Task force: It's time to replace Pershing

 No comments  
 E-mail Story
 Print Story
  Share

 digg it!
 Facebook
 del.icio.us
Seed Newsvine
Fark It
Reddit

Text Size: 

Tools Sponsor

BY DEENA WINTER / Lincoln Journal Star

A mayor’s task force on Thursday recommended replacing Lincoln’s Pershing Center, and will spend the next six months figuring out how to pay for the new events arena. Mayor Coleen Seng appointed a 13-member committee in May to study how Lincoln’s existing and planned sports, conference and entertainment centers could complement or compete with each other. Graphic: Recommendations

On Thursday, she released the group’s report, which recommends:

* A new arena with at least 15,000 seats and skyboxes be built near the Haymarket to replace Pershing.  The task force earlier estimated the cost at $85 million to $100 million.

[+]Enlarge

Pershing Auditorium. (LJS File)

Pershing Auditorium. (LJS File)

* The community explore a “cooperative arrangement” with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in which UNL athletic and academic events could be held in the arena.

* A private developer build a new hotel and convention center to complement the arena. It suggested the convention center have at least 35,000 to 50,000 square feet of exhibition space and 20,000 square feet of banquet space. This could be done by building a new or expanding an existing facility, such as The Cornhusker Marriott hotel.

* The State Fair Board and Lancaster County Agricultural Society combine operations into one location, either at State Fair Park or the Lancaster Event Center, with a new or expanded exposition center to serve their needs for ag events, fairs and animal and trade shows.

* The community fund a study to determine what the community can afford, as well as timing and phasing.

* A new entity be created to plan, fund, build, manage and market Lincoln’s event centers to prevent duplication and leverage their combined financial resources.

Seng, who attended many of the task force meetings, said she will begin talking to potential public and private partners about a new arena. Task force chairman Dick Campbell said he was told two or three parties are interested in helping with the hotel and convention center.

A vote of the people will likely be necessary if an arena is to be built, he said.

The task force urged that any plans — such as the Ag Society’s plans for an up to $20 million expansion of the Event Center — be put on hold for six months until the group completes its work.

The task force nudged representatives of the State Fair Board and Ag Society into recent meetings after a falling-out in the mid-1990s over whether the Ag Society could own structures at State Fair Park, where it used to hold the Lancaster County Fair.

After negotiations between the two bogged down in the ’90s, the Ag Society built the Event Center at 84th and Havelock Avenue. Now the Ag Society is planning an expansion and the State Fair Board is considering upgrading its exhibit space.

“It is time to rebuild the relationship between the State Fair and the Ag Society,” Seng said. “If the two entities combine efforts and go after the agriculture trade shows, I believe they can achieve some great successes.”

Ron Snover, president of the Ag Society, sounded dubious, saying combining the two would not be easy, with the state overseeing the fair and county overseeing the Event Center.

“We hadn’t really thought about that because we’re getting along pretty good where we’re at,” he said. “We’re kind of both getting shoved together when we really hadn’t talked before … I can’t make any guarantees.”

And as for the recommendation that a new entity oversee all facilities, Snover said he doesn’t think his board or statutes would allow that.

“As far as actually running it, I can’t see that,” he said. “It just wouldn’t work.”

The task force will resume its weekly meetings next week.

Reach Deena Winter at 473-2642 or dwinter@journalstar.com.