Greensboro Triumph Center

Greensboro Triumph Center

by Knightrider | Published on May 9th, 2007, 10:31 am | Greensboro

here are clues that hint that it could be Disney.

1) anonymous Florida Development company is behind the project (Disney Development Company?- a subsidary and community development arm of Walt Disney)

2) several southern states are competeing for this development (Greensboro is the front runner)

3) Disney announced 3 months ago that it was thinking about building themed hotel/entertainment complexes in downtowns. (Greensboro's rumored project has a highrise hotel /entertainment complex......btw what is in this project that makes it feasible to build a highrise hotel downtown? just a few years ago hotels werent doing good downtown) These "Disney Downtown Districts" would be modeled after the Downtown Disney parks in Orlando and Anaheim which have ACM theaters, House of Blues, ESPN Zone and other venues for families and Children.

4) the Development is described as having an entertainment complex with with attractions for families, children and singles (VERY DISNEY LIKE)

5) hudreds of thousands of dollars were spent to do feasibilty studies. (Why on earth would it take that much money for a project in downtown Greensboro?)

6) The Florida development company is pondering wether Greensboro can support this project (indicating the large nature of the project)

7) The company is looking at Greensboro because of its central location between Charlotte and Raleigh. (indicating this project is expected to draw people from around the Piedmont)

The company's decision to look at Greensboro also has to do with the city's history which indicates a theme development. (American Revolution theme? ACC?)

9) Project appears to be a tourist destination (the developer wants to include the ACC Hall of Champions and Museum with this project)

10) The project has been descibed as HUGE and MASSIVE for Greensboro

11) an Orlando news reporter said in reference to the Disney/Greensboro speculation "I wouldn't be surprised"

12) This project is secret as hell!

Mind you, I'd be mighty pleased if Disney decided to build anything here. I'm a huge fan of their resort work. But I've had my heart broken by other "big projects" that we seemed perfect for.

I'll celebrate when they hold the press conference...

im actually surprised by the response im seeing about this on the other blogs. Even David Hoggard likes the idea. I really thought there would be people against it....remember we are the city that doesnt like to change and a major Disney complex in downtown Greensboro would alter not just downtown but the city as a whole. A Disney project such as this could pave the way for more toursit attractions in downtown and in the city, we'd see more highrise residential proposals ect....That would be a city and region changing project. Ive always thought that Greensboro should diversify its economy. Dont just rely on manufacturing and transportion. Greensboro has potential in the tourism industry. If Greensboro became a major tourist destination, that means more big conventions for the area along with national city name recognition. That also means the construction of more hotels in the area. (which helps out the furniture market in High Point btw) A Disney Entertainment Complex in downtown Greensboro could make our downtown the hottest nightlife and entertainment spot in the state or at the very least rival with Charlotte. That changes the perception of Greensboro. We no longer have to wear the "Greensboring" tag. It improves the quality of life in the city attracting young profesionals and companies to the city. I will say this based on what I heard.....if the largest scaled up version of the project gets built it could dramatically alter Greensboro's skyline. Now I dont know if that means a really tall tower above 25-stories or multiple towers in this project. I do know there are at least 5 BIG projects within this mega project. It would be nice if Greensboro for once had the best skyline in the Triad. Winston has held the title long enough

I'm all for the "Disney-In" thing too, but I'm guessing, er speculating that if this were to happen it's not because Disney chose Greensboro, but that a subsidiary of Disney has some sort of intentions, and this is merely the "set-up" for the "spike." If a company can control and possess major supporting infrastructure to a bigger, or larger entity, in whole it's like "insider trading" because you've monopolized a market.

I don't dare think what the truth is, but in reality, and "urban legend" this has "always" been project X or Disney's original Epcot Center idea. You thought Disney was about a mouse and cartoons? Disney had a vision to make "future land" his real-estate empire. Meetings with General motors, GE and other massive company sat in on meetings turning America (ie-Greensboro) into this mono-rail laden Disney developments.

Bla, bla, bla... My thinking is since Disney is dead, this is some part of his will being executed to the least of it's requirements by share holders. OR
Disney really does have an interest in transforming Greensboro into the city of tomorrow.

See? Disney was more of a "futurist" and "developer" then a guy with a cartoon mouse. Basically Disney is one huge real-estate experiment gone "super nuts"

You could apply alot of those paragraphs above to these "disney communities"

interesting stuff. LOL maybe there is a bigger conspiracy in all this.

LOL..very funny. I can picture Greensboro city council members marching down the steps singing and chanting Disney Maybe Mayor Keith Holiday could rap

Not trying to be smart, but can you name a few "cities with a laid back style of living and an easy go pace, that also offer "big" attractions that are lucrative and appeal to people many miles away."

I'm drawing a blank...

Liv wrote:
rumface wrote:Well Liv, if your definition of a "great" city is people coming to the area from 15 states away, then count us out; we're packing our bags. We lived in NJ close to New York City for 26 years. We moved to Greensboro to get away from all traffic, congestion, tourists, etc. Sure, it was great being 30 minutes from NYC (without traffic), and having top name performers, sports teams, gambling, etc nearby, but the quality of life there sucked.

