ROCK HILL, S.C. — On Tuesday evening, the Panthers, York County, and the City of Rock Hill jointly revealed plans and renderings for the new Carolina Panthers development to house the organization's training facility and business headquarters.
"We saw the vision of the site and we knew from the very beginning that it was more than just a football facility and a couple of fields," said Mark Hart, VP and chief operating officer of Tepper Sports & Entertainment. "We saw it as the great start of a massive development."
When completed, the development will include restaurants, retail, a healthcare facility, apartments, hotels, trails, and office space.
"This site gives us the opportunity to provide mixed-use entertainment and corporate HQs," Hart said. "Certainly the visibility along the highway gives us great opportunities to do great things and attract tenants and corporate tenants perhaps out of Charlotte or from other parts of the country to this site."
The state-of-the-art facility will also include a 120,000-square foot indoor practice facility, a 113,000-square foot multipurpose sports and entertainment venue, and outdoor practice fields. The indoor practice field features 80-foot tall operable glass doors and can host athletic events and games, concerts, and other corporate events.
Among the team's amenities will be a 20,000 square-foot weight room, a 6,000 square-foot locker room, and 5,000 square-foot hydrotherapy room to aid players' rehab and recovery.
There are key public-facing areas within the development site, highlighted by "The Park." That is the 5,000-seat outdoor, multipurpose stadium designed to host events like high school football games, soccer games, concerts, and more. "The Grove" is the open space within the site that has a series of reflecting pools, lighting, and landscape.
"'The Park' itself, with its scalability between 5,000 and as high as 20,000, I think is a great platform for festivals, concerts — all kinds of large ticketed events," Hart said. "We are working with the Rock Hill school district to make that available for high school sports, high school football, and all kinds of high school activities: proms, gatherings, conferences, and educational programs."
Within the 3.9 million square feet of development, over 60 acres of native trees will be saved, and a half-mile of natural creek will be preserved. There will also be approximately 2.5 miles of public trails connected to Rock Hill's multi-use path system. Those trails will allow the public to see the five-acre lake and water feature, providing stormwater management and irrigation for the project.
The project will include significant improvements to local infrastructure, including a new interchange off of I-77. Over 13,000 feet of new public streets and 2,600 parking spaces are planned in addition to the sidewalks and trails for cyclists, runners, and walkers.
"It's all designed to look great, feel great, and spur great development opportunities for anyone who wants to come," Hart said.
Construction recently began on the new practice facility and team headquarters, scheduled to be complete in 2023.
