Events center nearing completion
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on February 10, 2016 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
The Goldsboro Events Center, formerly the Goldsboro Country Club, is expected to be open for business in February.
The Goldsboro Events Center, formerly the Goldsboro Country Club, is almost ready to open, and there have been several inquiries of interest into renting out the center in the coming months.
Ideally, said Parks and Recreation Director Scott Barnard, the events center will be ready to start taking on events in the last week of this month.
Paramount Theatre Director Sherri Archibald, who is in charge of scheduling events for the center, said the city is hoping to host an open house for the public in early- to mid-March, though no firm date has been set yet.
Mrs. Archibald said there are also two tentative events marked down for April, of which one is an anniversary party and the other is a banquet. These future events have not been set in stone and could change, but are tentatively scheduled to be held at the new center.
The Goldsboro City Council is also expected to host its annual retreat at the center on either the Feb. 23 and 24 or Feb. 24 and 25, though those dates are not firmed up yet.
A couple was also looking at hosting a wedding at the new facility in the spring, but ultimately decided to have their wedding elsewhere when they were notified that only a licensed caterer could cater their wedding if it was at the events center.
"They had sort of a family friend caterer they were wanting to cater their wedding, and when we told them of the requirement that a licensed caterer be used at the facility they decided to look at other places to have their wedding," Mrs. Archibald said.
There are several projects that still need to be completed before the center can officially open to the public.
The parking lot has not yet had asphalt poured, lighting for the parking lot has not been put into place, concrete for the cart path that will run from the center to the golf course has not been laid and minor interior work remains to be done.
Asphalt cannot be poured unless it is at least 50 degrees outside, Barnard said, which means that happening hinges on it getting above 50 degrees in February.
Barnard said the center will be open and functional by the scheduled dates, but some work will still be getting done around the center before it is entirely complete.
"I'd say we will be done, with nothing else to do, with all the staff moved into the center and no finishing touches left to be put on anything, by the end of March," Barnard said. "But in terms of being functional and hosting events, we'll be open by the end of February. In layman's terms everything will be completed by the end of February."
The opening of the new golf course facilities will not coincide with the opening of the events center, as that switch-over is not expected to happen until late spring.
"We will demolish the old golf course building, but that work hasn't even been bid out yet," Barnard said. "If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say we'd be demolishing the old building around May or June."
But golfers need not worry, as there will not be any lull in switching over from the old facility to the new facility.
"We might close for an afternoon just to move everything over from the old building to the new building, but no, we won't have to close up the course," Barnard said.
More than half a million dollars worth of renovations have been put into the events center to revamp the facility that opened up more than 60 years ago.
The total price tag for the purchase of the old country club, which occurred in February 2015, and the near-complete renovations, is expected to top out around $1.2 million, which is a price tag that includes the cost of purchasing the building at $400,000.