Proposed land use for the UNC-Asheville's proposed stadium project. (Source: UNC-Asheville)
Even as North Carolina’s institutions of higher learning face financial headwinds, the UNC Board of Governors gave the greenlight on Thursday for UNC-Asheville to move to forward with an ambitious, multi-purpose soccer stadium occupying 54 acres of green space.
Thursday’s vote is seen as an initial step allowing UNC-A to enter into a ground lease with the University’s Endowment Fund negotiating with the developer for the mixed-use stadium involving its millennial campus property.
UNC Board of Governors committee chair Kirk Bradley said the board will take whatever time is necessary to ensure critical questions are answered before final approval is given.
UNC Board of Governors committee chair Kirk Bradley (UNC-BOG videostream/PBSNC)“This is a challenging time for higher education and will continue to be so in the 21st century,” said Bradley. “I’m glad we have leaders on our campuses like Chancellor van Noort, who are paying attention to the windshield as to what’s coming and what needs to be done versus focused primarily on the rear-view mirror of how things have always been done.”
Working to woo a professional team
Dr. Kimberly van Noort explained that the Asheville City Soccer Club currently plays at a facility on the school’s campus. The city club is currently U.S.L. Division II, which is the highest amateur level. The team is planning to bring Division I professional soccer to Asheville.
“In order to bring that professional team here, they are required to have a 5,000-seat stadium. And we were approached by the Asheville City Soccer Club about some of our millennial campus projects, and we agreed to allow them to enter into a conversation with us to take a look at the different parcels that we own, because we felt that this would be a very mutually beneficial project,” van Noort told the board.
The UNC-Asheville Endowment Fund would execute a 99-year ground lease with the developer. The project would go well beyond being a professional soccer venue. The stadium will eventually host concerts and festivals and other entertainment events throughout the year.
“It will be the only outdoor facility of this size in western North Carolina, and we anticipate great demand, including from local youth sports organizations and quite probably high school sports as well as this will be a very versatile stadium able to host football as well as soccer,” the chancellor offered.
Dr. Kimberly van Noort (UNC-BOG videostream/PBSNC)The project as envisioned would be built in two phases. The first being the stadium, followed by student community housing and retail space. The preliminary budget is estimated at $201.4 million, according to documents shared by UNC-Asheville.
The timeline would see the stadium completed by the end of 2028 with the housing and retail phase opening by the spring of the following year.
Community opposition
Van Noort’s enthusiasm for the project was somewhat tempered by members of the Board of Governors who have heard from nearby homeowners who are angry about the loss of woodlands near their homes.
“This would destroy our neighborhood and our way of life, full stop, no question,” Chris Cotteta, president of the Five Points Neighborhood Association, told the Asheville Watchdog in a June interview. Cotteta believes the project will have a negative impact on residential property values and forcing some to move.
Others have noted the loss of green space would adversely impact biology and environmental science classes that routinely use the wooded property.
Jennifer Haygood, the Senior Vice President for Finance and Chief Financial Officer for the University of North Carolina System, said “guardrails and some basic expectation” would be put in place to ensure the developer bears the risk, should the project continue to move forward.
Board member Gene Davis, a real estate attorney, cautioned his colleagues that long-term leases can be tricky.
UNC Board of Governors member Gene Davis (UNC-BOG videostream/PBSNC)“I also want to encourage them to negotiate such that the property, the underlying property that’s being leased by UNC Asheville for this development, is never collateral for any loans. The collateral should be in my view the leases and the improvements but never the land. In short, the land should never be put at risk,” advised Davis.
Even as Bradley sought to move the conversation along, Davis said that it would be critically important that the development partners share UNC Asheville’s commitment to environmental stewardship.
“As chair of buildings and grounds at NC Museum of Art, I participated and led a development that was both beautiful and environmentally responsible in our art park. UNC Asheville should require the same from this development and from this developer, something that is both environmentally responsible and beautiful.”
Board member Sonja Phillips Nichols said she’d like to see the Board of Governors keep tighter control of the project, rather than turn over the lease to the university’s Endowment Fund.
UNC Board of Governors member Sonja Phillips Nichols (Courtesy photo)“There’s a part of me that just feels like, ‘okay, so I’m getting ready to give something to someone and then they get to make all the decisions and now it’s out of our hands,'” Nichols said.
Bradley reassured Nichols that the proposal was no different than large scale projects explored by other UNC institutions.
“I am bothered by the amount of emotion that the community is sharing,” Nichols continued. “So, I appreciate that you are meeting with them and that you’re going on what I think needs to be a big deal PR tour and making them feel comfortable about this. I’m feeling the community.”
Bradley acknowledged the stadium project had drawn a fair amount of criticism, based on the unknown.
“I’ve always found that volume and vitriol does not go that far in trying to prove your point. And there are certainly some people that have exceeded that and made some personal attacks that I think are despicable.”
Bradley said the Board of Governors along with UNC-Asheville will study the facts and listen to subject matter expertise and move forward.
A lone voice of opposition
The harshest criticism for stadium project came from Swadesh Chatterjee.
UNC Board of Governors member Swadesh Chatterjee (Courtesy photo)Chatterjee who has served on the board the last two years, said he could not understand the rush to move forward with a project, even before the chancellor had the chance to meet with local residents.
“Why can’t we first let the chancellor meet with the community, feel the pulse and calm them down? If we go to the community after we agreed to give it to endowment fund, they think that this [decision] has already been made.”
Chatterjee noted that if student housing was needed, which is phase two of the stadium project, the UNC System could address that need.
UNC-Asheville’s student headcount for the Spring 2025 semester was 2,801, a modest increase from the previous year as the university continues to recover from Hurricane Helene.
Chatterjee said retention should be the university’s focus now. In the five years prior, UNC-Asheville saw a 25% decline in its student body, forcing it to cut more than a dozen programs and majors.
“How is it going to help students and academics?” Chatterjee asked. “I have not seen anywhere by building a soccer stadium that we attract and more students. I am not convinced.”
Chatterjee was the lone member on the Board of Governors to vote against the multi-purpose stadium project on Thursday.
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