Two finalists have been selected for hotel and convention center projects that will accompany the new Haymarket arena -- if voters decide we want the arena. The finalists are: John Q. Hammons Industries, of Embassy Suites and aborted hotels on Q Street and 17th Street fame; and Robert and Will Scott of WRK LLC, who have been very actively lately in a number of projects around Lincoln. There are no details on either of the proposals.
We do know a little bit about the proposals that didn't make the cut. One proposed a 7,000 seat arena -- a far cry from the 15,000 - 16,000 figure often thrown around by the folks with the loftiest goals. Another developer is dubious about the amount of private financing the two finalists might be proposing, implying that taxpayers are in for more of a hit than we're being told. If true -- and remember, this is coming from somebody who lost the bid, so take it with a grain of salt -- it would not be surprising. It's almost a truism that the public gets sacked with a much larger bill than they were promised in these things.
I want to take a quick moment and critique the Journal Star's headline on this news: "2 finalists selected for arena project". There is a lot of confusion among the public about the distinction between the arena, and the hotel and convention center projects; who is in control of each part; who will pay for each part; and how much say the public has at each step of the way. To me, the use of the phrase "for arena project" in the headline is very misleading. Sure, the project is related to the arena, but in fact the developers are working more on the stuff that sits next door to the arena, not the arena itself. To be fair, it's all sort of one big jumbled mess at this point -- especially since voters could still shut down the entire project -- but it would be nice to see the Journal Star try a little more actively to help clear up the public's confusion.
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I know that there’s virtually no chance of this happening, but I wish the plans for this project would drop the convention center/hotel portions (for now) and concentrate solely on an arena. Lincoln has a justifiable need for a Pershing replacement; there’s nothing that indicates we are lacking for convention center and downtown hotel space.
I also believe that building a near-Qwest-sized arena would be incredibly foolish. Lincoln’s not a big enough market, and even if we did end up building a similarly-sized arena, I have a hard time believing that acts would choose Lincoln over Omaha. Any Lincoln arena should only have about 12,000 seats max (yes, I realize that’s fewer seats than Devaney, but having Nebraska basketball play in a slightly more intimate environment and making it a slightly harder ticket wouldn’t be a bad thing).
Totally agree on the arena size. That would be a great fit for Nebraska basketball.
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