FUSE to transform Franklin area.

AuthorBlake, Kathy
PositionSPONSORED SECTION

Franklin Boulevard is a 4 1/2-mile crowded artery of shopping plazas, restaurants, gas stations and abundant stoplights that pumps life through Gastonia. At its western end, where commercialism gives way to government buildings and blue-collar shops, a 16-acre block bordered by Franklin, South Hill Street, South Trenton Street and West Main Avenue is being recalculated as a retail, residential and entertainment magnet.

A Sears building, empty for decades, has been demolished and Trenton Mill--a vacant, historic textile mill on West Main built in 1897--awaits repurposing. The Budget Inn at West Franklin and South Hill will meet the bulldozer. From this square parcel, the Franklin Urban Sports and Entertainment (FUSE) complex will rise.

FUSE's centerpiece will be a 4,000-seat multiuse stadium whose primary function will be baseball. The Gastonia Grizzlies of the summer collegiate Coastal Plain League currently play at nearby Sims Legion Park. The stadium would be capable of converting for other sports and outdoor concerts. In April 2017, the city of Gastonia partnered with the UNC School of Government's Development Finance Initiative for development of the first phase of the FUSE district at Trenton Mill, which the city acquired for $495,000. Plans call for 75 studio, one-bedroom and twobedroom apartments and to use the mill's 1,800-square-foot outbuilding for retail and restaurants. The estimated development cost for the Trenton Mill project is...

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