A consultant told a Charlotte City Council committee Monday that the city could generate nearly $140 million by 2045 selling naming rights for a new “festival district” uptown on Brevard Street.
To spur development in a quarter of uptown that's largely lagged aside from the Charlotte Hornets' arena, the city plans to rebuild the main uptown bus station on Trade Street and place it underground. That will make way for a new, mixed-use tower on the site, which — in theory — will kick off the creation of a walkable district of shops, restaurants and festivals by the Spectrum Center.
The area near the arena today is mostly empty, save for surface parking lots. The biggest nearby development, formerly the EpiCentre, went belly-up and was purchased out of bankruptcy last year with hopes to revive it under the name Queen City Quarter.
The city’s economic development director, Tracy Dodson, has said there is a “public safety problem” at the current bus station. Dodson and city officials hope that a new underground station will have better security and be a safer environment for passengers and people nearby.
Sean Moran, a consultant with Innovative Partnership Group, told the council’s jobs and economic development committee on Monday that the city could sell naming rights to the area. That could offset some of the cost to build the new bus station, as well as associated infrastructure.
He said the city could sell naming rights to the overall “festival district” as well as a possible $60 million practice facility for the Charlotte Hornets that the city hopes would be included in the tower. The city has not before attempted to sell naming rights for a street or part of the city.
Speaking hypothetically, Moran said the entertainment area could be named the “Bank of America District,” or something similar.
He also said the city could sell naming rights to individual buildings in the district, such as the new, underground bus station.
Despite potentially having multiple sponsors, Moran said the city could sell the naming rights in a tasteful way. He said the city didn’t want the area to look like the city-owned NASCAR Hall of Fame nearby.
“How do you generate and maximize revenue but in an authentic way?” Moran said. “I think we want to avoid a NASCAR Hall of Fame feel where you are seeing a lot of brands slapped around or a lot of LED signage.”
In the first year of sponsorship deals, Moran estimated the city could make $4 million a year. Most of the money would come from naming the entire festival district. The value of the deals would increase over time, and could total $137 million cumulatively by 2045.
Moran said other cities, like Nashville, are planning similar festival districts, and have sold naming rights to sponsors for seven-figure deals.
Council members did not vote on the plan but generally gave it a thumbs up.
The Metropolitan Transit Commission voted unanimously last week in favor of moving the bus station underground.