http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2011/07/26/young-professionals-arena-sacramento.htm
Sacramento’s arena committee has only about 40 days until its deadline to offer its ideas for paying for a new sports and entertainment center.
Much work remains toward figuring out the finance plan and analyzing the downtown railyard site for a new arena. In the meantime, though, arena backers are continuing to share their vision and engage the community about the proposed project.
The discussion continued Monday evening at a young professionals forum on the new arena on the 25th floor of the U.S. Bank Tower, with a view of where the new home of the Sacramento Kings would be built.
The joint program of the Think Big Sacramento arena committee and the Urban Land Institute Sacramento Young Leaders Group enabled young professionals from a variety of fields and young professionals groups to offer their perspectives on the arena proposal. It also gave Kunal Merchant, chief of staff to Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, an opportunity to bring attendees up to date on the arena efforts.
By Sept. 6, the arena committee should have 10 to 20 potential revenue streams on a menu of options that would generate $387 million for a new sports and entertainment center, Merchant said.
“We’ve got to look at all options,” said Michael Ault, executive director of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership.
The solution isn’t going to be just one revenue stream, said Sean O’Brien, a panelist with Merrill Lynch.
The region will have to try multiple sources, he said.
O’Brien said he recently was involved in Houston’s $242 million municipal debt offering for upgrading the Toyota Center, which is home to the Houston Rockets.
Sacramento options include taxes on rental cars and hotel stays, digital signs and business improvement districts, Merchant said.
As the issues relate to the proposed arena, the young professionals offered their thoughts about financing, parking, smart-growth principles, public spaces, integration between a transit center and arena, and the mix of restaurants and shops that would accompany a sports and entertainment center.
Arena backers, Merchant said, have learned from the mistakes that were made during the past decade’s worth of arena proposals, specifically the failed Q and R ballot measures in 2006. One thing they’ve learned, he said, is people want a chance to weigh in throughout the process. So while there’s no finance plan yet, it’s still important to get out in the region to get community members input, he said.
As part of that, Think Big Sacramento is looking for “a couple hundred more people” to volunteer on the arena effort as “citizen architects,” said panelist Carla Collins Mixon, business development manager at MatriScope Engineering Laboratories Inc.MatriScope Engineering Laboratories Inc. and chair of ULI Sacramento’s Young Leaders Group.
Some 600 have signed up, Merchant said, toward the goal of 1,000.
One audience member suggested that other downtown sites, particularly Westfield Downtown Plaza, would be better than the railyards.
“The railyards will never be a perfect site,” Merchant said.
But the city owns the piece of land on which an arena would be built, he noted, and the arena could be built in conjunction with a planned transit hub.
As proposed, the city would own the sports and entertainment center and the Sacramento Kings would be a tenant.
Sacramento has until March to have a plan in place to replace the Kings’ current home in Natomas. If the region doesn’t come up with a replacement to the outdated Power Balance Pavilion, the National Basketball Association has said it will give its blessing to the Kings to move to another city where the team could get new, modern digs.
Sacramento’s arena committee has only about 40 days until its deadline to offer its ideas for paying for a new sports and entertainment center.
Much work remains toward figuring out the finance plan and analyzing the downtown railyard site for a new arena. In the meantime, though, arena backers are continuing to share their vision and engage the community about the proposed project.
The discussion continued Monday evening at a young professionals forum on the new arena on the 25th floor of the U.S. Bank Tower, with a view of where the new home of the Sacramento Kings would be built.
The joint program of the Think Big Sacramento arena committee and the Urban Land Institute Sacramento Young Leaders Group enabled young professionals from a variety of fields and young professionals groups to offer their perspectives on the arena proposal. It also gave Kunal Merchant, chief of staff to Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, an opportunity to bring attendees up to date on the arena efforts.
By Sept. 6, the arena committee should have 10 to 20 potential revenue streams on a menu of options that would generate $387 million for a new sports and entertainment center, Merchant said.
“We’ve got to look at all options,” said Michael Ault, executive director of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership.
The solution isn’t going to be just one revenue stream, said Sean O’Brien, a panelist with Merrill Lynch.
The region will have to try multiple sources, he said.
O’Brien said he recently was involved in Houston’s $242 million municipal debt offering for upgrading the Toyota Center, which is home to the Houston Rockets.
Sacramento options include taxes on rental cars and hotel stays, digital signs and business improvement districts, Merchant said.
As the issues relate to the proposed arena, the young professionals offered their thoughts about financing, parking, smart-growth principles, public spaces, integration between a transit center and arena, and the mix of restaurants and shops that would accompany a sports and entertainment center.
Arena backers, Merchant said, have learned from the mistakes that were made during the past decade’s worth of arena proposals, specifically the failed Q and R ballot measures in 2006. One thing they’ve learned, he said, is people want a chance to weigh in throughout the process. So while there’s no finance plan yet, it’s still important to get out in the region to get community members input, he said.
As part of that, Think Big Sacramento is looking for “a couple hundred more people” to volunteer on the arena effort as “citizen architects,” said panelist Carla Collins Mixon, business development manager at MatriScope Engineering Laboratories Inc.MatriScope Engineering Laboratories Inc. and chair of ULI Sacramento’s Young Leaders Group.
Some 600 have signed up, Merchant said, toward the goal of 1,000.
One audience member suggested that other downtown sites, particularly Westfield Downtown Plaza, would be better than the railyards.
“The railyards will never be a perfect site,” Merchant said.
But the city owns the piece of land on which an arena would be built, he noted, and the arena could be built in conjunction with a planned transit hub.
As proposed, the city would own the sports and entertainment center and the Sacramento Kings would be a tenant.
Sacramento has until March to have a plan in place to replace the Kings’ current home in Natomas. If the region doesn’t come up with a replacement to the outdated Power Balance Pavilion, the National Basketball Association has said it will give its blessing to the Kings to move to another city where the team could get new, modern digs.
