YORK COUNTY, S.C. — This week, the Carolina Panthers start training camp in Spartanburg, South Carolina, which is the same place the NFL team has trained for the last 25 years.
Hopes the Panthers would get a new training facility in Rock Hill were dashed earlier this year when owner David Tepper terminated the project, despite investing millions to start construction.
This building was supposed to be state of the art, with new headquarters offices and a training facility for the team, but now it feels abandoned since construction crews left months ago and haven’t been back since.
GT Real Estate filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after terminating the deal, and the site is caught up in legal battles, including a lawsuit filed by York County. Creditors are trying to move the bankruptcy case from Delaware, where it was filed, to South Carolina. A hearing is scheduled for Aug. 4.
Attorney Mandy Powers Norrell says it could be years before anything happens to the building.
“The idea of a Chapter 11 is that creditors are paid back, in the amount that they’re either owed or they agree to accept," Powers Norrell said, "For GT Real Estate to become profitable enough to pay back all of its creditors, I would think would take many years, maybe five years, but that’s really just a guess.”
Court documents show GT Real Estate is looking at possibly redeveloping the property through a third party or selling it. Court records say at least two mixed-use real estate investors inquired about the site in Rock Hill but aren’t named because of non-disclosure agreements.
In the meantime, the Carolina Panthers start training camp at Wofford College in Spartanburg on Tuesday, though it’s unclear if that’s a long-term plan.
A Panthers spokesperson told WCNC Charlotte the team’s current contract in Spartanburg includes an option to continue training in 2023.
The games on the field are played by the clock. That's not the case for games played in court.
“Chapter 11s are expensive, they’re complicated, and they take a lot of years to resolve," Powers Norrell said.
Some worry the site could become an eyesore in Rock Hill, facing the same bleak future as the PTL Tower.
The PTL Tower was built as the headquarters for Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s ministry in the '80s but hasn’t seen life in decades. One man waged a campaign to tear it down for more than 10 years.
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“It's an eyesore," Eric Kinsinger, who founded a group called Tear the Tower Down, said. "You see broken windows, you see railings falling off, you see this fence that looks like it's been there for 30 plus years.”
Kinsinger even bought billboards to push for demolition, but the PTL Tower outlasted Kinsinger, who recently moved out of the area. He sees parallels between the Tower in Fort Hill and the Panthers' training site in Rock Hill.
“It's going to be another black eye for York County having these two monstrosities right there." Kinsinger said, "And it's not a good thing.”
Contact Indira Eskieva at ieskieva@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.