Where will Panthers HQ go next? David Tepper likely to weigh these factors
Now that a late Wednesday bankruptcy filing finally killed the deal for the Carolina Panthers to put the new team headquarters and training facility in Rock Hill, the question remains — what happens next?
If David Tepper, the billionaire Panthers owner, is going to pursue a similar 240-acre, 700,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility, where else could it go in the Charlotte region? And what factors drive the decision-making process behind it?
It’d be difficult to get inside Tepper’s head — he hasn’t spoken much publicly about the Rock Hill deal going sour. But The Charlotte Observer on Thursday spoke to some site selection consultants and real estate experts who have some ideas. None were involved in the Panthers deal.
A couple years ago, Rock Hill City and York County councils were working through deals described by economic development leaders as having a $2 billion economic impact for the region.
In 2020, the Panthers broke ground on the site off Interstate 77, north of Dave Lyle Boulevard. But construction stopped in March after a disagreement between the city and GT Real Estate Holdings, LLC, the company Tepper established for the team’s Rock Hill project.
Tepper had invested more than $170 million on the project at the time construction was paused, and had planned to invest more than a billion dollars, all told.
Here are some thoughts shared by site selection experts on next steps.
Who’s got the land?
Land availability is an obvious one.
The search for the next site will likely be a regional one so the team will want to search for land relatively close to Bank of America Stadium in uptown, said Andrew Blumenthal, senior broker with Legacy Real Estate Advisors
Blumenthal liked the idea of the headquarters going to Rock Hill because it helped South Carolina identify with the team.
In Mecklenburg County, it’s going to be “very, very difficult” to find a 240-acre parcel that’s available, Blumenthal said. It will also be hard, he said, to justify an acquisition of that scale when land prices go down dramatically the further you get outside the Interstate 485 loop.
“If David Tepper has proven anything, it’s that he’s a business man and the economics do matter,” Blumenthal said.
What other towns could have big chunks of land available? There are places to the north of Charlotte like Huntersville, Cornelius and Concord, Blumenthal said. Jump over the Catawba River to the west and places like Belmont or Gastonia could be appealing to the Panthers, both financially and geographically.
“All of those have major interstate corridors,” Blumenthal said.
Infrastructure needs
Finding available land is one step.
But does the property have infrastructure like water, sewer and wastewater? How’s the traffic flow? Is there a solid pool of skilled workers? Is it zoned properly to allow for a major, state-of-the-art facility?
These are some of the factors driving such decisions, according to experts like Didi Caldwell, president and founding principal of Greenville, S.C.-based Global Location Strategies. The company handles site selection consulting, mostly for corporations, across the globe.
Caldwell also thinks the Panthers will have to consider commute times for players and staff. If most live in Concord, for instance, then it might not make sense to have the headquarters in Rock Hill. But if many come from, say, Waxhaw, then the South Carolina location begins to make more sense.
The intangibles
When you’re talking about finding a site for a sports team to relocate or expand, the process is more subjective, said Paige Webster, owner of Phoenix-based Webster Global Site Selectors.
A manufacturing company can come into a town or county without necessarily needing a deep connection with the community, Webster said.
A sports team will likely want more buy-in from residents in the town and surrounding area to make sure they’re willing to support the team not only financially but culturally, he said.
“It really gets down to a cultural aspect,” Webster said.
That’s why selecting a site in South Carolina might make sense for Tepper and the Panthers.
The stadium is located in Charlotte but a team headquarters can help connect the fans more who live in South Carolina.
Whittling choices down
Typically, consultant firms will whittle down the choice for a new or expanded site to three or four places. It usually comes down to the relationship those communities have with the team or company, including if there are any incentives a government might offer, Webster said.
Maybe an easy step for the Panthers to take is going to who was next on the list after Rock Hill.
“I bet you 50 bucks there’s a bunch of communities that either came in second or third place,” Webster said, “that are knocking on his door right now.”
Observer staff writer Jonathan Alexander contributed to this report
This story was originally published June 3, 2022 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Where will Panthers HQ go next? David Tepper likely to weigh these factors."
