New High Point Stadium

[cityboi]

3 story office building with retail and restaurant on ground level will be built behind center field. The building will be completed in 2020. The ballpark will be complete this May.

 

The building will be called Market Center. This is actually 1 of 5 buildings planned around the ballpark. In addition to the 5 buildings, Greensboro developer Roy Carroll will build a hotel. Im amazed at how quickly High Point is making all this happen. Most cities it takes years. Very exciting for downtown High Point.

https://www.wxii12.com/article/elliott-sidewalk-communities-unveils-first-building-developed-along-baseball-field-in-downtown-high-point/25836557?fbclid=IwAR1SMYJ2_k2gUG6LbIQrur1m1iARDEwTkpWAaKH3VzXGpGgdo5TbzZR8z4g

 

Edited January 11, 2019 by cityboi

[cityboi]

First game played today 

[cityboi]

Pretty cool photo 

[cityboi]

High Point has a nice cozy development planned around its ballpark. Pretty cool entrance plaza.

Office building on left side of plaza and a hotel on the right side.

Edited May 31, 2019 by cityboi

[cityboi]

Edited June 22, 2019 by cityboi

[gso27]

It's good to see that High Point is on it's way to having a year round downtown for all it's citizens.

[cityboi]

Pretty cool. The New York Times highlighted downtown High Point's revitalization efforts with a lengthy article 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/02/business/furniture-was-a-savior-then-it-was-a-handicap.html

[KJHburg]

drive by photos today.  First time seeing this.  Needed addition to this downtown for sure. 

[cityboi]

Ground broken for High Point downtown ballpark development 

 

https://myfox8.com/2019/09/18/high-point-leaders-break-ground-on-80-million-development-project/

[cityboi]

135 room "boutique" hotel is coming to downtown High Point across from Congdon Yards near the ballpark. The hotel flag is a major brand so it will be interesting to see what the "boutique" flag name will be. That announcement will happen in a few months and construction is expected to begin in 4 months. Downtown really does need more hotels to accommodate the furniture market during the fall and the spring so that many of the visitors staying in Greensboro and Winston-Salem can stay right in High Point. But in order for downtown to see an influx of new hotels, the downtown needs to become a year round destination. Hypothetically speaking, if the furniture market were year round, downtown High Point would have probably have more hotels/ hotel rooms than uptown Charlotte.

Edited February 4, 2022 by cityboi

[HRVT]

43 minutes ago, cityboi said:

135 room "boutique" hotel is coming to downtown High Point across from Congdon Yards near the ballpark. The hotel flag is a major brand so it will be interesting to see what the "boutique" flag name will be. That announcement will happen in a few months and construction is expected to begin in 4 months. Downtown really does need more hotels to accommodate the furniture market during the fall and the spring so that many of the visitors staying in Greensboro and Winston-Salem can stay right in High Point. But in order for downtown to see an influx of new hotels, the downtown needs to become a year round destination. Hypothetically speaking, if the furniture market were year round, downtown High Point would have probably have more hotels/ hotel rooms than uptown Charlotte.

I dunno if Downtown HP would have more hotel rooms than Uptown Charlotte if the market were year-round, but it would certainly be a bigger area than it is now. Making the area busier year round would go a long way to bringing more hotels and more life towards the area. Right now, there's a ball park, a couple bars, a crepe restaurant, another diner or two, a brewery, and that's about it (the Greek restaurant and Brown Truck aren't quite downtown).

The food hall helps a bit too but residents need to be an even bigger focus. Right now, I believe there's a small apartment building slated for the area around the ballpark. Downtown needs more.

I like the concept of the food hall but I have doubts about it being able to make it long enough to see the area start to thrive. It'll do well on Rocker game days. But what else draws people there outside of market season? The children's museum will bring a few. But there's minimal office space and won't be many residents at all in the next year or so.

[kermit]

^ Back in August I rode Amtrak to HP, stayed at the JH Adams (the original building is pretty nice but its condition was only so-so), ate at Sumela (it was very good) and went to see the Rockers (not a fan of the turf field but otherwise a great ball park with good beer choices). Did all of it without a car -- kudos to HP for making that possible! Downtown High Point certainly has some potential (although there was an awful lot of auto-centric crap north of Ray), but it was pretty dead. I would have been up for a beer or two after the game, but everything was closed up tight when I walked back to the hotel just before 10pm -- Paddled South could have taken some of my money if open after the game. 

