Dec. 28—Editor’s note: No. 5 of the top 10 stories of 2023.

HIGH POINT — Some projects in and around core city High Point moved forward in 2023, while others stalled.

The city was able to advance one of its goals in the downtown catalyst district by acquiring a key property after raising its offer to the owner.

The city has long claimed it needs the northeast corner of W. English Road and N. Lindsay Street for future parking for Truist Point stadium and the surrounding area.

It accomplished this in March 2023 when Piedmont Electric Repair Co. agreed to sell its two tracts at the intersection after the city raised its offer for the parcels from $985,000 to $1.5 million.

The city had sued to seize the property by eminent domain, but dropped the case after PERCO accepted the higher offer.

The city made another major property purchase in the area in September, when it acquired four parcels at N. Main Street and Church Avenue that include First Baptist Church for $11 million for the future City Hall site.

The church congregation in 2022 decided to relocate to a smaller facility and sell the campus, which drew the city’s interest because of its centralized, highly visible location downtown.

The SpringHill Suites by Marriott hotel broke ground at the Congdon Yards campus in October by developer Benchmade Ventures.

Site preparation work is underway for the 128-room hotel at 401 W. English Road, incorporating part of a 100-year-old former Adams-Millis machine shop that was most recently used for a High Point Market showroom.

Developers are targeting the third quarter of 2025 as the projected completion date for the hotel.

Across the street, another construction project is underway at the stadium, which is being prepared to host the Carolina Core FC professional soccer team beginning next spring.

The team will share the facility with the High Point Rockers baseball team.

The $6 million project funded by the city involves removing part of the stands in the right-field corner area in order to enlarge the field to the standards of MLS Next Pro, which is the developmental league for Major League Soccer.

The field’s artificial turf has been removed and is being replaced with a new surface that will meet color, pattern and playability standards for both baseball and soccer.

Other projects elsewhere downtown did not fare as well in 2023.

The largest vacant office building in High Point remained that way after a potential buyer walked away from 101 S. Main St., site of the so-called “Showplace West” that’s been empty for about 15 years.

A New York developer had the property under contract to purchase for more than two years, but never closed, so Forward High Point, the owner of the property, opted to put it back on the market.

The potential buyer, CMC Development Group, had planned to convert the site into a mix of residential, office and retail uses.

Forward High Point, the downtown development nonprofit, has been accepting bids from other potential buyers.

Next to it, another project — the conversion of the former Radisson/Red Lion hotel into a mix of apartments and hotel rooms — had also stalled as of the end of the year.

Part of the property has been put back into use as a High Point Market showroom, but the guest-room portion of the building has not yet started demolition work, with construction permits pending final release since May.

The countdown so far: No. 10: Wesley Memorial votes to leave UMC. No. 9: Toyota, Boom projects advance. No. 8: Residents protest plans for new school. No. 7: American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame opens. No. 6: Washington Street gets boost. No. 5: Core City continues to progress.