City Talk: New civic building, fundraising complicate plans for Civic Center site
This is the City Talk column by Bill Dawers, a longtime contributor to the Savannah Morning News.
As expected, Savannah City Council voted last week to demolish the Martin Luther King, Jr. Arena, renovate the Johnny Mercer Theatre and restore a portion of the Oglethorpe Plan.
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Council members also made commitments that will significantly increase the net costs of the massive project and extend the planning process by many months.
An apparent majority on council support construction of a new building to accommodate civic events such as the Black Heritage Festival and the Savannah-Chatham County Public School System’s upcoming Back to School Expo.
Alderwoman Carol Bell emphasized that the new “purpose-built facility” would not be of the scale of the MLK Arena, but no details about the size or cost were discussed. City Manager Jay Melder called the proposed building “a community expo space.”
During the recent engagement process, it became clear that some community members want an arena replacement to also serve as a performance venue.
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Flash back to spring 2022. If city officials had engaged with residents before deciding to pursue a plan for the site, they would presumably have understood the community desire for a civic space to replace the arena. The new building could have been an integral part of the two-year planning process rather than an afterthought.
At last week’s meeting, Melder mentioned several viable locations for the proposed exposition hall. One option would be along West Oglethorpe Avenue immediately north of the Mercer, but that would be a problematic place for a structure that does not generate daily activity.
Melder also suggested the trust lots. With the demolition of the MLK arena, there will be an available trust lot facing Elbert Square on Montgomery Street. There are two underutilized trust lots facing Orleans Square.
In the original town plan, the trust lots were reserved for public buildings such as houses of worship and courthouses, so a trust lot on Orleans or Elbert square would be the most logical location for a vital civic gathering place.
The trust lots might at first seem too small, but consider the scale of Wesley Monumental United Methodist Church on Taylor Square and the United Way building on Monterey Square.
The southeast trust lot on Madison Square was home to an imposing YMCA building for much of the 20th century.
The addition of a significant new building obviously complicates the planning for the entire site. The change will presumably mean reduced revenues from land sales and property taxes. The additional civic uses might require parking beyond the needs of the Mercer.
Construction of the new building will obviously cost many millions. The project will presumably receive significant funding from the next Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST), which will need to be approved by voters, probably in 2026.
But a new wrinkle emerged in the funding discussion during last week’s council meeting.
Mayor Van Johnson focused more clearly than before on the need for some form of public-private partnership.
“This Is going to be a major, major undertaking,” Johnson said, “and we are not going to do it alone.”
It seems like potential major donors should have been engaged sooner in the process. Some might have pushed for a new theater rather than a renovation of the Mercer, and some might have been willing to fund a more extensive overhaul of the theater than city officials are planning.
Johnson said at the meeting that “the clock will not run out on this administration,” but it looks like there could be several years of planning before any significant construction begins.
As Melder said, “dozens and dozens more steps and decisions” lie ahead.
Bill Dawers can be reached via @billdawers on X and [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Dawers: New building, fundraising complicate Civic Center site plans