As Lenovo Center authority settles on first renovations, process takes unexpected twist
In October 2022, preparing for the $300 million renovation of the Lenovo Center, the authority that oversees the arena heard elaborate presentations from three large consulting firms interested in serving as its representative during the construction process.
In the end, the Centennial Authority hired CAA ICON, which had earlier helped shepherd through the historic agreements to renovate the arena and allow Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon to develop the land outside it. Authority members cited their pre-exisiting relationship with CAA ICON and their confidence in the people pledged to their product, including an on-site manager with experience overseeing similar projects.
Tuesday, with construction scheduled to begin as soon as April, the authority’s building and construction committee decided to create a new staff position to fill that role after CAA ICON’s contract with the authority expired Dec. 31 and was not renewed.
“We need to go ahead and be looking for this person right now,” authority executive director Jeff Merritt said.
The time pressure was underlined when the committee on Tuesday approved the scope of the first phase of renovations. That includes concession and amenity upgrades to the 300 level with a bar overlooking the arena bowl; new entertainment and premium spaces under the stands; and mechanical upgrades to enable further construction and free up space for future expansion.
There was one major omission from the plans presented in September and again in November: A much-needed expansion of the loading-dock area to accommodate increasingly large concerts was pushed into future phases, both to redirect initial spending to more fan-facing projects and keep the building as free as possible for both booking and construction this summer.
“If truth be told, could we be, would we like to be more aggressive in our approach and what we can get done?” building committee chairman Doyle Parrish asked. “The answer to that is, I’m impatient. I want to be aggressive and want to get more done now. The fact of the matter is we have a building in operation and we have to start building somewhere less intrusive to the operation of the building, and quite simply we have to get started.”
For the moment, Merritt is serving as the authority’s point of contact with contractors after the authority and CAA ICON were unable to agree on an extension to their previous agreement. The on-site representative CAA ICON promised the authority declined to move to the Triangle and CAA ICON was unable to come up with a comparable replacement, while enough of the planning had been completed that the authority thought it might now be more efficient to bring that role in-house.
With construction on the first phase scheduled to begin at the conclusion of the Hurricanes’ season, the authority has potentially less than four months to hire and onboard someone essential not only to the success of the project but stretching its limited budget as far as possible.
“We have a finite amount of money,” authority chairman Philip Isley said. “Part of this is financial. Having someone in house is certainly more beneficial to the authority with the money that we have. The other part is having somebody who’s here every day. CAA got us where we needed to be. There’s no love lost. This is a natural progression, what the next steps are.”
Since the redevelopment was approved in August 2023, the authority has now changed architects (from HOK and RATIO to Gensler and LS3P) and owner’s representatives. CAA ICON did work with Gensler and the contractor joint-venture led by T.A. Loving to complete first-phase pricing before the contract expired, allowing the committee to finalize those plans on Tuesday.
Arena redevelopment steps
It was just the beginning of a busy week for the Centennial Authority at the beginning of a pivotal year in the arena’s redevelopment. The authority’s legal bylaws committee is scheduled to meet Wednesday in closed session to go over the ground lease with Pacific Elm — Dundon’s real-estate arm — for the development of the 90 acres of open land around the arena, in addition to reviewing the rezoning of that land and plans to convert some surface parking lots into decks.
On Friday, a special meeting of the full board is scheduled to approve the first-phase plans finalized Tuesday. Some board members may be surprised to hear that the loading-dock expansion has been pushed back, as they were when a long-planned office building at the north end of the arena was cut from the master plan for financial reasons in December 2023. Authority leaders have long cautioned that changes like these are to be expected in a project of this size and scope.
The details of the second and third phases, scheduled for construction in the summers of 2026 and 2027, have yet to be fleshed out and, as the areas of the renovations that will have the most impact on the fan experience, are arguably the most important to the project’s success.
A big part of CAA ICON’s pitch to the authority was its history of keeping projects on budget and its expertise in areas like concessions, premium amenities and other arena-specific designs. Parrish and Isley both said that the authority has become comfortable with Gensler’s guidance in those areas going forward.
“We got what we asked for from CAA ICON, what we needed,” Parrish said. “And it is helpful that Gensler is in town and has had as much experience in these areas as they’ve had.”
This story was originally published January 7, 2025 at 4:18 PM with the headline "As Lenovo Center authority settles on first renovations, process takes unexpected twist."
