Centennial Authority board chairman on PNC upgrades: 'If it feels like we're moving fast, it's because we're moving fast'
you don't have any insight into the sports gambling
I've certainly been following it
It was it was a shame that the vote occurred
the way it occurred
Um but I'm still I think there are efforts to
try to resuscitate that this week
I'm not sure how successful they'll be but people are
certainly working on that trying to make sure that this
component of revenue stream ultimately gets into our state
What would it mean for centennial arena Is there some
sense of of what it would mean for you guys
Well we have not done any studies on that yet
and frankly it may not result in any revenues directly
to us just because we have tenants that might be
have access to that
But what it does do is it activates parts to
the building all the time
That's that's the big deal we have we have activation
either on the property itself or within the building to
our people are here You know at 6:00 on a
Wednesday night in August when no one's here
Right
I mean that that that then becomes another part of
how we view this building as more of a community
asset that is activated all the time versus just on
game nights or concerts or other community events
Obviously the board you mentioned at the beginning how much
action you've taken since you became the chairman of the
board seemed like this was another step to move very
quickly
Well yes you know if it feels like we're moving
fast it's because we're moving fast and we I just
feel like we have to and I think that when
when I became chairman um we're exiting Covid and I
knew what the pressures were from our funding partners within
the inter local agreement Wake County and Raleigh they want
us to see something you know they appropriated money to
us a couple of years ago that we're going to
get X amount of money to do enhancements and we've
not done any enhancement yet
So they're chomping at the bit Now the money that
we've asked for and received we're gonna have to go
back to them once we start getting plans designed once
we start getting an idea of what this is actually
gonna cost we may have to amend our request and
obtain more funding
Um We don't know that looks like yet but we
need to at least have the concept available
So they get as excited as I am about what
this building itself can can become and then you have
the broader discussion of what happens around the building completely
different track but also in symbiosis to you know this
is becoming an area that is becoming activated with band
width of the street Epic Games and carry
You've almost got this corridor from the R
T
P
This can become sort of a high tech downtown area
for you know an R
T
P
Type building as we continue to get more high tech
around this area the Blue Ridge corridor is getting expanded
You have HHS going right on Blue Ridge with a
public private partnership
I mean this is becoming yet another part of Raleigh
where raw dirt is very valuable and it's also very
important to how we grow with all of the other
interests coming into the city
You know the national players apples the googles the amazons
certainly guys didn't set a timeline today By 2025
Would you like fans that come here to be able
to say well this is dramatically different or is there
is there a time horizon You know it's just so
hard to to say in my own brain
Yes if I could wave my Magic Wand that's what
I do
But we're unique because we have two different tenants in
two seasons that are distinct and you know they both
sort of start at the same time but one can
end obviously in june and so our window of building
is really limited and I think that's going to be
sort of our our issue that we have to really
determine what we're gonna do how we're gonna do it
the way we're going to do it and do it
very quickly you know 24 7 type operation proposals current
trends things that are happening in arenas across the country
Is there one or two things you saw that said
we need okay the coolest thing I did I went
to the inner city trip in Salt Lake City a
couple months ago and it's the Raleigh chamber of that
I got a private tour of the jazz arena and
out there
The food experience is much greater than sort of the
alcohol and gaming experience because of the population goes to
the game
And that was interesting that 75% of the revenues were
derived from food
And so they're so food centric they have extraordinary choices
for food items sushi you know barbecue that's different than
what we think of
But the other cool thing that I've learned is that
they did $125 million dollar enhancement in 100 25 days
And he said it was the cool I mean it
was game on you know game last game boom
They're tearing up the stuff you know the next day
and I think I want to talk to the people
who helped you through that because we're going to have
an even shorter window of time I'm afraid
But that was needed
I saw it for myself
You can actually do a lot of great things inside
a building and a limited amount of time
If you've got the right people in place the right
logistics it's basically a military precision type operation
So that was sort of neat Last one for me
in in 2019
This project was thought about 200 million 225 million certainly
costs have risen only risen since then
And the scope of the work seems to have have
increased
I mean are we talking $500 million $700 million It's
gonna be a big number
I mean I think what we're gonna what I ultimately
would love to see is an ala carte menu Okay
this is gonna cost this you know what are your
options what do you get your more bang for the
buck Where are their funding opportunities What we don't have
to pay you know are there you know to the
sponsorship discussion that they had I really hadn't thought about
that you know do you have sponsors of a certain
brand or a certain product that might pay for an
enhancement So I think it's gonna be a bigger number
than what we have seen before but I'm even nervous
to guess or speculate or even say it out loud
for fear that everyone's gonna freak
But uh I know it's gonna be big but we
if we're mindful of what we're doing we're mindful of
our goals and we're mindful of what our budget is
we can figure this thing out
Our board has an extraordinary amount of talent on it
that have done big projects continue to do big projects
So I think that that's I'm going to rely a
lot on what these guys want to do and we'll
move forward
We've got great consultants higher we got great experts on
this
I'm bullish
Great thank you
What you bet on it being more than 200