High Point core city proposal includes arena and convention center/hotel

[cityboi]

The Core City proposal for High Point is an ambitious plan that could include a downtown arena, thats right I said a downtown arena as well as a convention hotel. parks and more parking is also proposed for downtown as well as improved streetscape. The catch is it will cost in the hundreds of millions to make the plan a reality. The goal is to make downtown vibrant when the furniture market isnt in town. This is very ambitous and is the kind of plan you'd see happen in the state's larger cities such as Charlotte, Greensboro and Winston-Salem.

[krazeeboi]

I hope this doesn't translate into huge dead areas for High Point; you can't count on an arena itself to generate pedestrian activity (same goes for a convention center). Unless some other venues surround it (residential, restaurants, retail, etc), it will be a failure.

[DigitalSky]

Exactly. I don't see this attracting people unless something ambitious is done

[suburban george3]

I don't think, bar High Point suddenly becoming the fastest growing NC city, that building an arena with the Greensboro Coliseum and Joel Coliseum close by would help make downtown High Point vibrant. It's going to be tough to pry conventions away from Greensboro and W-S also, not mentioning Charlotte and Raleigh as competition. I think High Point's resources needs to be spent elsewhere to fix the broken furniture market before the start building.

Unlike "Field of Dreams", in the real world, just because you build doesn't mean they'll come.

[cityboi]

I don't think, bar High Point suddenly becoming the fastest growing NC city, that building an arena with the Greensboro Coliseum and Joel Coliseum close by would help make downtown High Point vibrant. It's going to be tough to pry conventions away from Greensboro and W-S also, not mentioning Charlotte and Raleigh as competition. I think High Point's resources needs to be spent elsewhere to fix the broken furniture market before the start building.

Unlike "Field of Dreams", in the real world, just because you build doesn't mean they'll come.

[DanRNC]

Whoever is selling this plan is smoking something. An arena in downtown High Point???? What are they going to put in it? Hockey will never come to a town that small. I see this plan going the way of the dinosaurs.

[cityboi]

Whoever is selling this plan is smoking something. An arena in downtown High Point???? What are they going to put in it? Hockey will never come to a town that small. I see this plan going the way of the dinosaurs.

[nowensone]

This doesn't seem so far fetched or overly ambitious to me, other than perhaps the arena, everything they are talking about doing will enhance and help to keep the furniture market in town. More and better parking, a convention center which can be used well during the market, more hotel space, etc. The arena itself I imagine they are thinking would provide an entertainment venue for Marketiers in addition to other events at other times of the year. High point is finally doing something about the furniture market trickling away, I like it. And HP is growing quickly, the arena as a long term plan it s a good one IMO.

[cityboi]

This doesn't seem so far fetched or overly ambitious to me, other than perhaps the arena, everything they are talking about doing will enhance and help to keep the furniture market in town. More and better parking, a convention center which can be used well during the market, more hotel space, etc. The arena itself I imagine they are thinking would provide an entertainment venue for Marketiers in addition to other events at other times of the year. High point is finally doing something about the furniture market trickling away, I like it. And HP is growing quickly, the arena as a long term plan it s a good one IMO.

[twincity]

well...you have to give HP credit for trying. this is a respectable answer to all the mega development happening in Las Vegas. they may still have a chance!

[nowensone]

Well, to be realistic, they couldn't build the arena for several years anyway, just so long as they have a site earmarked and can begin zoning around it, buying deteriorated lots, etc. then when they are ready it should fit in well, obviously the other DT improvements are more immediately important. There is nothing about HP that seems like it is a suburb of GSO, to me anyway, and it actually has a larger feeling DT than GSO's. I am not sure if it actually is, just feels so.

[twincity]

^ i agree. i dont know of anyone who thinks of High Point as a Greensboro suburb. HP is a pretty healthy employment center with a distinct identity, not a town full of subdivsions.

whatever they decide to do, i hope it will be timely. they cant afford to waste any more years.

[cityboi]

I personally think High Point needs to promote more bold initiatives like this. I think there is room for two big cities in Guilford County.