I think that's the misconception that's holding us back. Just because we'd grow, and attract outside vistors doesn't mean we're going to turn into NY or LA, or even Atlanta, or Charlotte.... There are many cities with a laid back style of living and an easy go pace, that also offer "big" attractions that are lucrative and appeal to people many miles away. It's all in how you structure it... A downtown... atrraction very well might cause serious disruptions, but a amusement park on the outskirts of town might not,.

Knightrider wrote:im actually surprised by the response im seeing about this on the other blogs. Even David Hoggard likes the idea. I really thought there would be people against it...

The naysayers don't go on-line, that's why you're not hearing the noise. Once this is general knowledge, you'll start hearing from them. It might be a good time to invest in a business that makes signs...

A Disney Entertainment Complex in downtown Greensboro could make our downtown the hottest nightlife and entertainment spot in the state or at the very least rival with Charlotte. That changes the perception of Greensboro. We no longer have to wear the "Greensboring" tag. It improves the quality of life in the city attracting young profesionals and companies to the city.

I don't buy the whole youngsters calling it "Greensboring" because of the nightlife and entertainment. They are leaving for cities that have major employers, pay well and can be employed in their chosen field of studies. Disney coming to town will do nothing but increase employment in the service/hospitality industry. That will not attract or retain recent college graduates, no matter how good the nightlife. They need to have jobs in their field.

http://www.greensboroedp.com/documents/majoremployers.pdf

Of course, this list leaves off Guilford County's largest employer, Guilford County Schools. That is conveniently left off because a city/county whose largest employer is a second-tier city at best. We have several Fortune 500 companies here, yet look at the number of employees. A miniscule fraction of their total workforce.

As for improving the quality of life, a project like this will also attract the criminals and opportunists. I'll point out again that Greensboro, and Guilford County in general, does not have the infrastructure to support a project of this size. Do you think Disney is going to pay to improve the infrastructure, namely the roads? They'll be looking for a corporate hand-out like all the others.

Whew, glad to get that off my chest...

Liv..you care to comment? May 10th, 2007, 3:50 pm Reply with quote

Liv..you care to comment?

Big Bear, West Yellowstone Wyoming, Monterey, Asheville & many North Carolina, & Tennesee resort towns.

Even consider Santa Clarita... they have 6 flags, and by all accounts it's a very rural, and small town area. They advertise as Los Angeles, but is actually 40 miles away.

Laughlin, Nevada is a VERY small town, that didn't even have a fast food up till a few years ago, and had 1 gas station, despite being a mega gambling mecca.

I'm sure there are many more... but just because you choose a major attraction, doesn't mean the city will become crazy! It might however improve the local economy and provide jobs.

Greensboro will always have a low-skilled, underpaid majority due to the states inability to protect workers. Raleigh merely forced the stupid and poor out by creating a tech market from college graduates. I see nothing of the sort taking place here in Greensboro. The majority of the better educated people move, or start their own business to employee people and take advantage of the low labor wages. This being said, the wages in the city of Greensboro are so low, I wouldn't hesitate to welcome any company wishing to provide jobs to people.

I think it's a "win-win" situation no matter how you throw the ball. Greensboro needs to define itself, it needs to market itself. Right now, if you go to the city tourism site, you get the idea we are a huge conference center and nothing more.... that is the problem...

Good example of innovation, and very cheap too... strap one of these to the top of Center Point Building:

The swing is set on a 700ft high viewing platform on the tower in Harbin city, Heilongjiang province.

Participants sit on the steel seat and swing out over the city, beyond the edge of the platform.

The swing is called "Game for brave people", reports Harbin Daily.

The tower is the world's second-highest steel tower, after the Kiev tower in Ukraine.

Liv wrote:Big Bear, West Yellowstone Wyoming, Monterey, Asheville & many North Carolina, & Tennesee resort towns.

Even consider Santa Clarita... they have 6 flags, and by all accounts it's a very rural, and small town area. They advertise as Los Angeles, but is actually 40 miles away.

Laughlin, Nevada is a VERY small town, that didn't even have a fast food up till a few years ago, and had 1 gas station, despite being a mega gambling mecca.

I'm sure there are many more... but just because you choose a major attraction, doesn't mean the city will become crazy! It might however improve the local economy and provide jobs.

Liv, Liv, Liv. I'm sure you see the commonality between your examples...water and/or mountains. Two cities promote their lakes, one their coastal proximity, one their mountains and one the Colorado River.

You're comparing apples to oranges. Those locations were blessed with nature to draw people in. I found it interesting you chose locations in the Western part of the US, with the exception of Asheville.

Greensboro is in a great location to do things like visit Asheville (mountains) or the Outer Banks (coastal) or Lake Norman (lake), but we can never "be" those places because of our location (flat and land-locked).

When I think of a comparable city, Nashville comes to mind. And if it wasn't for a brief visit to Tijuana while visiting San Diego a few years back, Nashville would be the nastiest place I ever visited.

Anyway, I guess since Greensboro lacks and natural beauty, we're stuck with Disney building it for us...

