Life on Campus at NC State: September 2024

For this post, I could've written 2,000+ words about my experience at the Tennessee game in Charlotte. It would've just been me repeating "Why did I spend money on a hotel room and tickets for another neutral site State football game" 100+ times though.

Thankfully, I didn't do that - and that's enough said about the start of NCSU's 2024 football season. Hopefully the coaching staff decides to implement changes on offense this year before we get to the bye week...

Lenovo Center Renovation & Development Plans Move Forward: (Link 1, Link 2, Link 3 (TBJ $), Link 4 (TBJ $), Link 5 (N&O $), Link 6 (N&O $), Link 7 (TBJ $))

Off the top - "PNC Arena" is no more. In November, NC State will raise its 2024 ACC MBB Championship and Final Four banners to the rafters of the newly named "Lenovo Center".

The June 2024 campus-area update included the most recent details of the ESA/RBC Center/PNC Arena/Lenovo Center renovations/development project at that time. More information has come to light over the last few months, which is all outlined in the numerous links I've posted above. The first of these links includes renderings of what the renovation proposals look like.

With the renovations, there are plans to significantly increase the size of the main lobby and VIP areas. A new beer garden with a large outdoor patio is also expected to be constructed on the west side of the arena and a "View Bar" is planned for the upper deck overlooking the arena bowl. The proposals also include renovations/expansions to event & multipurpose spaces, restrooms, merchandising areas (i.e., the Eye), suites, and the main concourse.

The next step in the plan for the 80 acres around the arena comprised of predominately surface parking is to change the zoning from "commercial mixed use with an allowed building height of up to 12 stories" to a "planned development district". Neighborhood meetings on that rezoning are currently ongoing.

The development project's first phase is anticipated to start in late 2025, be completed in 2030, and incorporate 200,000+ sqft of retail, a 5-acre tailgate area, a 150-room hotel, 500+ apartments, and 150,000+ sqft of office. 10% of the apartments will also be made available to individuals making no more than 80% of the area median income ("AMI").

Other items of note:

• Total investment in the 15-20 year development project of the area around the arena is expected to be between $800M-$1B (with Phase 1 accounting for about 25% of that over the first 5 years) and be comprised of residential units, a 4,300-seat music venue managed by Live Nation, bars/restaurants/retail, offices, a hotel, a 5-acre tailgating area, parking decks, and a potential sportsbook;
• The 5-acre tailgating area will be comprised of luxury suites with balconies, community spaces, new F&B offerings, a promenade/stage for entertainment, more restrooms, and 2 connected parking decks;
• Although the full timeline for Phase 1 is expected to run from 2025-2030, the new 5-acre tailgate area is projected to be completed prior to the 2027 NCSU Football season;
• The overhead rendering in the link from Hurricanes.com shows where the tailgating area and F&B/retail/commercial buildings included in Phase 1 will be located, but doesn't show where the apartments, office, etc. from Phase 1 will go. If I had to guess, the Phase 1 buildings covering those uses will be on the west side of the Lenovo Center, closer to Edwards Mill Rd;
• What exactly is to be included in future phases will not be determined until construction of Phase 1 begins in December 2025 after the 2025 NCSU Football season;
• New entrances in the parking lots are being considered off of both Wade Ave. and Edwards Mill Rd;
• Last week, NHL 2025 from EA Sports leaked the the new name of the home of NCSU MBB and the Carolina Hurricanes as the "Lenovo Center" - Axios reported that it's a 10 year naming rights agreement worth a total of $60M;

• The club levels at the arena will now be named after PNC Bank;
• Total renovation of arena itself is expected to cost $300M+ and be completed over the next 3 years;
• There's a focus being placed on the overall fan experience (i.e., food & beverage options and merchandise sales - which hopefully means NCSU will finally get a more permanent merchandise sales area similar to what The Eye is for the Canes);
• Backyard Bistro has been rebranded to what may be the most bland name that's ever been brainstormed - "The Local - Raleigh" - with a planned 10/11/24 opening date;
• The NC DHHS headquarters on Blue Ridge not far from the arena is nearing completion of its first tower; and
• The push to bring an MLB franchise to Raleigh is also still ongoing, but it doesn't sound like the plan is to locate a hypothetical future baseball park near the Lenovo Center and Carter-Finley.

