Rock Hill residents could be on the hook for old Panthers practice property

ROCK HILL, N.C. (WBTV) - There’s word of big changes coming from the now-defunct Carolina Panthers practice facility in York County.

The City of Rock Hill purchased the 245-acre property and is hoping to attract businesses to the area. First, though, they have to tear down the huge building that was going to be the epicenter for the team. Doing so comes with a heavy price tag.

The county first took a look at the proposal but after crunching the numbers decided to back away from the purchase. Simply put, it would cost too much money to get the property ready.

York County Councilman Bump Roddey says the demolition estimates of $8 million to $10 million was an amount they couldn’t choke down.

“Those costs were significant, and that’s why York County decided not to take ownership of the building,” Roddey said.

Making the decision, according to Roddey, was a no-brainer.

“At that point, York County was out,” he said.

That land was previously under development by Panthers owner David Tepper, who had plans to build a state-of-the-art practice facility on the 245-acre site. But when plans fell through in 2022 and the deal was scrapped, it left a bad taste in the mouth of some officials.

But when the dust settled the question came up – what do you do with all of this land?

The real estate agency handling the sale tells WBTV the city picked up the property post-bankruptcy and is hoping to use it for companies who will bring jobs into the area.

“Hopefully it works out for them but it was a little too risky for York County to get involved with it,” Roddey said.

Construction is well underway with plans to demolish the on-site building at a later date.

According to members of the real estate firm, they’ll ask for a call for offers instead of putting up an asking price to see what folks are willing to pay for it.

If all goes as planned, the property should be sold in a couple of months. But what about the businesses counting on a Panthers payday?

Nick Pealoza owns Forte Legato Coffee just down the road from the old practice site. He was hoping for strong sales from the Panthers facility but still has his hopes up for whatever comes next.

“We’re hopeful, but at the same time we’ve seen enough fall-though that we can never be too certain,” he said.

WBTV tried to get in contact with city leaders about the cost of the purchase, but so far hasn’t heard back.

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