The Cumberland County Board of Commissioners has directed the County Attorney to notify contractors of the lifting of the suspension on the Crown Event Center project contract.

At their regular meeting held on Monday, April 7, and after coming out of closed session, the Board voted unanimously to direct the County Attorney to notify contractors of the lifting of the suspension on the Crown Event Center project contract. 

The Board then recessed the meeting at 11:51 a.m. with plans to reconvene on Tuesday, April 8 at 11 a.m. 

On March 5, 2025, Cumberland County leadership announced a 30-day pause on the Crown Event Center project to allow for “a comprehensive project review.” 

In a press release, the County stated that the “proactive measure” was being taken to ensure the project’s long term success and maintain levels of transparency, accountability and public trust. 

During the pause, Cumberland County retained outside counsel, attorney J. Scott Flowers  of Fayetteville based Hutchens Law Firm, to act as a third- party counsel and provide an unbiased assessment of the status of the project and to address any concerns.

On April 8 at the County’s first "Chats with the Chairman” press conference, it was shared by Board of Commissioners Chairman Kirk deViere that Flowers provided a report to the County about the status of the project on April 7, which has been under review by County Commissioners during their closed sessions. 

“Yesterday, the Board directed County Attorney Rick Moorefield to notify the contractors of the lifting of the suspension on the Crown Event Center. The Board took action under its contractual obligations, our staff informed the Crown Event Center Project Team of this action and requested an update on the current status of the project. There are no restrictions on the contractors performing their work,” said deViere.  

Chairman deViere also shared that the County also brought in a second individual, an unnamed architect, to provide architectural analysis of “the current scope and budget of the project.” 

“We needed some additional information. We wanted to have that information, and [for] another architect to provide us a look at the scope and the budget of this project that we're doing, this $145 million project for this community. We thought that was important,” said deViere. 

According to deViere, as of April 8, 2025,  no adjustment in pricing has been made. 

The Board has also requested additional information from the staff for further consideration by the Board at a special meeting that will be held on Monday, April 14 at 1 p.m. in the county courthouse. 

“We anticipate receiving the additional information from the staff that was requested, as well as time for the Board to digest the report that we received from Scott Flowers yesterday, as well as the additional architectural analysis of the scope and budget,” said deViere.

Since lifting the suspension, contractors for the project are expected to check in with the County Attorney, but whether or not construction will be continuing is unclear with deViere simply stating that there are “no restrictions on the contractors performing their work.” 

“We've had a lot of information thrown at this Board in about a 24 hour period. You have a full report from an attorney that's over 1,000 pages, you have a scope and budget analysis from an architectural firm that we need to digest and I thought it was prudent that we provided the Board time to review that information, digest that we all operate and consume information in different ways, and then be able to ask questions back to the staff in advance of the special meeting,” said deViere. 

Currently the county has $35 million invested in the Crown Event Center to include architectural design, site work and preliminary planning. An update on the timeline for completion of the project was not provided. 

Watch the full press conference on the Cumberland County Government's YouTube page here. (Press conference begins at 3:01:005.)