Remember that $500,000 in state money also went to the Randy Parton Theater. That means $22 million in government money for a project whose feasibility study assumed significant portions of Carolina Crossroads would already be operating, as we noted in a 2005 Spotlight:


ERA only focused on one 1,500-seat theater if other aspects of the project?such as a 200,000-square-foot retail center and two hotels that will add 400 rooms to the region?s 1,000 existing rooms?were completed and operating before the theater opens. There is no reported study on the feasibility of the hotels or any of the other theaters in the entertainment district, although the ERA study shows that some of the hotels in the region currently operate at just 50 percent occupancy.


Maybe someone will also take another look at the Advanced Vehicle Research Center up the road in Northampton County, which has received more than $11 million from the state and counting.