I was impressed I could 'do' High Point without a car, but it certainly wasn't 'action packed'. Perhaps post-covid will be better, but lots has got to change before HP can develop into a Greensboro-ish, entertainment-based downtown.

[unrelated to downtown High Point, the quality of the baseball was pretty awful. I have much more fun watching 'normal' Class A ball (like the hoppers or the dash), the Rockers seemed to mostly consist of guys in their upper 30s trying desperately to hold on to their playing days. Unfortunately their playing experience did not translate to fun baseball. Perhaps it was a bad night]

Edited February 7, 2022 by kermit

[cityboi]

16 hours ago, kermit said:

^ Back in August I rode Amtrak to HP, stayed at the JH Adams (the original building is pretty nice but its condition was only so-so), ate at Sumela (it was very good) and went to see the Rockers (not a fan of the turf field but otherwise a great ball park with good beer choices). Did all of it without a car -- kudos to HP for making that possible! Downtown High Point certainly has some potential (although there was an awful lot of auto-centric crap north of Ray), but it was pretty dead. I would have been up for a beer or two after the game, but everything was closed up tight when I walked back to the hotel just before 10pm -- Paddled South could have taken some of my money if open after the game. 

I was impressed I could 'do' High Point without a car, but it certainly wasn't 'action packed'. Perhaps post-covid will be better, but lots has got to change before HP can develop into a Greensboro-ish, entertainment-based downtown.

[unrelated to downtown High Point, the quality of the baseball was pretty awful. I have much more fun watching 'normal' Class A ball (like the hoppers or the dash), the Rockers seemed to mostly consist of guys in their upper 30s desperately trying desperately to hold on to their playing days. Unfortunately their playing experience did not translate to fun baseball. Perhaps it was a bad night]

High Point is definitely making an effort for its downtown. I think High Point's "Uptowne" district, which is sort of an extension of downtown to the north has the potential to become a pedestrian corridor with bars, restaurants, entertainment etc. Downtown proper is almost entirely taken over by Furnishings Market showroom space, land is limited an expensive. I wish the city of High Point could work with the market in trying to incorporate street level restaurants, bars, entertainment etc into these showrooms. Also the city or some other entity in High Point should purchase some lots that are vacant and land bank it for a developer to build some housing and eventually hotels. Other things that are important is park space and public plaza. Parks will attract people to downtown as we've seen in Greensboro. Have public plazas for music bands. When you draw more people downtown, there is even more demand for restaurants, bars and entertainment. High Point has a unique and difficult challenge for its downtown but they can do it.

Edited February 6, 2022 by cityboi

[HRVT]

On 2/5/2022 at 4:56 PM, kermit said:

^ Back in August I rode Amtrak to HP, stayed at the JH Adams (the original building is pretty nice but its condition was only so-so), ate at Sumela (it was very good) and went to see the Rockers (not a fan of the turf field but otherwise a great ball park with good beer choices). Did all of it without a car -- kudos to HP for making that possible! Downtown High Point certainly has some potential (although there was an awful lot of auto-centric crap north of Ray), but it was pretty dead. I would have been up for a beer or two after the game, but everything was closed up tight when I walked back to the hotel just before 10pm -- Paddled South could have taken some of my money if open after the game. 

I was impressed I could 'do' High Point without a car, but it certainly wasn't 'action packed'. Perhaps post-covid will be better, but lots has got to change before HP can develop into a Greensboro-ish, entertainment-based downtown.

[unrelated to downtown High Point, the quality of the baseball was pretty awful. I have much more fun watching 'normal' Class A ball (like the hoppers or the dash), the Rockers seemed to mostly consist of guys in their upper 30s desperately trying desperately to hold on to their playing days. Unfortunately their playing experience did not translate to fun baseball. Perhaps it was a bad night]

Technically, the Atlantic League is supposed to be a higher caliber of player than the Carolina League (its considered on par with AA ball, but without affiliations it is largely guys hanging on and guys getting their last shot). Generally they get to AA or AAA and just can't get higher. Some have played in the Majors with a few playing for a while.

As for downtown HP, the last three years have made a big (positive) difference. The next three will be even bigger IMO. There's a lot of potential in that area by the ballpark on the north end of downtown. That said, we're probably more like 10 years away from it even resembling something like (mini) Downtown Greensboro for food and entertainment options.