Who owns Rock Hill area land the Panthers could add to site plan? How would deal work?
The Carolina Panthers headquarters project in Rock Hill could reach well beyond the team facility and practice site that renderings now show.
Who will benefit if it does?
Owners of more than 800 acres of Rock Hill or York County property have a chance to make money from the decades-long tax incentive agreements the NFL team has with York County, Rock Hill and the Rock Hill School District.
But the deals will be tied to the team.
When York County approved the incentive deal in April, a host of property owners spoke against what they said was last-minute notification about impact on them. Those property owners also said they didn’t know much about the deal and wanted details.
The property owners feared they would somehow be forced to sell their land. Council members who spent months ironing out the incentive deal didn’t see that threat.
Council members who opposed the deal said it offered such a drastic economic development benefit for the Panthers’ and some surrounding land, that properties outside that project in York County wouldn’t be able to compete.
“It puts other parts of the county at a disadvantage,” Councilman Robert Winkler said.
Deal details
Property owners within the designated 880 acres around the Panthers headquarters site, whose properties are noted in the agreement, benefit from the tax incentives only if those landowners sell to the Panthers.
However, landowners are not required to sell.
“The Panthers are not looking to take property,” York County Councilwoman Allison Love said that night in April when the incentive deal passed. “(The additional properties are) not included. They’re simply being considered.”
Yet if landowners do want to sell, or is in the development business like Rock Hill Economic Development Corporation, the incentive agreement creates a deal so sweet that some council members wondered if large projects would go anywhere else in the county if a Panthers partnership is an option.
“We’ve picked (team owner David) Tepper as the winner in York County for the next 30 years,” Winkler said in April.
Instead of the typical 6% tax rate, properties in the agreement and owned by the Panthers get to pay a fee based on a 4% rate, which is typical for owner-occupied homes. That lower rate will be in place 40 years. Properties also aren’t subject to certain tax changes, like a school bond referendum.
The county did eliminate warehouse and distribution uses from the incentives, along with multi-use buildings that include apartments.
Still, a large manufacturer could pay more to be part of a project on Panthers property, given the savings it would get from the lower tax rate. That value could mean the property is worth more to the Panthers, which would increase the sales price for the current owner.
During the incentive vote last month, Councilwoman Christi Cox called the decision “the biggest property tax giveaway in the history of York County, maybe in South Carolina.”
Main Panthers headquarters site
The incentive agreement covers five land parcels running south on I-77 from Eden Terrace. The team, through its company GT Real Estate Holdings, owns the largest tract at 240 acres. Hiram and Linda Hutchison sold the Panthers that large tract for more than $16 million. The Hutchison family also owns smaller tracts at about 35 acres connected to the Panthers site and less than an acre on the opposite side the interstate.
There are 158 more properties that could become part of the incentive agreement. They span both sides of I-77, down the Catawba River past Waterford Golf Club to the Sturgis Road area, which dead ends at the Catawba River.
Potential Panthers properties
There are 86 developed, residential properties in the Hutchison Place subdivision. Those homes between Eden Terrace and Nations Ford Road border the Panthers property. There are two parcels at Eden Terrace and Anderson Road, a truck accessory business and a vacant lot. Along with three parcels owned by the Hutchison family, those combined 91 parcels next to the headquarters site total 100 acres.
Another 10 existing industrial park properties border the planned main headquarters site along Huey and Mt. Gallant Roads. Rock Hill owns almost six acres to make the site contiguous for annexation. Murdock Sign Company owns three parcels at the corner of Huey and Mt. Gallant, at five acres.
Down Mt. Gallant from there are more than four acres owned by Comporium, the five-acre Rock Hill Gymnastics site, two acres owned by the Panthers, five acres owned by CEF Properties, more than two acres owned by Sinicki Properties and more than five acres at Mt. Gallant and the Norfolk Southern rail line boundary, owned by Rock Hill Leasing.
Larger investment properties
Properties subject to the agreement get larger to the south. The area of land is bounded by that Norfolk Southern rail line, Mt. Gallant, Dave Lyle Boulevard and I-77. One property continues onto the opposite side of I-77.
The largest piece is the Manchester Meadows soccer complex, more than 73 acres owned by the City of Rock Hill. Connected to that property is another 31 city-owned acres that straddle I-77.
The remaining four parcels are almost four acres owned by Furmanite Worldwide, almost five acres owned by an area family trustee, almost six acres owned by Jim Wood Investments and six acres owned by BKB Holdings.
East to Waterford
Project properties then shift about a mile to the east. South of the rail line and up against the Catawba River, the city owns six more properties. The River Park, Manchester Creek Wastewater and Piedmont Medical Center trail properties include 65 mostly riverfront acres and 69 more along Red River Road. Four smaller city properties combine for about eight acres.
The Panthers own the largest site in the list, the almost 206-acre Waterford Golf Club. The team purchased that in March for more than $2 million. More than a dozen more properties along Red River and Waterford Park Drive are included.
The largest of those properties are 25 acres owned by Waterford Lakes Flex, almost 11 acres owned by 3D Systems Corporation and an eight-acre mobile home park. Rock Hill Economic Development Corporation owns two of the sites that, side-by-side, make about 10 acres.
Sturgis Road property
Property that drew the most community interest at the April York County hearing sits along Sturgis Road. Property south and east of Waterford Golf Club represent much of the larger, undeveloped tracts of land. About as much of those properties borders the Catawba River as it does Sturgis Road.
The second largest parcel borders Waterford, a 100-acre tract owned by Church of the Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints. South of it, Waterford Charlotte owns 48 acres. Individual property owners have sites at 104, 52, 30, 22, 20 and 16 acres.
Waterford Charlotte owns eight acres on one side of Waterford Glen Way at Waterford Park Drive. Rock Hill Economic Development Corporation owns almost nine acres on the opposite side. Rock Hill Economic Development Corporation is the group responsible for or a partner in wide-ranging redevelopment efforts across Rock Hill from former downtown mills and automotive sites to business and industrial park expansion.
In all, there are 28 included properties on the Sturgis Road side of Waterford Golf Club.
Land sales
As of Monday afternoon, county land records don’t show any land transactions in the project area for April or May. The Panthers bought the headquarters site in late March, and a company affiliated with the team bought Waterford Golf Club on March 13 for $2.25 million.
The Panthers bought almost 14 acres adjacent to the golf club site on March 4 for $1.75 million.
Only one non-team sale in the project area shows up since. Chester-based Korfell LLC bought an acre home site March 23, just east of Waterford and on the map of possible properties, for almost $173,000.
This story was originally published May 26, 2020 at 7:28 AM with the headline "Who owns Rock Hill area land the Panthers could add to site plan? How would deal work?."