Take for instance, Charlotte. They suck like we suck, and don't have water. So what do they do? They go and build a huge artificial white water center in the middle of suburbia. Again innovative, not repetitive.... and Greensboro "does" have water features it could tap into. Lake Resorts are huge, but we've sold all the surrounding properties to "homeowners." We also have local rivers that can be tapped.... but I think the answer is so-o simple its not even funny. It's simple because half of it's already here.

Greensboro's biggest mistake was to not assist the developers of the mall next to Emerald Point. The fact that it was practically built and then tore down was pure stupidity in my book.

The original idea of Emerald Point having a ball park, amusement park, and mall is still, in my opinion one of the most viable, and interesting things we could still obtain. Holden Road was originally designed to support multiple merchants, that would extend up to High Point road.

I'm guessing Koury had a good deal to kabash that.

The truth of the matter is nothing really is going to happen until the people around here get off there tooshes and does something.... I'm not saying everyone is lazy, but most people are. Look at the Woolworth's museum, a unfinished lackluster project that is likely to go bankrupt.

If your going to build a bloody museum, build a freaking museum, not a shrine to a single event in history. Where's the mummys and the Egyptian hieroglyphs, the 13th century paintings, or the roman sculptures?

What about more history about Greensboro, then modern history, or battleground park.... what about before these recent events? You can't tell me North Carolina was some untouched wooded area that later was inhabited by a few Indians.

That's the problem here. Let's think big! Let's take a chance. Instead of slipping a million here to Carroll, a million here to Disney, a couple mill here, lets save it, put it in a giant pot, and take a chance of doing something that puts our mark on the map. We can influence Greensboro. We just don't have enough faith in ourselves to do it, so we rely on these "outsiders" who are decidedly more after money then their personal investment in the area.

Great points, Liv!! I never knew that about Emerald Point. That would have been a perfect location for what you outlined.

I say, Liv for Mayor!!! Seriously. It's not the outsiders; it's the insiders that hire the outsiders and listen to everything they have to say. Oh, and you have to be over 50 to have any viable input into anything the "leaders" will listen to. It all points back to leadership. They are the ones that can facilitate, if not drive the changes to make Greensboro more than it is.

Regarding Charlotte, they don't suck as bad as we do. They have Lake Norman (I think; is it in Charlotte or do they just claim it as theirs?), professional sports teams, numerous music venue's, minor league sports teams, museums, a "real" airport, etc. and are able to sustain all of them.

GSO really has no claim to a large recreational body of water, can barely sustain minor league sports teams, no "true" music venues other than the Coliseum, rinky-dink museum's and I use the term "museum" very loosely, and an airport that barely has any flights more than 500 miles away non-stop.

Just as a reminder, I do like Greensboro!

Also remember that Busch Gardens was suppose to be built where Grandover is today....the land deal went sour and it ended up going to WIlliamsburg, VA. its interesting that Emerald Pointe's first name "Aqua Gardens" is similar to the name "Busch Gardens" maybe the waterpark had been planned as a Busch Garden's waterpark but when Greensboro was not selected for Busch Gardens they still planned on eventually building the waterpark....that could explain why the name "Aqua Gardens" changed before the waterpark even opened back in 1984. Plus Emerald Pointe is pretty close to the former proposed Busch Gardens site (Grandover)

Knightrider wrote:Also remember that Busch Gardens was suppose to be built where Grandover is today....the land deal went sour and it ended up going to WIlliamsburg, VA. its interesting that Emerald Pointe's first name "Aqua Gardens" is similar to the name "Busch Gardens" maybe the waterpark had been planned as a Busch Garden's waterparks but when Greensboro was not selected for Busch Gardens they still planned on building the waterpark....that could explain why the name "Aqua Gardens" changed before the waterpark even opened back in 1984. Plus Emerald Pointe is pretty close to the former proposed Busch Gardens site (Grandover)

I could have swore that the water park was opened for a few years as "Aqua Gardens" before its name change.

maybe it did...I was 6 at the time when the waterpark opened.

Knightrider wrote:maybe it did...I was 6 at the time when the waterpark opened.

Damn, I'm old...

I know for A long time there was talk of 6 Flags.... My understanding is that company is no longer expanding, but there certainly is enough land out that way which would allow the project to be completed. The problem, is eventually it won't. Hell, Ill settle for a SeaWorld, and that's the red-headed step child of amusement parks.

its a tough time for "traditional" theme parks now....mainly because they are just about played out now due to the lack of adding new exciting and unique attractions. Disney is still number one and thats because they have more money and are more creative.....I dont see Six Flags expanding too much now...if they did they would be aquiring amusement parks instead of building from scratch. Downtowns are coming back all across the country and the big thing will be downtown entertainment instead of traditional suburban roller coaster fun. Disney is already ahead of the pack with this.

Take a look at downtown Disney and Citywalk in Orlando for a good idea of where this might be going. Agree?

Sanjuro wrote:Take a look at downtown Disney and Citywalk in Orlando for a good idea of where this might be going. Agree?

I think that's the idea, though as to how it will be executed is another thing. I'd be very happy with a city walk deal.

I think if anyone, including Greensboro, wants to look into what the future should be, we need to look at major cities in China for reference.