Winthrop University’s esports program is set to move into a new building. And that move could allow space for university participants and others in the community.

Starting this July, the program will begin leasing space in the Lowenstein Building near downtown Rock Hill in Knowledge Park. The lease will run through 2028.

“With the approval of the Board of Trustees, we are investing in esports in a big way as we expand in the club sports for the future,” Winthrop President Edward Serna said during a press conference Friday. “This requires additional space for student gamers, and we are thrilled with the opportunity to move downtown but also be close to campus.”

The esports program currently shares classroom space in Owens Hall on the Winthrop University Campus. The new site will be approximately a mile from Owens Hall.

The space in the Lowenstein Building is about 6,500 square feet. The larger space will accommodate more students as the esports program looks to increase the number of participants.

Jacob “FrostForest” Chan, a 22-year-old senior from Salt Lake City, joined Winthrop’s program from Harrisburg University because he liked the direction in which Winthrop is moving.

Chan said he’s excited about the change of scenery and what that could add to his experience.

“It helps the team a lot more because we all have more space to do the things that we want to do,” Chan said. “We’re not really intruding on anyone else, so it really feels like it’s actually our own space now.”

Per a press release, Athletic Director Chuck Rey said Winthrop is looking for outside donors to help pay for furniture, computers and other gear at the new site.

“I think the thing the team is mainly excited for is the new equipment,” said Kenji Kaneko, a 23-year-old senior. “Since I’ve been here for three years now, we’ve had the same chairs, which are kind of getting old. Same with the PCs, they’re a little slower now because you’ve got to upgrade them as you do stuff.”

Esports coach Josh Sides said the space also will be open to events for high school teams and other local events.

“(We are) very excited to have a facility like this,” Sides said. “What it’s going to mean for us moving from Owens, a space where we are kind of secluded and cut off a little bit from campus life in general just due to space constraints, and moving into a space where we’ll have more room to host community events, to do more to bring in local high schools, rec leagues. Interfacing with the campus community and also the Rock Hill community at large.”

Winthrop’s esports program has three teams: one each for League of Legends, Valorant and Super Smash Brothers.

The League of Legends team is currently in the the second round of the College League of Legends College Championship.

This story was originally published April 28, 2023, 4:10 PM.

This summer will be my first summer staying in the Rock Hill area over the summer. I’m so excited to see what there is to knock off my bucket list this summer.

I got a lot of these recommendations from TIikok, personal experience, and The Instagram @axioscharlottee.

The first recommendation is a breakfast, lunch, and brunch spot very close to WInthrop’s campus. This is my first recommendation because I recently went there and had the best food ever. The establishment is called Another Broken Egg cafe. I got Shrimp and Grits, and it was hands down one of the best restaurants I’ve ever been to.

Another cute place is Knowledge Perk Coffee shop, it’s right beside the small Mercantile. They sell coffee and small pastries. This is a good place for studying, bible study, and just small gatherings with friends. They even sometimes have a live band going and the aura is very peaceful. There’s free wifi, tables with outlets, a conference room, and couches.

This goes right along with drinks, it’s a dessert shop. The Nineity’s Dessert Bar. This is located in the same shopping center as Anorher Broken Egg cafe. This restaurant serves cereal milkshakes, cookies, sundaes, dessert lattes, brownies, and more. The interior is so bright and vibrant. The art around it is nickelodeon tv shows and characters.

The next place is a food hall, named Gibson Mill Market. This place consists of a three food stall, and arcade room. The restaurant consists of a seafood restaurant, asian restaurant, and an ice cream parlor. The restaurant is located at 305 McGill Ave. I have not tried this place yet but it’s on my bucket list for sure.

The next place is a California- based cafe. It’s called Vitality Bowls.. It serves acai bowls, smoothies, salad, and wraps. This restaurant is in the South End area of Charlotte. The interior is bought and very welcoming.

Another great brunch place is the cutest restaurant named Tupelo Honey. This place is absolutely delicious. I have gone here a couple of times and have always been satisfied with the service and customer service. This restaurant serves chicken and waffles, shrimp and grits and anything else associated with brunch.

A fun more artsy thing to do in Charlotte is the Mint Museum. According to Tripadvisor Website, it’s “Designed by Machado and Silvetti Associates of Boston, the five-story, 145,000-square-foot facility combines inspiring architecture with cutting-edge exhibitions to provide visitors with unparalleled educational and cultural experiences. Located in the heart of Charlotte’s burgeoning city center, Mint Museum Uptown is an integral part of the Levine Center for the Arts, a cultural campus that includes the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts and Culture, the Knight Theater, and the Duke Energy Center. Mint Museum Uptown also features a wide range of visitor amenities, including the 240-seat James B. Duke Auditorium, the Lewis Family Gallery, art studios, a restaurant, and a museum shop.” I went a couple weekends ago with my friends and it was so beautiful and truly amusing to see all the work, especially the Picasso floor.

