Business View Civil & Municipal l November 2022

131 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 9 Adding to the city’s allure is the newly built Franklin Urban Sports and Entertainment District, known commonly as the FUSE District. The district includes a newly built $30 million, 5,000- seat sports and entertainment complex, which is surrounded by a $75-million commercial and urban living area that will eventually connect to the city’s downtown core. The district is home to retail shops, restaurants, urban residential housing, and office space. “(With FUSE) we are able to draw people here, not just people who are interested in sports and entertainment, but those who are interested in investing in that area of our city, which will connect to downtown and bring more livability, as well as more excitement and entertainment to downtown for people to make it their destination of choice,” Elliott explains. The sports and entertainment complex will play host to soccer, football, and lacrosse games, as well as a home for concerts, festivals, and events. Its main purpose, though, is home to the city’s new Atlantic League of Professional Baseball team, the Gastonia Honey Hunters. “They are playing fantastic baseball, which has been a great addition to bringing families out for entertainment, especially after being inside during a two-year pandemic,” Reid says. With all the new businesses and tourist attractions comes growth in population. Gastonia has several different residential developments in various phases of construction to help meet that need. “We have many, many multi-family projects going on right now, being constructed and approved. We’ve had over 2,000 units approved in the last two and a half years,” says Michael Peoples, Gastonia’s city manager. “We also have many single-family developments approved and in the process of approval throughout the city as well.” “We’re growing. As the mayor likes to say, we’re growing north, south, east, and west, all throughout the city. It’s not just in the east, it’s not just in the west. We’re seeing it throughout the 52 square miles of the city.” Two former mill sites have been redeveloped into loft housing. Trenton Mill Lofts recently opened in the FUSE District, offering 85 one and two-bedroom units, and the Loray Mill Lofts is a GASTONI A , NORTH CAROL INA