MATT OLBERDING / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Wednesday, November 8, 2006 6:00 pm
On the day it publicly unveiled its plans for Lincoln’s future, the 2015 Vision group also revealed its membership has ballooned.
The group, which claimed 12 members earlier this week, released a list of more than 70 members that reads like a who’s who of the city’s top private and public leaders.
Released at a Thursday morning news conference, that list includes corporate CEOs, bank presidents, community boosters and current and former public officials.
Kent Seacrest, a local attorney who is a member of the 2015 Vision group and has acted as its public face, said those on the list will be asked to help make the plan come to fruition.
“They’re signing up, in my opinion, to work,” he said.
Seacrest said that may mean pledging money, helping to raise it, volunteering or doing a host of other things.
Although he earlier dispelled rumors that those wanting to join the group were required to pledge a certain amount of money, that doesn’t mean some haven’t.
Many of the group’s members own or lead businesses that might be likely candidates to invest in the projects the group is advocating.
When asked whether the group had received any commitment for investment, Seacrest said he wasn’t prepared to say and then smiled and said, “Stay tuned.”
The group, which some members say grew out of informal talk among local business executives, is proposing an ambitious list of projects it says are necessary to keep the city’s economy growing and to keep its best and brightest young people from moving away.
The projects include a new arena, convention center and hotel in the Haymarket, establishing a research and development corridor stretching from downtown to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus and moving the State Fair to the grounds of the Lancaster Event Center to give UNL room to grow.
The group hopes to accomplish its goals through public-private partnerships, much like the one between the city, UNL and Nebco that produced the Haymarket Park baseball stadium and softball complex.
Seacrest said the group has not done extensive research on potential development costs, but he acknowledged Thursday it will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Public officials who attended Thursday’s news conference praised the group’s work and said they were eager to see the projects go forward.
Mayor Coleen Seng said she was reassured that members had embraced elements of so many different studies and plans.
“There’s nothing but good coming out of what I’ve seen,” she said.
Lancaster County Board Chairwoman Deb Schorr called the plans exciting and said the board is looking forward to working with the private sector on the projects.
UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman, who is a member of the group and has taken heat over the its assertion that the fairgrounds should move, said he was excited about the recognition the community is giving to the role UNL will play in economic development.
And while the plan is focused on Lincoln and developed by Lincoln leaders, Perlman said, it will benefit for the entire state.
“This project, particularly as it supports the university, is a state asset,” he said.
Now that it has unveiled its plans, Seacrest said the group will spend the next weeks and months gathering input, raising money and talking with more public officials, particularly at the state level.
“We’re ready to go and want to get to accomplishing things,” he said.
Reach Matt Olberding at 473-2647 or molberding@journalstar.com.