Meshel: Form new group for arena project



Get the experts to the table and untie their hands, Meshel has urged.
& lt;a href=mailto:milliken@vindy.com & gt;By PETER MILLIKEN & lt;/a & gt;
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A new and independent public authority must be appointed immediately to bring about construction of the convocation center, according to former State Sen. Harry Meshel.
Although such a board disbanded last year because it said it couldn't work under terms imposed by city government, Meshel said there's still time to appoint a new board and get the arena built before the federally imposed September 2005 deadline for substantial completion of the project. If reasonable progress is made, the federal government could extend the deadline, he said.
"The smartest thing anybody could do is to bring in responsible people who know something about construction, architecture, banking, [and] fund raising," he said. Some of those areas of expertise were represented on the defunct board, he said.
The convocation center project could go forward "if you could get everybody else's hands off it so that a new group could come in and make the decisions and not be hamstrung," Meshel said. Most other similar projects around the country are overseen by such independent boards, he noted.
'The important thing'
"Free access to the project and the monies has to be given to this board that gets created. The trust and confidence of investors does not rest easily on political figures. The important thing is to get the people with the wherewithal to get involved so that foundations and other things might be made available," he explained.
Additional funds beyond the $26 million federal grant could be secured through naming parts of the center for donors, he added.
Meshel and Mayor George McKelvey got into a debate about the project on talk radio last week, and the mayor followed up with a letter inviting Meshel to present his proposal to the city's development team. The mayor had sent Meshel two previous letters in June 2003 and March 2002 asking him to submit a proposal.
Meshel said he stands by a proposal for a 10,000-seat center he and Bruce Zoldan, owner of B.J. Alan Fireworks, and Thomas Chema, who led development of Cleveland's Gateway Center (Jacobs Field and Gund Arena), and others, submitted four years ago. The proposed center would serve as both an arena and convention center, he said. "I would give them the same proposal we gave the mayor and city council four years ago," he said.
Some have lost interest
"I'm speaking for myself. Some of the people who were interested at the beginning are not really that interested anymore, and it would take a great deal to encourage them to come back on board," he said Thursday. Those people lost interest because "the mayor and city council did not move forward," he added.
"I am confident that we are making every effort to bring this vision of an arena to reality. I know how difficult it is to do it, and there are no guarantees," the mayor said.
"All I'm confident of is the sincere effort we're making to accomplish the goal," the mayor said, adding that the city is talking with Faulkner USA, an Austin, Texas, developer, and others about the project. The city is negotiating toward a development agreement and "to get the cost to a level where we can afford to build the project," he said.
As for the three-year elapsed time since the $26 million federal grant for the project was obtained, the mayor said, "The time that's been spent on the project is indicative of how difficult these projects are to do without a dedicated source of tax revenue flowing to them for operations, maintenance and debt service."
Alternatives
The mayor said the city has been doing "parallel tracking" for an alternative project. "We don't want to arrive at the spring of 2004 and not be ready to break ground for a project. Spring of 2004 is, I believe, the deadline the city should impose" for the start of the project, he said.
Alternative ideas being explored include a park with an amphitheater and a community center with athletic fields, the mayor has said.
"They are on the verge of losing it, or on the verge of using the money in such a way that it doesn't really create anything near what was envisioned in the first place," Meshel said of city officials.

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