Spectrum Center to see big upgrade, and maybe a second, after Jordan’s Hornets sale

As Michael Jordan plans to sell his majority stake in the Charlotte Hornets, the team and new owners still have big changes to its uptown facility to look forward to.

City council voted last year to spend $215 million in public funds toward Spectrum Center renovations in a deal that extended the NBA team’s lease 15 years, through 2045. “If (the Hornets) don’t negotiate with us, they negotiate with someone else,” Councilman Ed Driggs said in 2022 shortly before voting to approve the funding.

The Hornets are expected to begin paying $2 million per year in rent in 2030 and $1.1 million in annual capital investments beginning in 2024.

The deal also includes plans for a $60 million practice facility for the Hornets in the same building as the transit center. Practice facility funding would come from yet-to-be-determined naming rights for the creation of a sports and entertainment district around the Spectrum Center.

Early renderings showed the transit center bus hub below a high-rise building for the NBA team where the existing Charlotte Transportation Center stands today, towering over the Spectrum Center.

The new practice facility would include two full basketball courts, expanded locker room space and a health care space.

Renderings show the practice facility replacing the existing Charlotte Transportation Center, moving the bus facility underground. The rest of the tower would be filled with parking and “to be determined” development on the top floors.

There will be a temporary bus station built during the several years of construction on the transit and practice facility building, documents presented to the economic development committee show.

Spectrum Center renovations planned

Renovations planned for the Spectrum Center include:

▪ Entryways

▪ Bathrooms

▪ Escalators

▪ Elevators

▪ New HVAC systems

▪ Plumbing repairs

▪ Roof repairs

Uptown retail, residential and an entertainment district

The planned tower next to the Spectrum Center could include retail, office and residential space.

Initial renderings show six levels of parking above the underground transit center and retail on the street level.

The Hornets would have space with two full-sized practice courts above the parking levels. Residential and commercial space would build on top of that. Expanded locker rooms and health care space are also expected to be included in the Hornets facility within the tower.

The city plans to use Brevard Street to establish the sports and entertainment district, closing it to traffic to make room for vendors, music and art.

The city expects to sell naming rights for the district and practice facility at $2 million and $1.25 million, respectively, per year. City staff expect naming rights revenue to fund the practice facility and pay down debt.

Between 2028 and 2045, when the Hornets lease expires in the city-owned Spectrum Center, the city estimates it could generate $127 million in commercial partnership revenue for the district, including corporate naming rights and founding partners.

‘That is what defines us as a sports city’

Mayor Pro Tem Braxton Winston told The Charlotte Observer last year the Spectrum Center renovations and lease extensions were “a bad deal” after voting against it. He wants to change the way the city approaches similar negotiations.

The vote from Winston, still on council but not Mayor Pro Tem at the time, wasn’t a surprise. Winston said the deal is demanding “extraordinary capital investments” for a “lame duck arena.”

The other 10 members of council voted in favor, saying they value the NBA team and fear the Hornets may leave Charlotte if they struck down the deal.

“This municipality should be in the business of city building, not being a landlord... When the life of this arena is done the people still have the land,” Winston said last June. “We have an average arena, but there’s nothing average about the Jordan name.”

On Tuesday, he shared the same respect for the name, but said Charlotte will keep its image as a sports city despite Jordan’s ownership sale.

“I think it’s a pretty unique experience for any city in America that you can run into current and former athletes in a supermarket on any given night. I think that is what defines us as as a sport city,” Winston said. “Even somebody with the mighty stature of Michael Jordan. I think we are fine in terms of our status and who we are.”

Other pro teams need stadium renovations

The Charlotte City Council has spoken privately about negotiations involving public money paying for Bank of America Stadium renovations in the future at the same time that legislators are pushing a bill that would extend a tourism tax to pay for them.

When vaguely discussing potential stadium renovations last week, Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles said the Spectrum Center renovation deal that passed last year was successful, but didn’t elaborate.

Charlotte was vulnerable to losing the Hornets until the City Council approved a lease extension for the Hornets in 2022, said Mohammad Jenatian, president and CEO of the Charlotte Hospitality and Tourism Alliance.

Las Vegas and Seattle would both “give anything to get an NBA team,” he said.

Now, Jenatian said there’s a consensus within the tourism industry Charlotte must be proactive to keep the Panthers in the Queen City.

“We don’t want to get to a point where we have to be worried about losing anything,” Jenatian said.