline hasn’t been set for when the tower will come down. Details are likely to come by the fall, Yow said.

York County Councilwoman Debi Cloninger, who has been part of the negotiations, said one detail is firm. “MorningStar is going to pay to tear the tower down,” she said. “The taxpayers are not.”

A cost hasn’t been determined for bringing the tower down or building the new senior housing, Yow said.

The tower was built as part of the 2,200-acre Heritage USA Christian theme park and resort when construction began in 1986. It was abandoned when Heritage USA filed for bankruptcy in 1987 following a sex scandal that led Jim Bakker to resign from his own ministry. He was convicted on 24 fraud and conspiracy charges and sent to jail in 1989, the same year the park closed.

The tower never received a certificate of occupancy. At 21 stories, it’s by far the tallest building in York County. Details from how the tower will come down to clean-up afterward will be new for the county to consider.

“But think about Vegas,” Cloninger said. “They implode hotels. There are certain people that can do that.”

The new senior living site will be four or five stories, Yow said. “We’re just trying to fit in.”

MorningStar senior living plans for old PTL site

MorningStar still needs land use and construction approvals from York County to build its senior living space once the tower falls.

The church, unaffiliated with the Heritage USA era, plans to build along the length of Zenith Avenue across from new residences.

The new construction will have an internal parking deck with residential units wrapping around it, Yow said. The church believes the latest plan fits God’s will, he said. It also can help restore community relationships after many years of back-and-forth between the church and York County residents who wanted the tower removed.

“We felt that it was better to go with a new build,” Yow said.

The Fort Mill PTL tower controversy

Public opinion on the Fort Mill tower long predates MorningStar’s involvement. There was a billboard in 2015 demanding the tower come down, and numerous debates in public hearings focused on the tower.

In 1984, seven years after the Bakkers bought Fort Mill property to move their Christian broadcasting program from Charlotte, Heritage Grand Hotel opened. Plans were unveiled then for Heritage Towers, the still unfinished tower.

Heritage USA and Heritage Grand Hotel closed in 1989, and the following year evangelist Morris Cerullo and a group of Malaysian businessmen bought the property for $42.5 million. The resort reopened in 1992 as New Heritage USA, changed in 1994 to Radisson Grand Resort. The hotel closed in 1997, but has since been repurposed as a conference center.

Gaylor Entertainment Co., owner of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, announced $200 million plans to buy the property and put a convention site on it in 1998, but then backed out of that deal.

Longtime area developer Earl Coulston bought 1,000 acres of the Regent Park property in 2004 that includes the unfinished tower. MorningStar Ministries then bought 52 acres from Coulston for $1.6 million.

York County and MorningStar face legal disputes

In November 2007, the county rezoned 52 acres at the site and approved a development agreement with MorningStar. That agreement took effect in early 2008. The church planned to expand the tower on three sides to create senior housing.

But there was pushback, including by at least one York County Council member at the time, over the public services needed for a 21-story tower that wouldn’t pay taxes, given its church tax-exempt status.

Unable to get building permits for the tower, MorningStar sued York County in civil court in 2013. The county filed counterclaims in state court. In 2022, MorningStar filed a federal suit alleging religious discrimination for not letting the church finish the tower.

In 2024, York County and MorningStar officials signed a settlement agreement to resolve more than a decade of legal wrangling related to the tower.

Neither party admitted to wrongdoing or took liability in the agreement, but signed it “solely to avoid further expense, inconvenience and disruption of their business and personal lives,” according to court documents.

Timeline set for Fort Mill tower to fall

That settlement agreement set a timeline for what would happen with the tower.

MorningStar would have 18 months to submit a building permit or tear the tower down by this coming January. If MorningStar applied but didn’t get a permit, the tower would have to come down by next July. The agreement allowed MorningStar up to three years to complete the tower if the church got a building permit.

All the scenarios in the settlement agreement that involve the tower coming down specify it would happen at MorningStar’s expense. They allowed the county, if needed, to put out bids and demolish the tower before sending the bill to MorningStar.

Cloninger and Yow agree that ongoing negotiations are the best route to find a solution that works for both parties.

Regent Park neighbors who see the unfinished tower as a blighted eyesore in the community won’t have to look at it much longer. And, MorningStar will be able to provide much needed senior housing that’s been part of its plan for as long as the church owned its Fort Mill property.

“I’ll tell you that God led us there,” Yow said of the current plans. “We feel that we’re in God’s will.”

This story was originally published June 19, 2026 at 5:14 AM with the headline "Former PTL tower in Fort Mill is finally coming down. ‘What everybody wants’."