Chapel Hill community discusses potential Dean E. Smith Center relocation

As a 1988 graduate, Scott Bouldin watched the UNC men’s basketball team compete on two different home courts – Carmichael Arena as a first-year and the newly opened Dean E. Smith Center during his later academic years. 

Bouldin, now a Chapel Hill resident, may soon witness the Tar Heels move to a new arena. 

In August 2024, the University’s Physical Master Plan Working Group presented a final report on campus redevelopment that included six potential properties for the relocation and renovation of a new basketball arena, two of which are located off campus. 

The University-owned properties include the William and Ida Friday Center and Carolina North, the former site of Horace Williams Airport that closed in 2018. According to an email statement from the Carolina Athletics Department, the University is still evaluating options for the future arena. The process is ongoing and no final decisions have been made about the site. 

If selected, the plan would require that structured parking at the sites be built and that all uses currently at the properties must be relocated. Plans also include the potential development of mixed-use programs like lodging, retail, entertainment and dining.

“The university of never-ending construction,” Bouldin said. “We’d say that back when I was in school, and you know that's just part of life around the University.”

Bouldin and his wife chose to live close to the University so they could walk to campus, he said. Currently, their walk to the Smith Center is around 30 minutes from their home. 

In January, Chancellor Lee Roberts announced plans to increase enrollment by 5,000 students over the next decade. Bouldin said UNC will need a lot of space on campus to accommodate the growing population, making an off-campus site more favorable for expansion. 

He said he prefers the proposed Friday Center location as the convention space could benefit from the mixed-use and retail spaces proposed by the project. Christine Khoury, a realtor and Chapel Hill resident of over 30 years, said the Friday Center already has available parking and a solid transportation system in place. 

Chapel Hill Transit currently offers three bus routes that take people to and from the Friday Center – the N, S and FCX. The report states the university will provide additional bus transit for on-campus students at the off-campus sites with a 3,000 person max per game.

While the Friday Center is located near N.C. 54 which already sees heavy traffic on game days, Khoury said the Carolina North location is a more residential area with less infrastructure to handle such an influx of people.

“I think it would have a detrimental impact on the historic district, for sure,” she said. “Both not only the trees but [also] the traffic, and it would just change the feel of that whole area.”

Lee Tobin, a Chapel Hill resident of 32 years, said his biggest concern with the Smith Center moving off-campus is traffic for the surrounding area. The crossroads between Estes Drive and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, he said, is not built to handle the game-day level traffic. 

Tobin said the loss of green space at the Carolina North site is also concerning to some community members. The old airport site is currently home to a system of trails as well as a farmhouse and community garden.

“It's not clear what the footprint of the development will be, but it sounds like it's going to be larger than the footprint of the airport,” Tobin said.

The physical site of the existing airport is already cleared of trees, he said, and would be easiest to develop. The rest of the forested area, however, has more hills and trails, which Tobin said could be removed to make room for the new arena. 

While the future development of the Smith Center remains uncertain for now, Bouldin said the current location just does not fit the needs of the future.

“The new building — it's a big decision that's going to span many generations of students and fans and the university, so it's important to get it right,” he said.

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