Parking and Tailgating Impact:

In the above rendering, the 2 parking decks connected to the tailgate area are seen on the east side to the right of the Lenovo Center. These decks will apparently allow people to pull their cars into the deck and then walk straight into premium tailgate suites next to their spaces that face the interior grass of the tailgate area.

Additionally, there are two other buildings in-between the tailgate area and the Lenovo Center. These buildings are: (1) the planned Live Nation 4,300 person concert venue and (2) another TBD entertainment venue (aka, the potential sportsbook). The building in the bottom left on the opposite side of the arena is where a hotel may potentially be located (it's also important to note that when the hotel, apartments, offices, etc. are built in this district, they'll likely have their own dedicated parking that will be built - so additional parking is going to be added as the development evolves). The plaza in the middle of these two buildings will remain relatively untouched, but there will likely be a premium tailgating service offered where people can pay for a company to set up tents, food, drinks, etc.

After this rendering was released, the first thing people on social media latched onto was the loss of surface level tailgate spaces and the addition of the couple of parking decks. I love tailgating at State FB games as much as anyone, but if you look in any of the tailgate lots on a game by game basis, it's pretty clear that not every single person with a parking spot uses that specific spot to tailgate. The majority of people meet up with whoever has the primary tailgate spot for their friend group - and some people obviously don't even tailgate at all. That's who the spots in the new parking decks will be for. As a refresher on what the contractual plan for parking changes looks like:

• At least 95% of the parking lost during each phase of the development around the Lenovo Center must be replaced with either surface or deck parking. Per WRAL, there are 14,000 total parking spaces used for games at Carter-Finley, but only 4,100 of those spaces are located in the Lenovo Center lots that will be impacted by this development project;
• Approximately 50% of the impacted 4,100 parking spaces at the Lenovo Center will be replaced with surface-level parking and the other 50% of parking will be replaced with parking decks. This means that over the course of the next 15-20 years, approximately 1,500-2,000 surface lot spaces around the Lenovo Center will be relocated to decks, which works out to just 11%-14% of total football parking. This was echoed by Boo Corrigan in the Canes' Twitter video of the joint press conference last year; and
• Any parking deck constructed on the arena land can be no larger than 3 levels - 1 below/at ground level and 2 above.

The hand wringing over losing such a low number of surface parking spots in exchange for what this district will bring to Raleigh is genuinely confusing to me. This project will allow people to visit the area before, during, & after events - and even when events aren't taking place. There are maybe ~150 events hosted between Carter-Finley and the Lenovo Center each year, which leaves 200+ days a year where this district is a total ghost town. The entire goal of this project is to activate the area year-round. And given that goal, I'm really hoping this will also lead to the elimination of the 5-hour tailgate restriction for NCSU football games.

As long as the future parking selection process for State football is well thought out (I know, this may be a stretch given some of the decisions that come from our athletics department), this project should only have positive impacts on parking. Let people who generally don't tailgate in their own parking spot, or those who need to park closer to the arena/stadium for accessibility purposes, take the deck spots first (hell, maybe even offer the deck spots at a discount) - and then that will open up all of the surface parking spots for the people who do actually want to tailgate.

I personally hope we also see some additional entrances/exits added to the arena area - as well as some kind of actual public transit option (even if that now seems like a pipe dream that Raleigh missed the boat on two decades ago) to assist with the uptick in foot & car traffic.

Doak Field Updates Stall:

In the same June 2024 campus update, I also included a timeline for the ever-stalling and lagging Doak Field baseball renovations. There have been rumors about issues encountered with utility lines under the park that have caused delays, but in what shouldn't be considered a shocker to anyone, neither the Athletics Department or the Wolfpack Club have provided any real updates as to what is going on here.

