With early voting set to begin in under two months, the Augusta-Richmond County Coliseum Authority reviewed an updated feasibility study and education campaign for construction of a new James Brown Arena.
The authority is asking voters to approve issuing up to $433 million in debt, to be repaid through years of collecting a new half-cent sales tax, to fund construction of a new $250 million arena. Supporters say the $433 million allows for worst-case borrowing rates of 6% and other expenses.
Early voting starts Oct. 16 in the Nov. 7 referendum.
Prior to the authority’s 2021 referendum, which authorized increasing property taxes to pay for a new arena and failed at the polls, it engaged real estate consultants Hunden Partners in 2020 to conduct a feasibility study of the market’s ability to support a new arena. Tuesday, members received an updated version of the study.
The 2020 study looked at the market’s ability to support a 10,500-seat arena with 1,300 premium seats, convertible into a 30,000-square-foot flat floor space, with a 6,200-square foot ballroom, 4,000 square feet of terraces and three meeting rooms, said Lucas Neuteufel, analytics manager for Hunden.
“A lot of things have changed since 2020 as we all know, so we were reengaged this year to update those numbers,” he said.
Since then, the region has added a new concert venue, the Enmarket Arena in Savannah, but demand for concerts remains strong, he said. Hunden determined the new Savannah venue will result in higher-quality talent coming to the area, so it increased projected concerts for Augusta by two, he said.
The pandemic introduced the world to Zoom meetings in 2020, but Hunden doesn’t believe online meetings have cut into demand for meeting space at the new arena, Neuteufel said.
The biggest change in demand since 2020 is for consumer shows, he said.
Hunden decreased its estimated annual arena visits accordingly, from more than 254,000 to around 240,000, he said. It decreased annual event days from 424 to 318, and lowered resulting annual hotel night stays from 14,400 to 14,000, he said.
The project is expected to create 2,104 construction jobs, up from 2,102 in 2020, but create fewer full-time jobs, 567, down from 613, he said. Its 30-year spending impact grew from $1.52 billion to $1.59 billion, he said.
The complete updated study is expected to go live on the project website in the coming days.
To get supportive voters to the polls – the referendum is the only thing on the Nov. 7 ballot for most Augusta voters – the authority has hired consultant Ryan Mahoney of Parlay, LLC. Tuesday, the authority approved spending up to $60,000 with Parlay to raise awareness.
Mahoney said he did not expect to spend the entire amount much because area radio and television stations have agreed to provide free advertising. The budget is “cut basically in half, thanks to the generosity of local media folks,” Mahoney said.
The marketing proposal included $6,200 for yard and large signs, approximately $37,000 for direct mail, $7,472 for digital advertising and $4,400 for three billboards for two months each.
