The $300 million reimagining of PNC Arena in Raleigh, N.C., has already been altered by escalating construction costs — the relocation of offices for the Carolina Hurricanes.
As reported by The News & Observer of Raleigh, construction over the arena’s north-side loading docks has long been intended to create new offices for the Hurricanes and free up their existing space on the arena’s sixth floor — prime real estate overlooking Carter-Finley Stadium, home of N.C. State University football —for other uses. But the initial cost of the office complex priced out at more than $45 million and as much as $65 million, which the Hurricanes, N.C. State and other stakeholders deemed too large a portion of the renovation budget.
“We’ve heard from both Gale Force and N.C. State, and they didn’t believe that made sense from a financial standpoint,” said Marc Farha, the CAA/ICON consultant acting as the authority’s representative, as reported by Luke DeCock of The News & Observer
The decision was a shock to a number of authority members who have been reviewing plans to repurpose that area of the building for almost a decade. When the building was constructed in 1999, the authority spent $2 million — possibly as much as $10 million in today’s dollars, given the increased cost of construction materials — to put foundations in place for an eventual expansion of the arena’s north side.
“I thought a big part of the plan was to go into that space,” said Centennial Authority member Bill Mullins, voicing concerns shared by many in the room. “Until we found out the numbers,” Hurricanes/Gale Force president Don Waddell responded.
While unexpected, the change in direction is a reminder that the renovation of the 24-year-old arena is an ongoing process that will likely alter course several times before work is completed, and that very long journey is just at its beginning, DeCock reported.
“We’re all rowing in the same direction. Everybody’s on the same page when it comes to the things that really matter,” authority chairman Philip Isley said. “Knocking out this little issue, again, it’s unfortunate that we’re not freeing up other parts of the building, but we’re also saving an enormous amount of money that will go to things fans see and feel instead of new office space.”
Farha told the authority agreements have been finalized with architects HOK and Ratio and the contractor consortium of T.A. Loving, Blum and Metcon, while 60 potential enhancement projects have been prioritized into three waves. Those waves correspond with the three payments of $100 million the authority was allocated by the City of Raleigh and Wake County in August’s landmark agreement between the authority and the Hurricanes to extend the team’s lease and give team owner Tom Dundon a green light to develop the 80 vacant acres around the arena into a multi-use entertainment district, according to DeCock's report.
“The last two months have been a lot of work,” Farha said. “There’s not a lot of pretty pictures to show but that’s coming very quickly. ... We’re constantly pivoting and adjusting and reacting to what we’re hearing as we walk the building and things come up. It’s a fluid situation.”
As reported by DeCock, Farha said he imagined the initial planning and programming phase would take another four to five months, which would put the renovations right on the edge of the timeline Isley proposed in August, which was to begin construction in the summer of 2024. Isley said even if the big-picture renovations don’t begin by then, other projects — including the long-overdue renovation of the visiting locker rooms — would be underway.