These are a few things I have done or want to do this weekend as I reside in the Rock/Hill Charlotte area for the summer. I hope you all added a few of these to your summer bucket list!

Amanda Brooke Karraker left her home after an argument on April 1, deputies say. She hasn't been seen since.

YORK COUNTY, S.C. — Deputies in York County are asking for the public's help finding a woman who hasn't been seen since April 1.

The York County Sheriff's Office said 34-year-old Amanda Brooke Karraker was last seen on New Sugaree Town Drive in Rock Hill on April 1. It's believed she left her home following an argument sometime between 3 and 7:30 p.m. Deputies said Karraker left her purse, phone and other personal belongings.

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Karraker is described as a white woman who is approximately 5 feet tall and weighs 110 pounds. She has blue eyes and brown hair.

York County deputies said she is known to frequent the vape shop on Celanese Road next to a Dunkin Donuts in Rock Hill.

MISSING: We are still seeking information on the whereabouts of Amanda Brooke Karraker. She was last seen April 1st, at 508 New Sugaree Town Dr., Rock Hill, SC. Amanda is known to frequent the vape shop on Celanese Rd. in Rock Hill next to Krispy Kreme. #missingperson #YCSONews pic.twitter.com/xneVfF6RxN

— York County Sheriff (@YCSO_SC) April 25, 2023

Anyone with information about the whereabouts of Amanda Brooke Karraker is asked to call the York County Sheriff's Office at 803-628-3059.

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Rock Hill serves as an example for South Carolina communities in transition from a mill town production past to a more modern future. Now, Rock Hill also will serve as host.

The first week of May, the city will host the 2023 South Carolina Community Capital Conference. Economic development professionals from across the state will come to learn about investment and community financing options. They’ll tour Rock Hill from Knowledge Park to Freedom Walkway to Clinton College.

Mayor John Gettys said people have come to Rock Hill for years to talk about sports tourism, community empowerment or special projects like the Rock Hill Sports & Event Center.

“It’s nice to now have them come specifically to talk about investing, how you create those opportunities,” Gettys said.

Gettys is a panelist at the May 2-3 conference, and will open alongside UNC public policy and business professor Jeanne Milliken Bonds with a presentation on Rock Hill’s strategic vision. Gettys said the success Rock Hill had the past four decades of reinventing itself isn’t some closely held secret.

Rock Hill is South Carolina’s fifth largest city.

“Historically, it’s very easy to explain,” Gettys said. “It’s relationships.”

Community members and groups like the Rock Hill Economic Development Corporation put a critical eye toward the city in key moments of transition, to set a vision for what Rock Hill could become.

In fall 2019 a large gathering of economic leaders and investors came together in Rock Hill to outline more than half a billion dollars of planned downtown revitalization. Much of it stemming from economic incentives available at the time, like federal opportunity zones. Former mill, warehouse and other buildings would become apartments, restaurants and business sites. Despite COVID-19, some of those projects are open and others are under construction in a rapidly growing center city.

However, Rock Hill isn’t all success.

The high-profile plan to bring Carolina Panthers headquarters to the city fell through after disputes between the team, city and county on financing. Yet that site remains a key piece of the city’s future. It’s now hundreds of acres the city owns through bankruptcy proceedings by the team, with new roads under construction and a new interchange off nearby I-77.

Gettys said work on roads, a bridge, the interstate and demolition of the former Panthers facility will take another six months. Then the city will be in a better place to determine what will go there.

“We do have, it seems like almost daily, contacts,” Gettys said. “Interested people or interested companies. We’re in no rush.”

As mayor, Gettys often talks about the transition in Rock Hill from successful city to a significant one. As change at the downtown mills and warehouses brought opportunity in recent years, so can the former headquarters site off the interstate.

“Opportunities like this are what allows successful cities to become significant,” Gettys said.

The upcoming conference centers on the theme “Forget What You Thought You Knew: A New Vision of an Old Town.”

It will dive into community financing options and new capital sources for economic growth in South Carolina. Speakers include Tara Sherbert whose company is behind The Power House project, Justin Smith with Hoppin’ and Gary Williams with Williams & Fudge to explain how deals came together at Knowledge Park.

“The economic growth and robust community development projects in the Rock Hill community make it an ideal venue to showcase and learn about how community development financing can grow and evolve a community,” said Bonds, who also chairs the capital alliance board of directors.

