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“We wanted to start digging by the first of April, so we're a couple of days ahead of schedule,” Beale said.
“It's exciting times and it's been a long haul and it all will be a reality.”
The Carolina Crossroads Music & Entertainment District, the brainchild of Randy Parton, a country and gospel music performer and brother of superstar Dolly Parton, is expected, according to economic development experts, to help transform the Roanoke Valley from an economically-depressed former mill town to a major tourist attraction.
Currently, employees of the contractor, Roanoke Rapids-based Rightmeyer Machinery, are busy grading a section of land just behind the future site of The Randy Parton Theater, the anchor for the district's $247 million first phase and the first building set for construction. Hotels, restaurants and other amenities, including a $17 million aquarium, are expected to follow.
Beale said before construction for the planned 35,000-square-foot, 1,500 seat theater commences, the contractor will most likely have a surveyor visit the site and “lay the pad.”
The $14.65 million facility, which will be initially financed by a $21 million bond program through the city, should be complete in the spring of 2007.
Under the financing program, project initiator Randy Parton must repay the city's investment through money collected from ticket sales.
Meanwhile, the roadway next to the planned district, located in a newly annexed area of Roanoke Rapids just off Interstate 95 Exit 171, has been renamed “Carolina Crossroads Parkway” and a new sign has been displayed, Beale confirmed.
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