EVANSVILLE | Downtown Arena | Com

[randella]

thought i would start a new thread for this since it's a pretty significant development... especially for evansville! the city council approved plans in december for a new 11,000 seat multi-use arena in downtown evansville. it will replace the aging roberts stadium on the city's east side.

the arena was designed by hok venue and has a maximum seating of 12,000 for concerts, 11,000 for basketball, and 10,000 for hockey. construction is slated to begin this year and be completed in 2011. here is the full proposal and the renderings.

http://www.evansvillegov.org/downloa...s%20Center.pdf
(41.4 mb pdf document)

[SpiderMonkey]

Looks like a nice addition for E'vil

[randella]

agreed... adding this in addition to the casino and the convention center is a really smart idea. plus it fills in a ford dealership which is really nothing more than a huge parking lot.

[araman0]

Great addition to Evansville! Downtown Evansville is my second favorite Indiana downtown, and is on the rise!

[randella]

good news on the arena front... both the indiana house and senate have approved the use of the food and beverage tax for the arena and the city is currently in negotiations for the land. initially the d-partrick ford dealership said they would be 'good corporate citizens' but then later said the dealership wasn't for sale. now they are 'open' to offers from the city. hopefully they can work a deal out and get this under construction!

http://www.news25.us/Global/story.asp?S=10191346

[Whosville]

This is good news. Hope it all progresses quickly. As a Missouri Valley guy, it would be nice to see Evansville packing the house and putting a good team on the floor again.

It is a shame though that there is no where on the riverfront that this can go. That dealership lot looks fine, but this kind of thing is always better on the river.

[Sunday_Bloody_Sundae]

I just hope Evansville doesn't head down the same financial slippery slope that Indianapolis did with its stadiums. It appears as though the same sales tax plan is in the works. That wasn't enough for indy. I hope Evansville has a backup plan to pay for this.

[randella]

it's my understanding they are using casino revenues, tif funds, and the local food and beverage tax. evansville is pretty conservative so they had to find a way to do this without using property taxes or raising any taxes. if they had to raise taxes there would be no way this would ever see the light of day!

[randella]

new location! apparently the city and the ford dealership couldn't come to terms on a price. now the arena will take out the old executive inn site and will remodel part of the hotel into a new development by browning investments. the arena will be built on the rest of the site and land heading toward main street. images to follow in another post.

[randella]

full larger rendering: http://www.evansvillegov.org/downloa...ille300dpi.jpg

[shepdog]

I hope with this new downtown arena that there will be plenty of parking at the arena site and not somewhere else. Will the parking be free like at Roberts Stadium or will vendors be selling parking spots for $10 a car in surrounding parking lots? How will traffic flow be to and from the arena? When leaving Roberts Stadium you have the Loyd Expressway to get on and it has multiple lanes, as to downtown I think will be a little congested with all that traffic. This is something I hope the developers have figure out. Evansville should put the arena off of I-164, that way you would have easy access in and out of the arena. Traffic flow downtown will be horrible.

[randella]

with this latest announcement they released a parking plan from the developers. they have identified over 3k public parking spaces within a three block area of the arena (not sure if they will be free or not though). keep in mind that roberts stadium is not really free since there is a parking charge added to every event ticket. as far as traffic flow, i don't see a problem because you have multiple ways in and out of downtown. plus you have access to the lloyd expressway as well as the interstate bypass via riverside drive.

here is a map to the parking plan:
http://www.evansvillegov.org/downloa...)%20ORANGE.jpg

note: this plan doesn't include metered parking or other surface lots and garages in the downtown area.

[randella]

populous is presenting the preliminary designs for the new arena tonight... they appear to be a more stylized version of the last rendering that was released after the location was changed. here is a link to a story by one of the local television stations (it has some small images of the design but i'll post larger ones as they become available).

http://www.14wfie.com/global/story.asp?s=10959190

[bradyusi]

LEED Silver is their goal. I don't think there are any other LEED certified buildings in Evansville (Vectren included).

[randella]

Originally Posted by bradyusi

LEED Silver is their goal. I don't think there are any other LEED certified buildings in Evansville (Vectren included).

actually, i think the new old national place is leed certified. the listing on emporis.com says it's indiana's first leed office building and here is something from hok along with a photo:

http://www.hok.com/cfm/NewsArchiveDe...c-cc8923d23218

[randella]

here are the images released by populous of the arena:

[philaustin06]

wow i'm impressed. This will probably rival louisvilles new arena.

[AmericanDirt]

Originally Posted by randella

new location! apparently the city and the ford dealership couldn't come to terms on a price. now the arena will take out the old executive inn site and will remodel part of the hotel into a new development by browning investments. the arena will be built on the rest of the site and land heading toward main street. images to follow in another post.

Do any of you know the status on the old Executive Inn that apparently will be demolished? Is it a structure older than 50 years? Is it an underutilized or even dilapidated property?

The reason I ask is because a partnership with Browning Investments could be a red flag. Though they have produced some reasonably okay hotel developments, they often partner with Dora Brothers Hospitality Corporation, whose specialty is interstate exit ramp hotel models, but in cities where they routinely fail to vet projects for good urban design (such as Indianapolis) Dora will just as easily replicate its suburban model in a downtown setting. Horrible for pedestrians and the urban environment in general. I would keep my eyes open.

[randella]

the plan is to tear down the ten story tower, conference rooms, and pool areas and refurbish the remaining eight story tower into either a marriott or hilton which will be directly connected to the arena. i haven't seen any renderings for the hotel portion yet, but the executive inn was an eyesore. a major hotel chain like marriott or hilton will be a nice improvement. here is a site plan where you can see the hotel at the end of the arena:

[CorrND]

I finally had a chance to digest these plans. If I was an Evansville resident, I sure wouldn't be happy with the way this arena is layed out. I mean, it's plopped down right next to MAIN STREET, yet they've got the arena curving back away from the street (the brick one in the above siteplan). Who the hell thought that was a good idea? And if I'm not mistaken, they're planning to tear down a stretch of what looks like very old storefronts and replacing them with......well, nothing. That's where the corner entrance "plaza" is planned. The red outline below:



I'm not saying a new arena isn't a great idea, but I think a LOT more sensitivity to Evansville's Main Street is in order.