How Cumberland County is trying to recoup taxpayer money spent on scrapped Crown Event Center

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (WTVD) -- Cumberland County commissioners voted to halt work on the long-planned Crown Event Center and terminate the project entirely last month, after $36 million in taxpayer money had already been spent. Now, they're trying to figure out how much of that money can be recouped.

The lot on Gillespie Street in downtown Fayetteville, next to the county courthouse, was set to become the site of the new event center.

"I believe the previous board rushed to make some decisions before we took office," said Kirk deViere, Chairman of the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners.

The former board approved the project in 2022 and held a groundbreaking just days before last year's general election. The new center was intended to replace the Crown Theatre and Arena, built in 1967, a few miles outside downtown, inside the Crown Complex.

After the new board took office late last year, commissioners re-evaluated the plan, halting any work on the project in March of 2025 after finding a lot of questions had not been answered. DeViere said the exact cost to renovate the existing theatre and arena hadn't been fully nailed down, and the original plans for the new event center didn't include any parking. Adding a parking deck would've added another estimated $33 million to $45 million to the project, not including the minimum $144 million more that would need to be spent to complete just the event center.

He also cited a survey of 13,000 people in Cumberland County, with the majority of respondents saying they wanted the event center to stay at the Crown Complex, rather than move downtown.

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All these factors led the board to terminate all existing contracts and scrap the project in a board vote of 5-2 on June 4.

"It was not an easy decision," deViere said. "You know, there are people very passionately on both sides of this."

Of the $36 million already spent, about $6 million went to architectural services. Another $6 million was spent on early construction costs and material like steel -- prices of which have surged since steel tariffs were introduced during the Trump administration.

"Our goal is to see what parts of those materials can be reclaimed or reused, either working with our manufacturers, working with our vendors to see what can actually be recouped," deViere said.

Commissioners are also looking at how to repurpose the Gillespie Street lot that sits in limbo.

"That was a free parking lot and we lost about 220 spaces," deViere said. "So, our staff is in the process of looking at a couple options for how we can regain some parking in and around that lot."

Though deViere noted that the plans to add parking are a short-term solution and plans to still look at options for development on that lot.

"We need to make sure we're investing the right way in the right things," deViere told ABC11. "With the very diverse revenue streams that minimize the risk to the county and to the taxpayers, partnering with entities that may do development there, working with the city of Fayetteville, working with other stakeholders in downtown to ensure that we get the right opportunity to maximize the economic impact we could see in downtown Fayetteville."

The board is scheduled to meet next month, and one of the things they'll likely discuss is how to redirect remaining funds and expected tax revenue that would have eventually gone toward the event center.