Dual vision: City and county pool efforts for convention and ag center
By Steve Herring
Published in News on March 8, 2015 1:50 AM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Wayne Aycock, left, chairman of the Wayne County Board of Commissioners, and Goldsboro Mayor Al King announce a joint city-county effort to build a convention and agriculture center.
sherring@newsargus.com
A partnership between Wayne County and Goldsboro could finally turn decades of dreams of a convention center into a reality.
The deal also will allow the county to build an agriculture center on Wayne Memorial Drive and for the city to proceed with its plans for the former Goldsboro Country Club and a new multi-sports complex adjacent to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.
The partnership and projects were announced Friday during a joint session of the Wayne County commissioners and the Goldsboro City Council held before nearly 100 people at the former country club.
The agreement is subject to state legislators approving an increase in the city's occupancy tax from 5 percent to 6 percent.
"This is the role of government -- provide the infrastructure then get back out of the way and let the entrepreneurs figure out what to do with it," state Sen. Louis Pate said. "I am not normally one who advocates for tax increases, but this will be something that the City Council will have to approve.
Pate noted that the tax isn't paid by Wayne County residents, but by the people from out of the city who stay in the hotels.
Wayne County plans to build a 56,000-square-foot agriculture center.
It would include a convention center meeting space with an assembly area of 14,000 square feet that could seat 800 banquet style and 1,000 stadium style.
The 14,000 square feet is close to the 16,000 square feet that an earlier study had recommended for a city convention center, City Manager Scott Stevens said.
The county's preferred location had been a former state-owned dairy farm on Old Smithfield Road across from O'Berry Center. But under the agreement, Goldsboro would convey 12 of the 18 acres it owns on Wayne Memorial Drive to the county for the agriculture center, which would serve a dual purpose as a convention center.
Using the increase in the occupancy tax, the city would provide 33 percent of those revenues for the first 20 years of the agriculture center and 25 percent thereafter.
That money would be used by the county to help fund the center and for maintenance and operations.
Steven said he is not sure how quickly the tax increase could be effective.
"If it is effective in July, and it takes (the county) a year to break ground, then we would collect more money that would go to facilities which would help with the multi-sports complex," he said.
While the county works on the center, Goldsboro would work to recruit a hotel on the other six acres to complement the center.
The agriculture center would be owned by the county and the country club and multi-sports complex by the city.
The N.C. Cooperative Extension Service would operate the center and handle bookings, just as it does now at the Wayne Center.
Goldsboro Travel and Tourism would have 400 square feet of office space at the new center and would help market it.
All of the offices currently at the Wayne Center would move to the new facility.
The center would be located next to Wayne Community College and less than a mile south of the new U.S. 70 Bypass now under construction.
There are plans as well for the state to four-lane Wayne Memorial Drive all the way to the new U.S. 70 Bypass.
Also as part of the agreement:
* The county would loan the city $3 million at 1.5 percent interest over 15 years so that the city could fund the multi-sports complex that would be built on 60 acres it would lease from the Air Force under the P4 Initiative
* Another $200,000 would be provided by the county for the purchase-renovation of the Goldsboro Country Club that already has been purchased by the city.
* The city would waive all water/sewer fees for the center development.
* The county would appoint a city representative to whatever advisory board is created for oversight of the center.
Wayne County commissioners have set aside $4 million for the agriculture center project. An architect has been hired to draft schematics for the center, which the county can use when it seeks private and public funding.
Commissioners have said they will not proceed with the project until the county has the money. Commission Chairman Wayne Aycock said there would be no tax increase to build the center.
Sen. Pate and Sen. Don Davis have filed a bill seeking $3 million in state funding for the project.
Pate said he thinks the amount of local funding and the partnership between the city and county will help toward getting that $3 million.
The proposed project has moved fast. Stevens said members of the two boards talked about 10 days ago, then brought the plan before the full boards last week.
The intent is for the former country club to be a smaller-events center people can rent for weddings, meetings, reunions, birthday parties. The Parks and Recreation Department is expected to be involved in its operation.
The city will lease the land for the multi-sports complex. The plan is for eight fields -- four grass and four Astroturf. Steven said a portion of it could be ready by the fall of 2016.