Marketing begins for 245-acre Rock Hill site that flopped as a Panthers HQ development
In the market for 245 acres with a 600,000-square-foot structure built for an NFL team? Rock Hill has you covered.
What is now the site of the failed planned Panthers headquarters facility in the South Carolina city could one day be full of offices, hotels, townhomes and apartments.
A potential buyer of the property could reuse the massive Panthers headquarters building — or knock it down, according to Colliers, the firm marketing the property. Colliers has branded the site “Rock Hill Overlook.”
Construction on the massive site came to a halt when David Tepper-owned GT Real Estate Holdings filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.
Rock Hill is suing GT Real Estate in federal bankruptcy court for its original $20 million investment, plus damages, over the failed project. Tepper is the Panthers owner.
The Panthers organization was planning to invest over $1 billion to develop and build the facility, the Observer previously reported.
Tepper’s GT Real Estate owns the property being marketed.
New uses for the old site
The marketing effort started about 3 1/2 weeks ago, according to Colliers.
A conceptual plan shows two development ideas.
One calls for reusing the headquarters facility, which stands at 622,654 square feet. It also includes plans for around 10 acres for apartments, another 10 acres for townhomes and nearly 20 acres for office space, among other uses.
“It really depends on what the buyer wants to do,” said Lawrence Shaw, managing director with Colliers in an interview Monday with The Charlotte Observer. “This is not anything other than illustrations.” Shaw said the firm is working to sell the property to an individual buyer.
Shaw said there’s been a “litany” of people who have shown interest in the site, but declined to elaborate.
Colliers is letting the market dictate the timeline of the sale, he said. Plans shared in the online brochure were to give a sense to prospective buyers the type of density the site can accommodate.
The Charlotte Business Journal first reported the marketing efforts by Colliers.
Disputes over property
There are ongoing court battles over the property in federal bankruptcy court in Delaware.
The Panthers were planning to move their headquarters and practice facility to the 245-acre property off Interstate 77 near Mount Gallant Road in Rock Hill by 2023. The facility was supposed to be a big economic boost for both the city and South Carolina. Construction began on the team facility in 2020.
GT Real Estate was the company created by Panthers owner David Tepper to build the facility. Construction had been underway on the site until it halted in March. GT Real Estate declared bankruptcy in June.
York County and Rock Hill have each filed lawsuits against GT, alleging conspiracy and fraud.
In its lawsuit, Rock Hill claimed GT owns real property rights to the property. Yet the city said in its lawsuit filed in September against GT the city, after spending $20 million on the project, owns the infrastructure.
“The city is entitled to an order of this court declaring the city is the owner of all city funded Infrastructure,” the lawsuit claims.
GT denies the claims and called Rock Hill’s allegations of fraud and dishonesty, “preposterous,” in court documents.
Rock Hill Mayor John Gettys previously has told McClatchy that the city controls both the infrastructure and the zoning of the site.
Rock Hill Herald reporter Andrew Dys contributed to this report
This story was originally published October 3, 2022 at 2:42 PM.
