Construction dots Old Town with both repair and development projects. The majority of these projects are a part of the Knowledge Park action plan, which plans to “reinvent the original heart of Rock Hill,” according to its website.
The Charlotte Avenue bridge, one of the main ways in and out of Old Town, has been under construction since July 22 due to cracking in the bridge deck concrete. Project Management Team Supervisor Rob Ruth said the project is on schedule and may even finish earlier than its Oct. 20 projected end date.
“Right now, the project is about 75% complete, and they have finished replacing the deck’s surface. They are working on painting the metal on the bridge, and there will be some additional paving work that needs to occur,” Ruth said.
According to Ruth, bridge repairs such as these could be completed faster, but for this project, they had to budget time to work with the Norfolk Southern railway the bridge crosses to ensure neither construction nor trains were affected.
“It is a challenge,” Ruth said. “They won’t let us work if there is a train under the bridge, and so you’ve got freight moving on those rails … you’ll see a train on those tracks … just about every day. And so when we did the work out, the contractor had to kind of factor that in.”
Other projects around town are tied to the Knowledge Park action plan, created by the Rock Hill Economic Development Corporation (RHEDC), which is a “walkable, multi-faceted district of Rock Hill that will build a modern economy, and reinvent the original heart of Rock Hill” and is not just a place, but “also a strategic plan that gives our community the opportunity to come together and make it their own,” according to its website.
David Lawrence, Knowledge Park development manager, said the plan was started in 2014 and now stretches out to over a square mile.
“Knowledge Park is not just one site,” Lawrence said. “It’s at least a square mile, generally stretching from Winthrop’s Cherry Road side through what was all textile mills, which we are now redeveloping quite a bit, and over Dave Lyle [Boulevard] into the traditional downtown, where the buildings are and such and then sorta finishing in Fountain Park.”
Around 10 to 12 development projects are currently being worked on within Knowledge Park. And Lawrence expects that number to stay constant throughout the years as old projects are completed and new projects started. Among these projects are the University Center, the Exchange and the property that formerly housed the headquarters of the Rock Hill Herald.
Some projects, like the University Center, which is a 23-acre site near Winthrop that already includes the Rock Hill Sports and Event Center and The Nest, are ahead of schedule. University Center was projected to take around 10 years to complete, but according to Lawrence, may only take five or six.
The Exchange and old Herald property projects show the main goal of the construction around Knowledge Park: take old, underutilized buildings in prime locations, and rebuild them to fit the current economic goals of the RHEDC.
The Exchange used to be an auto dealership that closed several years ago. While the county did use it for good, like assisting the homeless, the RHEDC believed it would be better served for development due to its prime location.
While the majority of the development will be retail, commercial and regular apartments, some of the apartments being developed in that area are required to be affordable housing if developers want certain incentives and assistance, according to Lawrence.
The Exchange is on schedule and projected to be open in 2022.
The former property of the Rock Hill Herald, a local newspaper, was sold to developers recently in order to utilize its prime location. White Point Partners, the company that bought the property, plans to start demolition soon. White Point Partners is the company behind Optimist Hall, a popular location in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Lawrence said development on a similar scale will continue to take place in Knowledge Park for the foreseeable future, as they are currently only working on the “obvious” projects.
“So it’s obvious that an old car dealership that went vacant and sat there on a really prime corner [would be developed]. That’s low–hanging fruit. That needs to happen, and that will happen,” Lawrence said. “That’s kind of easy. I don’t want to say easy; that’s the wrong word. Somewhat easy project.”
After the obvious projects get completed, Lawrence said that developers will start looking at locations less obvious. Some, he said, already have.
“We see the actual physical area growing,” he said. “So now it’s stuff like, we literally have conversations about sites and locations that nobody ever asked about before.”
