By Duwayne Escobedo
INWEEKLY
Pensacola businessman Jay Patel will pitch a plan Thursday to the Escambia County Commission to create a $65 million public-private partnership to build a 6,500-seat arena and field house.
“I’m as ready as I can be,” said Patel, who was contacted Wednesday by Inweekly. “Tomorrow is probably do or die. If we move forward, we intend to move forward aggressively.”
The multi-purpose facility, which would also host conventions, meetings, entertainment and other significant events, is proposed to be built on the former 19-acre ECUA Mainstreet Wastewater site owned by Pensacola entrepreneur Quint Studer or on the existing Pensacola Bay Center location.
Patel faces a five-member commission that recently made it clear that it had no desire to spend an additional $5 million to upgrade the Pensacola Bay Center so that the Pensacola Ice Flyers and New Orleans Pelicans developmental league teams could play there.
The county already spends $1.3 million to subsidize the Bay Center, which commissioners call obsolete.
“Presently, the private side takes all the risk, and the public gets the benefit,” Patel said.
Patel, who formed Pensacola Arena Development Partners LLC for the project, said Hunt Development Group, a Texas-based investment company, would provide the money upfront to build the sports complex. The county would repay Hunt under a 30-year lease agreement.
Patel also told Inweekly that his group of eight companies would look at securing Triumph Gulf Coast funding, tourism development tax money, sales tax money and other government sources. He said private companies would cover any annual losses and, if the facility makes money, split profits with the county. Additionally, Patel said private backers would put $200,000 a year into reserves to help replace items in the facility in the future.
Patel said the group needs to have projections on how much income the facility would generate or the economic impact. A 2012 study by Tampa-based Crossroads Consulting Services and Convergence Design reported that an indoor youth sports facility could have an economic impact of $25 million on the county.
Patel said that about 450 to 525 jobs would be created.
The sports complex’s plan includes a 100,000-square-foot field house that can accommodate 12 volleyball courts or 10 basketball courts. It also calls for a hotel, two 800-space parking garages, 450 surface parking spaces, and retail space on the northeast and northwest corners.
Patel admitted that the facility would like to host hockey and a developmental basketball team.
“(But) we designed this thing way before the Pelicans came into the picture,” Patel said. “It wasn’t designed specifically for them.”
Patel boasted about the team of companies, such as Hunt, Corporate Construction, Inc., ICI, and Orcutt Winslow.
“We want to get a state-of-the-art facility here in Escambia County,” Patel said.
