CityView Magazine

CityViewNC.com | 15 'It's getting there' Menno and Suzanne Pennink make their home in the penthouse condo at 300 Hay. Sitting at his late mother's mahogany dining room table, with its architectural wood carvings, he is pensive. Outside, Hay Street is busy with couples taking in lunch or browsing downtown shops. Pennink recalls how he tried to persuade Antonella Scibilia to open an Italian restaurant in the Sandrock building across from the Arts Council of Fayetteville- Cumberland County. "I talked to Antonella for years," he says. "She said it was too small. I told her it was cozy." e restaurant opened in 2017. Today, it's a downtown dining destination. Born in Djakarta, Indonesia, the youngest child of four, Pennink takes pride in his years as a neurosurgeon who led the way to bring CT, or computerized tomography imaging, to Cape Fear Valley Medical Center, Highsmith-Rainey Hospital and FirstHealth of the Carolinas in Pinehurst. Pennink is a man of vision who looked beyond the horizon at what could be. But he has had disappointments. Among his dreams was a Fayetteville art museum at Festival Park that never gained the support he hoped for and restoring the Lafayette Hotel that burned. But downtown is better today than it was in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s because Pennink dared to dream. "It's getting there," says Pennink. "But it could be better." Recent downtown projects have added even more vibrancy downtown. ey include Segra Stadium, the Residences at the Prince Charles condos and apartments, Cameo Art House eatre, Capitol Encore Academy and Antonella's Italian Restaurant. "I'm proud of it," Pennink says with modesty about his downtown vision. "And glad others are starting to realize it." It's your time to shine. FREE month of unlimited washes. * 2598 Raeford Rd Fayetteville, NC 28305 FREE Vacuums and Mat Washers *Offer available to new members and thru the Tommy's Express app only. Downtown is better today than it was in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s because Pennink dared to dream. Coldwell Banker Advantage congratulates Menno Pennink " e Most Interesting Man in the World" on being selected as one of CityView's Downtown Visionaries.

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