There have been parts of the fanbase claiming that the renovations were delayed because NCSU raised "too much money" and also received additional UNC BOG funding:

However, that line of thinking doesn't make any sense given that after not having been updated from February 2023 to June 2024 - the Doak Field funding tracker now shows that funding is 100% complete for the project, that the renovation project wasn't promoted online or at any games during the 2024 season other than a QR code stuck on the back of the pressbox, and that Boo Corrigan's below answer at a recent press conference was less than clear when he was asked about the renovations:

I think Boo catches a lot of unnecessary flack from the fanbase, but I'll admit that many of his perceived missteps could have been avoided if he'd just provided clear communication about whatever transpired that people naturally had questions about (see: Omaha 2021, Holiday Bowl 2021, Doak Renovations 2022-2024, etc.). In line with previous communication attempts, the "answer" he provided in the video above is one that politicians across the world would be proud of in how many words were used to say absolutely nothing.

I'm sure big-time donors have gotten some sort of direct update from the WPC or the athletics department, but it wouldn't take much effort to provide an update to the fanbase at large. The one update circulated by the WPC earlier this year after they were radio silent on the project from February 2023-June 2024 didn't include anything of note other than referencing a hopeful completion of the improvements down the LF line by the start of the 2026 season. I mean, just have an intern spend a couple hours cobbling something together on GoPack.com that simply says: (1) here's what the initial plan was, (2) here's why that hasn't happened yet, (3) here's the current plan, (4) here's our new estimated timeline, and (5) here's where the project's overall funding stands.

The initial $15M Doak renovations announced in 2022 were already meager compared to what other college baseball stadium plans look like around the country, but it's been more than 2.5 years since this project was announced and only the initial phase of the plans has been realized. Things happen, and plans change - that's, of course, fine. What's not fine is the total lack of effort in communicating those changes to the people you've asked to give you their money.

Season tickets for NCSU Baseball cost around $200/seat and the Doak Field Renovation Enhancement Tax that's been placed on 2023-2025 season ticket purchases has been an additional $100/seat. That's a 50% increase in season ticket prices to help fund this project. The fans that have paid that increase for 3 seasons now shouldn't have to be asking for communication from the Athletics Department/WPC about this, it should be a basic expectation.

Changes to Roads Around PNC/Carter-Finley: (Link 1 (N&O $), Link 2 (TBJ $))

Work began after the State Fair in 2022 to bury Blue Ridge Rd. underneath the train tracks that run parallel to Hillsborough St. and Beryl Rd. After delays due to weather, traffic, and other issues, the new plan is for this project to be completed sometime in the fall of 2025.

New Hillsborough St. Retail Shops to Open:

For those who frequented East Village Bar & Grill while at State - I'm sure you've driven down Hillsborough St over the past many years and thought "I miss my $2 Busch Lights" or "Why has no retail been added under the apartment building that's now on the same site". The N&O recently announced that - Nan Xiang Express (soup dumplings), Tsao-Cha (a bubble tea and fried chicken bar), Ebisu Life Store (assorted Japanese merchandise), and Chex Grill & Wings - would all be opening in the ground level of the Uncommon apartment building located where EV once stood.

None of those businesses seem overly exciting in comparison to the hole that EV's departure left in the collective heart of NCSU fans & alumni, but after 4 years, at least something will be opening in these vacant spaces. I'd still love to see something like EV or Sammy's open on this end of Hillsborough St. as a pre- and post-game F&B option for Pack9 Baseball at Doak Field.

Additionally, on the opposite end of Hillsborough St, Lobera Tacos y Tequila is now open in the former Gonza space underneath the Aloft Hotel.

Other News:

Poe Hall to be Stripped Down to Skeleton, Rebuilt

Carter-Finley Receives (Minor) In-Stadium Enhancements for 2024 Season

New Mural Completed on Centennial Campus

Yemeni Mediterranean and Haraz Coffee to Open on Western Blvd

$4M of funding secured to renovate the Isenhour Tennis Center

New ISB Building to be Named After Randy Woodson

Go Pack.