How did we get here? A timeline on the Panthers project in Rock Hill as contract ends
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The dream that didn’t come true
Here’s how the Panthers failed project in Rock Hill unraveled.
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The Carolina Panthers announced termination of its contract with the City of Rock Hill on construction for a new team headquarters and practice site. The project had been viewed as tranformational for Rock Hill and York County.
So how did the team and city get here?
Here’s a timeline of key developments covering five years of planning for the Panthers’ move:
▪ An August 2018 letter from Rock Hill Mayor John Gettys to Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper, later posted online by Gettys, touts Rock Hill as a sports destination and invites Tepper to visit the city and explore options for a new team headquarters and training facility.
▪ In November 2018, broadcaster and then-voice of the Carolina Panthers Mick Mixon spoke at a York County Regional Chamber of Commerce meeting in Rock Hill where Mixon issued a list of hypotheticals that hinted at a headquarters project.
“What if I told you that a couple hundred acres somewhere near here is going to be purchased very soon,” Mixon said at that meeting, “and a state-of-the-art practice facility with restaurants, shopping, banking, condos, apartments is going to be built and the business center of the Carolina Panthers will move here?”
Area business leaders after the meeting said they took Mixon’s comments as hypothetical and not as an announcement.
“As president of the chamber, I hope it’s true,” said then-chamber president Rob Youngblood. “It would be great even to be considered for something like that.”
▪ In March 2019 U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman and Rock Hill Mayor John Gettys confirmed the city and team had been in discussion about a headquarters site in Rock Hill. Both elected officials met with the team in February 2019 to pitch the Rock Hill project.
The same month, state legislators and Gov. Henry McMaster met to discuss legal changes — they’d ultimately be approved in May 2019 — to allow tax incentives for the Panthers.
▪ Later in March 2019, Gettys confirmed the Hutchison farm site off I-77 was in consideration for the team practice facility. The property was in York County, but later annexed into Rock Hill city limits.
▪ In May 2019, a joint letter signed by the mayors of Rock Hill, Columbia, Charleston, Greenville and Myrtle Beach lent support for the Rock Hill site. The letter from major tourism sites across the state urged state legislators to pass economic incentive in discussion at the time, which those legislators would do.
“The impact on Rock Hill and York County in the specific instance before us today will be felt for generations to come,” the mayors wrote.
▪ In June 2019, Tepper and team officials joined city and state leaders for a downtown pep rally in Rock Hill to announce a partnership. Tepper spoke of a world-class orthopedic and executive medicine facility in addition to Panthers facilities in Rock Hill, that would draw people from across the country.
“This is going to be a showcase down here,” Tepper said at the Fountain Park rally. “We’re going to bring people down to this region. We’ll have just a sense of excellence not only up there for the football team, but everything we do down here in Rock Hill.”
▪ In September 2019 multiple sources reported land was under contract for sale to the Panthers. In October 2019, team vice president and COO Mark Hart outlined plans for the training site to the Rock Hill business community at a downtown economic retreat. Hart spoke of a practice facility and headquarters but also venues for other events, and even a golf course purchase.
“We want our facility in this community to have an iconic presence,” Hart said.
▪ In November 2019 Rock Hill City Council started the approval process for the team headquarters, after months of discussion that ranged from allowing what could have been the tallest building in South Carolina to gambling, tattoo and other possible businesses at the site.
▪ Gettys asked his business community in December 2019 to relay the need for a sense of urgency to York County officials to make the $2 billion Panthers project happen. City officials asked for changes in tax districts, that the county would have to approve, to allow opportunity zone funding for the Panthers and other development projects.
“The only thing we’re lacking to make all this happen is a sense of urgency,” Gettys said at the time.
▪ In February 2020, the state Department of Transportation put out public notice on a planned I-77 interchange to serve the Panthers project. The $90 million project would be part of a larger road upgrade plan in the area, spurred by the new headquarters.
▪ In March 2020 hiring began for contractors to build the new Panthers site. That same month, York County agreed to its part of the project and released details on incentives that involved the city, county and team.
The final county vote in April was made despite few people being able to attend, amid the earliest stages of social distancing due to COVID-19.
▪ In March 2020 the team purchased Waterford Golf Club and its planned headquarters site.
▪ In June 2020 almost $35 million of federal money was announced for the new I-77 exit.
▪ Groundbreaking in July 2020 aimed for an opening of the new headquarters site in 2023.
▪ Hart held a virtual presentation for about 1,000 people in October 2020 to further update plans for the site, which the team called “The Rock.”
By February 2021 the team had a time lapse video up to show construction progress.
▪ A May 2021 request from the team to York County asked for help with infrastructure costs. A letter from Hart to the county that month stated that expected money from Rock Hill hadn’t come. Bonds were expected to be issued by the city by October 2020, according to the letter, and an extension into February 2021 already had been missed. The city stated it had met its financial obligations to that point.
“Unfortunately the funding for the infrastructure remains at a crossroads,” Hart wrote to the county.
▪ In June 2021 the team and Tepper family announced $700,000 in combined donation to Miracle Park, stating plans for continued partnership with the city where its team would operate.
▪ A March announcement from the team stated the headquarters project would be put on hold due to lingering financing issues with the city. A Tepper Sports & Entertainment annoucement read:
“Given the economic realities, the difficult but prudent decision has been made to pause the project. The on-going work will continue with our partners to find an economically acceptable solution for all parties to continue this project in Rock Hill.”
▪ Later in March, York County agreed to a newly proposed financing deal with the team and city. In it, four decades of incentives would pay the $225 million in public infrastructure at the heart of the team’s funding hangup with the city.
▪ On Tuesday, the team announced it would terminate its contract agreement with Rock Hill for construction at the site off I-77.
This story was originally published April 19, 2022 at 1:26 PM with the headline "How did we get here? A timeline on the Panthers project in Rock Hill as contract ends."
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