By Jessie Burchette
Salisbury Post
County commissioners now have an appraisal of Fieldcrest Cannon Stadium that puts the value between $7 million and $10 million.
The Rowan County Board of Commissioners met in closed session for more than an hour Tuesday night with Scott Robinson, a Salisbury appraiser hired to give a detailed analysis of the 55 acres off Lane Street in Kannapolis.
The 4,700-seat stadium was built in 1995. It serves as the home of the Intimidators, a Class A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox.
The facility has never realized the attendance levels originally projected.
An executive summary of the appraisal cited David Murdock’s N.C. Research Campus project as a positive force toward increasing the value of the property.
Robinson looked at all aspects, including the potential use of the property without the stadium.
He also looked favorably at developing some 20-plus acres of the property for office-institutional uses and some retail.
Chairman Arnold Chamberlain said the appraisal gives the county a good working plan on how to deal with the stadium.
He appointed commissioners Jim Sides and Jon Barber to meet with Kannapolis city officials to work out the ownership issue.
Chamberlain recommended that the first meetings be without attorneys present, saying attorneys can be brought in when they are needed.
The county and Kannapolis have been at odds for the past few years over ownership of the stadium and surrounding property.
For two years or more the county pushed for Kannapolis to sign an equity agreement based on the dollars invested. Under that scenario, Rowan County paid 75 percent of the costs, or $5.1 million, with Kannapolis paying 25 percent, or $1.7 million.
The equity agreement also included the option for Kannapolis to become a 50-percent owner in 1995 dollars. The buy-back price was $2.4 million, which included $1.7 million in principal and $628,000 in interest.
Commissioners withdrew that offer in August.
Kannapolis claims that it already owns 50 percent of the stadium.
A joint development agreement recorded at the Rowan County Register of Deeds office in April 1995 specifies that once Kannapolis pays off the $1.5 million borrowed from Rowan County to fund the stadium, the county “agrees to convey to the City of Kannapolis one-half undivided interest in the aforesaid real property.”
The agreement also specifies that the property cannot be sold without consent of both the county and Kannapolis.
The development agreement was dated October 1994 and dealt with the original funding formula. When construction costs soared and more county money flowed into the project, the development agreement was never changed.