YOUNGSTOWN CIVIC CENTER Board to sign pact with consultant

The consultant will help the city decide the project's parameters and seek proposals from private developers.
By ROGER G. SMITH
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The city, with the signing of the project consultant, will start deciding what the proposed downtown civic center will be.
The city's board of control -- the mayor, finance director and law director -- was expected to sign a six-month, $59,200 contract this morning with Compass Facility Management, of Ames, Iowa.
The consultant will help the city decide the project's parameters and seek proposals from private developers. The project moves to the design phase once a proposal is picked.
Compass has worked on a number of arena-type buildings and theaters throughout the Dakotas, Iowa and Minnesota. The company also did work for the Nutter Center at Wright State University in Dayton.
The company's Web site is www.compassmgmt.com/.
Included in contract: The contract is for $9,850 a month plus expenses. Those include meals, travel approved in advance by the city, long-distance phone calls and document delivery charges.
The city or company can end the contract with 10 days' notice.
Compass emerged in the fall as a potential consultant when the now-defunct arena board sought proposals.
Compass President Steven L. Peters said then that planners need to decide what the building will be before anything else happens.
Tenants can't be secured until a vision is outlined. Architects can't start until potential tenants are identified. Tenants should be closely involved in the design anyway, to hold down costs, he said.
Most arenas need ongoing financial support for operations, but that can be avoided, Peters said.
Money can be set aside from selling naming rights, corporate suites and advertising, rather than spent on construction, he said. Most projects don't do that, which is a bad idea, he said.
Funds secured: U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. of Poland, D-17th, has secured $26.8 million in federal money for the project. The city has a $1.5 million contract to buy land between the Market Street and South Avenue bridges, contingent on the outcome of environmental testing.
The arena board suggested the city split project management duties between Compass and the Gateway Group, Cleveland. Each would be paid $5,000 a month.
Each could effectively oversee this project, board members said, but had different strengths. Neither was signed, however, while the city and the board worked through a dispute over authority. Eventually, all the members all resigned and folded the board.
Meanwhile, Tom Chema of Gateway opted against getting into project management to avoid a conflict of interest.
Instead, Chema might work with a private developer who will bid on the project. That developer could be Bruce Zoldan, a Youngstown businessman for whom Chema did a private arena study a few years ago.