York County votes to release details on the Carolina Panthers agreement. Here’s when.
York County Council has voted to move forward with the Carolina Panthers headquarters and practice site plan in Rock Hill, and to release details on agreements with the team on Monday night.
Council met Wednesday night in York to discuss the plan’s incentive agreement details. At the recommendation of finance director Kevin Madden, council passed first votes on the two issues needed to set up the team’s incentive agreements. Both decisions require two more readings.
“When analyzing this particular agreement, I compared it with what the opportunity costs would be, what else could go in this particular space being warehouse or distribution, and the dollar amounts are significantly greater with the current agreement,” Madden said.
The county, team and other involved parties have a disclosure agreement that funding details won’t be released until after second reading by the county on Monday.
“It’s not a perfect agreement, where we’re at, but it is a good agreement,” Madden said. “It is a very good agreement for the county.”
One vote Wednesday night set up a joint business park with Chester County. The other set up an agreement with GT Real Estate Holdings, LLC and affiliate entities to allow a fee rather than tax payments from the joint business park.
North Carolina records list GT Real Estate Holdings as a Delaware-based company set up last fall, based out of Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.
The joint business or industrial park model is common for counties when they set up fee agreements as a financial incentive to bring in a company. South Carolina code allows counties and municipalities to create business parks to share expenses and agreed-upon revenue percentages related to the project.
“This is not unusual,” said Councilman Robert Winkler. “This is not something we do just for the Panthers. Multi-county industrial parks are all over.”
Counties have to get consent of municipalities, when they’re involved. The multi-county parks don’t have to be in or even near both counties. The Panthers site is more than 280 acres surrounded by, but not yet annexed into, Rock Hill. The city passed the first of two votes needed to annex the site off I-77 last fall.
In the multi-county park agreement, Chester County will get the standard 1% of revenue. The same amount, council members say, York County typically would get back from a similar multi-county park set up in Chester County. While specifics haven’t been released, Winkler said the public can expect to hear about a sizeable investment from the team on Monday night.
“Can’t talk a whole lot about it yet, but it is more than two times larger than any other commitment we’ve ever gotten on a fee agreement or investment,” he said.
Councilwoman Christi Cox said based on the City of Rock Hill and Rock Hill School District negotiating its financial terms with the team and on the condition terms that will be made public on Monday, she supported the first readings on Wednesday.
“I will consider first reading only if the information is made public Monday night,” she said.
Panthers plans started more than a year ago. Talk started in the fall of 2018 at a York County Regional Chamber of Commerce event, and by spring 2019 state lawmakers gathered to discuss and ultimately approve law changes to incentivize professional sports teams. Rock Hill emerged as a potential destination. By summer 2019 Panthers owner David Tepper joined city mayor John Gettys and other officials to announce a team headquarters move to Rock Hill.
Since then, they’ve worked to form what the project will entail, annex it into Rock Hill and set up incentives and other agreements with taxing entities like York County, Rock Hill and the Rock Hill School District. The property went under contract for sale, though county records still list the site as owned by the Hutchison family.
Team and city economic development leaders talk about a $2 billion project at the Panthers site that combines team space with hotel, apartment, commercial and other development. Submitted plans from the team via a city development agreement would allow perhaps the tallest building in the state.
The city and team spent time working through some requests the Panthers want at the site, that now aren’t allowed by city or state law. They include gambling, bars open past 2 a.m., cigar bars and tattoo establishments.
Already, at least one company is hiring for work related to the Panthers project.
