CHARLOTTE—Running a city of 600,000 people is a big-budget enterprise. Yet even by the standards of North Carolina’s largest city and county, Charlotte and Mecklenburg County have recently faced a large number of requests for assistance in financing high-visibility projects. Developers, local arts groups, and the city’s minor league baseball team have recently proposed a combined $160 million in public funds for various projects.

The situation Charlotte faces is different from what many communities today are experiencing. Charlotte is a rapidly growing city featuring a vibrant central business district, completely with an ever-increasing number of skyscrapers. Tens of thousands workers commute on a daily basis into uptown Charlotte. The streets are even increasingly lively after hours, and a number of successful bars, clubs, and restaurants operate in the area.

Perhaps the most obvious signs of success are the high land values in and around downtown Charlotte. Paradoxically, this is also perceived as a problem. The high land prices, as compared to more outlying areas, have made downtown Charlotte unattractive for retail development.

As Wachovia economist Mark Vitner said to The Charlotte Observer, “If you simply try to recreate a suburban shopping experience in a downtown area, that’s doomed to fail.”

And Charlotte’s vision of itself, or at least the vision of those Charlotteans that guide public policy, most definitely includes stores located near uptown. To address this perceived shortcoming, both the city and county have been willing to make deals with developers.

Earlier this year, the city and county reached an agreement with Spectrum Properties on a plan to convert the city’s old convention center into a retail and entertainment hub, featuring among other attractions, a movie theater. The public contribution over time may approach $7 million, although the project would have to succeed for Spectrum to get nearly half the funds. Spectrum had originally requested the city provide $4.8 million in infrastructure improvements, $420,000 a year in city money for 10 years to subsidize parking, and a deferral on property taxes.

Putting the old convention center to some productive use was a long time in coming. The building has sat unused since 1995. The city’s previously attempt at selling the building in 2000 fell through when the developer the city selected was unable to fund the project.

City and county leaders are reviewing a proposal for $17 million in tax breaks over 10 years for a separate project to redevelop Midtown Square, an old shopping mall near downtown Charlotte. The core tenants would be a Home Depot EXPO Design Center and a Target store. A second phase of the project would add additional retail and office space plus a mid-rise condominium complex.

Under the proposal, 90 percent of the tax revenue generated by the project would be go back to the developers.

While the money developers are seeking is substantial, even greater requests for public funds have come from arts and sports groups. Previous city decisions mean that any funding, even to improve existing city-own facilities, would likely result in a tax or fee increase of some sort.

The critical event was Charlotte’s attempt to keep a National Basketball Association franchise. By the late 1990s, the owner of the Charlotte Hornets was unhappy with the team’s home at the Charlotte Coliseum and was considering moving elsewhere. In a last-ditch effort to keep the team, the city put to a referendum a plan to build a new arena, a new stadium for the Charlotte Knights minor league baseball team, and fund five arts-related capital projects. Bundling the disparate elements together was widely regarded as a means of gaining support for its largest and least popular element, the arena. Funding would come from the city’s hotel-motel taxes and new car-rental and ticket taxes.

The referendum failed and soon thereafter the Hornets were on their way to New Orleans. The NBA, however, agreed to award Charlotte an expansion franchise, contingent upon the city contributing heavily toward a new arena. To pay for the new building, Charlotte City Council voted to borrowed money against the entirety of the city’s future hotel-motel tax receipts.

Not discussed at the time was how — or even if — the city should fund future tourism-related projects, given that the traditional and most logical funding source had been full committed for the foreseeable future.

In May, the proverbial other shoe dropped. The Arts and Science Council, an umbrella agency for Charlotte’s arts groups, presented the city with its visions for the future. The plan came to $190 million, with $88 million from private sources, $88 million to come from the city, and the county asked to contribute land worth $14 million. While some of the special proposals, such as remodeling the Discovery Place science museum, were part of the arena bundle, others were new.

The city has formed a committee to examine the request and identify potential funding sources.

The other party to the arena bundle, the Charlotte Knights class AAA baseball team, has also made numerous requests for public money. Despite their name, the Knights actually play across the state line in Fort Mill, S.C. The team averaged only 4,081 fans per game this past session, the second lowest attendance in the 14-team International League.

Not surprisingly, the team’s owners have decided that their revenue stream would be enhanced if they could move into Charlotte proper. Since 2000, the team has regularly forwarded proposals to both the city and county seeking public dollars to help with a new, in-town, ballpark. The Knight’s latest proposal would have them pay half the $34 million cost of the new park proper, with local government providing both the land and covering the other half of the construction cost. The club’s previous proposal had the team contributing about $5 million. Though the county has agreed to look at the proposal, the club’s previous proposals have not generated much public attention or support, making public funding likely a long shot.

Michael Lowrey is associate editor of Carolina Journal.