Other speakers bring a wider view. Tonya Matthews is CEO of the International African American Museum set to open in Charleston this summer. Jennifer Clyburn Reed is federal co-chair of the Southeast Crescent Regional Commission. Both will serve as keynote speakers.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for community development financiers and leaders to hear first-hand about the powerful and positive impact provided by creative financing tools for community economic development projects,” Matthews said.

Clyburn Reed co-chairs a federal-state partnership that focuses on economic development for 428 counties and areas in seven Southeastern states. She served almost three decades in education with South Carolina public schools.

“South Carolina communities are in constant need of more creative financing tools and capital sources to drive economic growth,” Clyburn Reed said. “I look forward to connecting with leaders from around the state to discuss ways we can move community financing forward.”

With a revitalizing downtown corridor, Rock Hill has something of a new challenge.

Anyone can look at dilapidated structures or failing areas and see the need for change. But can the city maintain that momentum -- that decades-long foresight -- when the present seems so promising?

Gettys said it’s still about relationships, about taking success and extrapolating it to parts of the city that haven’t yet seen it, to all areas and for all citizens.

“Successful as Rock Hill’s been for a while now,” Gettys said, “you still see something like Miracle Park built. You still see Clinton ConNEXTion come together.”

The city has an ongoing commerce corridor plan focused on zoning and land use implications for close to 3,000 acres along I-77 in the southern part of the city. It will look for ways to best match residential, commercial and industrial uses as land develops. It’s one of several large projects aimed at creating what Rock Hill wants to become, before the city gets there.

“It was just a few years ago we were talking about the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of development downtown,” Gettys said. “Now we’ll see, who knows what the numbers are now?”

From the newest downtown brewery to the highest-end steaks to some of the most unique apartments, plans are sky high for the almost century-old brick building that once powered an iconic Rock Hill business.

“Hopefully it’s just a hub of a lot of great times to come,” said Tara Sherbert, CEO of The Sherbert Group and developer of the The Power House.

The 378 Technology Center Way address is a 60,000-square-foot redevelopment of the building that once powered the 2.5 million-square-foot Bleachery site in Rock Hill. It’s best known for its two tall brick smoke stacks. The Power House will have 37 apartments from studio to three-story.

Earlier this year Pineville-based Middle James Brewing Company signed as an anchor tenant. Since, restaurant additions include Ms. Lillian’s Kitchen, Flip Out Burger, Gordo & Chuli Taqueria and Naroodle Chibi. The newest signing is Epic Prime, an upscale steakhouse concept from the same group that brought Epic Chophouse in Fort Mill.

There’s also Charlotte-based ice cream shop The Local Scoop and Javesca Coffee Roasters. Bareknuckle Barbershop is part of the project, too.

Middle James is under construction in what was the old turbine room. It will overlook new event space on the Power House side nearest the Rock Hill Sports & Event Center. Epic Prime will be below Middle James, with a private patio along one one of the smoke stacks.

Sherbert said her team worked eight months with Epic Prime partner Elliott Close on the restaurant concept. The steakhouse will have an intimate feel and offer an experience unlike others in the Rock Hill area.

“Having that very high-end, prime component of every steak was very important and very fitting for this building,” Sherbert said of Close’s vision, “and we very much agree.”

Apartments should show up on rental sites within a couple of weeks. New residents should move in mid-February. The eight-stall food hall in under construction and should have equipment coming in February, with a planned March opening.

“To open up one use we really need other uses,” Sherbert said.

Early planning for The Power House included a fully commercial concept. The COVID-19 pandemic and time since changed those plans to the mixed-use concept in place now.

“The Power House was always intended to be the entertainment hub for the entire University City area,” Sherbert said.

The developer has some experience. Drayton Mills in Spartanburg is almost 400,000 square feet with 289 luxury apartments and 60,000 square feet of retail. To date, Sherbert said, it’s the largest textile mill redevelopment of its kind in the state. The Power House will have the same elements, just fit into 60,000 square feet of space.

Sherbert’s company has a few more prospects throughout the region for redevelopment. Keeping the old steel and historic frames in place set apart projects like The Power House. A three-bedroom apartment there, for instance, utilizes the old coal trough as an open atrium.

Which can cause challenges.

“This is anything but a square box,” Sherbert said.

It took eight months to clear the site full of old boiler equipment, then another eight for construction. New residents and guests at business sites will see the same steel bones and brick accents that have long been part of the city’s landscape.

Yet it’s also the newness of downtown that will help The Power Plant. Along with the sports arena there’s new business in the Lowenstein Building, 144 new apartments right behind The Power Plant, student housing, a hotel and The Thread bringing more new business.

“Rock Hill is obviously on fire,” Sherbert said. “It’s a great place to be. The timing of this project, we feel, is just about perfect.”

This story was originally published December 29, 2022, 7:51 AM.