This is a developing story and will be updated.

Fayetteville’s long-planned downtown performing arts center and meeting space has been quashed after the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday voted 5-2 to discontinue the project.

The decision on the 3,000-seat Crown Event Center comes seven months after construction started with a celebratory groundbreaking ceremony.

The commissioners voting to keep the downtown Event Center were Glenn Adams and Vice Chair Veronica Jones. Chair Kirk deViere and Commissioners Jeannette Council, Pavan Patel, Henry Tyson and Marshall Faircloth voted to cancel the project and terminate all its contracts.

Instead, commissioners are considering renovating the Crown Arena and the 2,400-seat Crown Theatre on U.S. 301 that the Event Center was supposed to replace. The board, in a 5-2 vote, directed County Manager Clarence Grier to develop a request for quote (RFQ) — a process that would allow commissioners to then begin considering pricing proposals in the renovation of the area and theater. Grier is to bring back the information within 30 days to the Crown Event Center Committee. 

Project paused and studied

In March, the Board of Commissioners — with three new members following the November election, including Chair Kirk deViere — paused the downtown project. In April, they had new studies commissioned for it.

One study evaluated how much costs are rising past the Event Center’s previous $144 million budget due to the pause, due to inflation, and due to President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imported materials. Another examined what it would take to renovate the Crown Arena and Theatre, a consideration the commissioners on Wednesday ultimately moved to progress. The third study looked at whether there is sufficient parking downtown for the project.

The commissioners received the reports on Monday and the county released them to the public on Wednesday afternoon. (Click here to download them.)

Some findings in the reports:

• The estimated $144 million cost for the Crown Event Center increased by $7.7 million, to almost $152 million.
• The opening date was expected to slide from April 2027 to February 2028.
• It would cost $71.9 million to renovate the old 4,500-seat Crown Arena, which was built in the late 1960s.
• It would cost $24.7 million to $91.9 million to renovate the old 2,400-seat Crown Arena, depending on whether it also is modernized and whether it is expanded to 3,000 seats.
• There is insufficient data as to whether there is enough parking downtown for the Event Center.

Further, if the county were to build the Event Center someplace else, the county would have to spend another $118.4 million to $120.4 million.

The county has spent and encumbered $36 million so far for the Event Center, County Manager Clarence Grier said during presentations to the commissioners on Wednesday afternoon.

Crown Event Center History

• February 2014: A woman sued Cumberland County because she uses a wheelchair and has difficulty using the facilities at the Crown Complex on U.S. 301, including the coliseum, the expo center, the arena and the theater. They were not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
• December 2015: The Cumberland County commissioners agreed to settle the lawsuit by upgrading or replacing the Crown Complex’s facilities to make them ADA compliant.
• November 2022: After years of study, and considering whether to upgrade the 1960s-era Crown Theatre and Crown Arena for the ADA and to meet the needs of 21st-century performers and audiences, the county commissioners voted to build a new performing arts center. They decided to put it downtown on a parking lot on Gillespie Street in front of the County Courthouse.
• October 2024: Construction for the 3,000-seat Crown Event Center started with a groundbreaking ceremony.
• December 2024: Following the November election, three new county commissioners take office. One of them, Kirk deViere, is elected chairman in an upset of the board’s old guard.
• March 2025: The county commissioners paused construction, officially just for a month for an investigation into a $1.9 million billing dispute with the architect. But since then there has been little movement, and rumors begin to circulate that the new board of commissioners might cancel it.
• April 2025: The board commissions studies to see if the construction price is rising from its previous $145 million budget, and what it would take to rehabilitate the old 2,400-seat theater and 4,500-seat arena.
• June 2025: The county commissioners vote to kill the downtown Crown Event Center.

Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at [email protected].

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