[krazeeboi]

I've been to High Point, but not downtown; however, from the few pictures I've seen, it appears as though a smaller arena, if built more to a human scale as the modern ones are, wouldn't necessarily overwhelm downtown. Hopefully its placement in relation to other buildings downtown will result in a good mix. And more parks and improved streetscapes are always good.

[nowensone]

It is worth the quick trip downtown, otherwise you're missing much of what makes High Point what it is. It has a proportionally large CDB for a city of it's population, mainly due to the concentration of permanent and seasonal showrooms for the market, though the other reason it is neat is because of the number of older buildings that haven't been razed. Not an expert on HP, so not sure if that is historically due to it's beign a center of the furniture industry, textiles or something else.

[cityboi]

High Point is a very unique city. If you havent been downtown you should go. There is good density downtown even though the building arent really really tall. The tallest I think is 12 stories. But downtown has very cosmopolitan architecture. You'd think you were in a big city.

here is Showplace in downtown High Point

Natuzzi Building

High Point downtown bus terminal

scene in downtown High Point

[nowensone]

^Great pic, and to me this illustrates the direction the city proposals can take, and how they would fit in and that there is a precedence for this.

[suburban george3]

^ i agree. i dont know of anyone who thinks of High Point as a Greensboro suburb. HP is a pretty healthy employment center with a distinct identity, not a town full of subdivsions.

whatever they decide to do, i hope it will be timely. they cant afford to waste any more years.

[krazeeboi]

Great pics, cityboi. That last pic certainly shows that High Point has the room downtown for an arena and convention center. But I've got to wonder, with all of the other mammoth structures, would this really help revitalize the city core? Think about the downtowns that are known for generating pedestrian activity--is it primarily because of supersized structures, or because of the smaller, human-scale developments, often incorporating historical preservation and adaptive reuse? Convention centers and arenas have their places, but they aren't the magic bullets so many think them to be, by far.

[Noneck_08]

Here are some pics I took of High Point last summer in case you wanted another look.

As for High Points plan...are there any sources of were the funding is going too come from for all these projects?

[cityboi]

Great pics, cityboi. That last pic certainly shows that High Point has the room downtown for an arena and convention center. But I've got to wonder, with all of the other mammoth structures, would this really help revitalize the city core? Think about the downtowns that are known for generating pedestrian activity--is it primarily because of supersized structures, or because of the smaller, human-scale developments, often incorporating historical preservation and adaptive reuse? Convention centers and arenas have their places, but they aren't the magic bullets so many think them to be, by far.

[cityboi]

Here are some pics I took of High Point last summer in case you wanted another look.

As for High Points plan...are there any sources of were the funding is going too come from for all these projects?

[blburton]

First, the big difference between an arena in Fayetteville and an arena in High Point is that High Point is one of 3 principal cities in a much larger metro area... Fayetteville IS the city in the metro area, and the largest one east of Raleigh, so it makes sense for the city to have an arena that will survive. I know HPU has major developments and planning in the works. Is a plan for a convocation center/arena/etc thrown in there also? That may suffice as High Point's "arena".

Second, a new venue for conventions is all well and good, but when people typically go to "conventions"... especially ones which last for days like the HP market, they want something to do after the meetings are finished for the day. Vegas (and many other cities) have this, but High Point does not. I think the proposal would be fine if there were also plans to designate one portion of downtown as the core for "post-meeting/evening/etc activities". In other words, High-Point is boring after dark and I don't know that these current plans will change that.

I must admit I was stunned by the proposal but consider that Fayetteville and High Point are similar sized cities and Fayetteville has an arena. Obviously if High Point builds one it cant go after the events Greensboro goes after because a smaller arena couldn't compete. The question is if there are enough events to go around for High Point to sustain a facilty like this. an arena would also likely have to be built with private dollars and that would be difficult because no private entity is going to build an arena unless it has tenants (sports teams) using the facilty year round. Taxpayers may not support an arena. So im not sure what High Point has planned as far as that goes.

[cityboi]

city council backs the plan

http://www.news-record.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a.../-1/NEWSREC0201

[krazeeboi]

I'm thinking this may be an excercise in futility.