ACVB Membership Convention

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Mayor Mark Begich comments
ACVB Membership Convention
Noon; Feb. 16, 2006; Egan Center

(Slide 1: Intro)
Thanks, Bruce Bustamante. I always enjoy speaking at ACVB events, because you’re such an enthusiastic group.

Today, we’ll have some news to keep you jazzed. We wanted to update you on progress with the new civic and convention center, and other community developments.

I’ll be joined by Rollie Reed from RIM and Chris Eseman from LMN Architects to share some of the exciting progress on the convention center design.

At the end, we’ll pull the cover off this just-constructed model of the new convention center, which features incredible detail to give you a feel for what will soon grace our revitalized downtown. You’ll definitely want to take a close look.

(Slide 2: tourism)
I think everyone in this room knows that in past couple of years, conventions have generated more than $80 million a year for the Anchorage economy.

But we’re missing millions of dollars more in convention trade because of inadequate space here in the Egan Center and other facilities.

(Slide 3: convention campaign)
Thanks to your hard work, voters agreed last April to approve a 4 percent increase in the city’s room tax to finance a new civic and convention center. I won’t say that was the easy part, but it was the green light we needed to proceed.

(Slide 4: new convention design)
Since then, the developers have been working hard to refine the design. They’ve done a great job incorporating suggestions from those who will actually use the new center –promoters, lighting and sound experts, even performers.

(Slide 5: Journal of Commerce headline)
Our mission has been to meet user needs, while keeping the project within budget. This has been a greater challenge than anticipated, largely because of the rapidly escalating price of construction materials.

You’ve all seen the media coverage about how damage from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have skyrocketed the price of concrete and steel.

(Slide 6: bond ratings, financing)
Last month, I joined Bruce and members of the project financing team in Seattle. Our task was to convince three national bond-rating companies that this project is solid and that Anchorage has a bright future to support it. Fortunately, we got better grades than I did in school – straight A’s.

So three weeks ago when we actually sold the revenue bonds to finance the new center, we raised even more than we had projected – 111 million-dollars. That’s 18 million-dollars, or almost 20 percent more, than first projected in late 2004.

(Slide 7: interior convention)
This means ample funding to build a beautiful, state-of-the-art facility that will make this community proud.

It means ample funding to connect the new center to the Performing Arts Center, Egan Center and other downtown facilities. It means ample funding to do some long-awaited upgrades to this 20-year-old building.

We’re going to turn dirt on the new center in less than two months.

(Slide 8: construction)
Without a doubt, it will be a challenge for residents and visitors alike to go about our routine business in the midst of construction of a new building that’s three times the size of this one in our downtown core.

To minimize disruption, construction materials and the estimated 1,300 construction workers will be transported to the site from port area and the old Alaska Native Hospital site on 3rd.

(Slide 9: parking)
We’re within days of signing an agreement to accommodate state workers, whose current parking lot is the convention center site. The city recently acquired the half-block parking lot just to the north of the Atwood Building on 7th Avenue. And we’ve already taken over management of the JC Penney’s parking garage.

State employees currently parking on the convention center lot will move to those two areas. As soon as it warms up, we’ll be investing about 1.5 million-dollars worth of upgrades to the Penney’s garage – new lighting, paint, improvements to the elevators and stairs.

These improvements are part of the roughly 1,500 new parking spaces we’ll add to the downtown area.

(Slide 10: tourism)
We’re on-schedule to complete the new civic and convention center in the fall of 2008.

ACVB has already booked its first convention - the 1,600-delegate Aerospace Medical Association, which will have an economic impact of about 1.3 million dollars.

The new civic and convention center is the cornerstone of a downtown revitalization we call “Destination Downtown.” There’s a brochure on your tables with additional information.

(Slide 11: museum)
Destination Dowtown includes the 100 million-dollar expansion of the Anchorage Museum. This will allow the museum to expand its mission to include science, and bring home to Alaska more than 1,000 important Alaska Native artifacts from the Smithsonian. We expect to break ground on that project next spring, with completion scheduled three years later.

(Slide 12: E Street)
One of the key downtown streets connecting the new convention center, Egan, the museum and Town Square is E Street. It’s long been a dream to enhance this avenue to make it more pedestrian-friendly and help visitors and residents easily move through the downtown.

So far, about 850,000-dollars has been budgeted for E Street planning, and we’re asking voters to approve another 1.5 million-dollars in April for this project. Ultimately, the project could cost 6 million-dollars or more.

Construction will begin next year, with completion scheduled for 2008.

(Slide 13: Town Square)
Another vital part of downtown is Town Square. In fact, it was designed to be the heart of our downtown. We’ve been working to increase its use with the skating rink, ice sculptures and more public events. But our Town Square can be so much more.

So we’re working to redesign it to make it safer, more useful and more appealing, while retaining all the wonderful design elements that make this park so loved by the public.

For more details about all these downtown developments, attend a town meeting the evening of March 2nd here at the Egan Center. You can also visit our newly opened Downtown Project Office on the ground floor of City Hall.

(Slide 14: McKay Bldg)
One of the most welcome downtown redevelopments of all is the old McKay Building. It was built in Anchorage’s post-World War II boom for those who wanted to live downtown. They still do.

(Slide 15: McKay interior)
Opening in June, developer Mark Marlow is quickly renting apartments in what he’s renamed McKinley Tower, with unmatched views of Denali and the Chugach Range.

(Slide 16: Girdwood)
Downtown isn’t the only part of Anchorage enjoying a revival. From Ship Creek to Mountain View to Girdwood, we’re working with private sector developers to renovate and build new housing, office and retail space.

(Slide 17: road construction)
Of course, all this economic development continues to put pressure on city services. We’re continuing to relieve congestion on Anchorage streets by investing in road improvements. Over the past three years, we’ve invested more than 130 million-dollars worth of city-funded road improvements in our community.

You’ll be asked to approve about 45 million-dollars of road bonds on this April’s ballot, along with improvements to police, fire and emergency response.

(Slide 18 – Park Bonds)
We’re also working to improve Anchorage’s parks and trails and are asking voters to approve a parks bond of a little less than 4 million-dollars this April. These funds will be used to improve water quality in local creeks and streams, improve and maintain existing parks and trails, and provide for playground safety upgrades and family recreation areas.

We will leverage the bond with state, federal and private funding requests of over 40 million-dollars. These improvements contribute to the overall quality of life in our community.

(Slide 19: wrap-up)
Anchorage faces an exciting and busy next few years. Thank you for working with us as we reshape our city for the 21st century.

And now, I’ll ask Rollie and Chris to help me unveil this new model of Anchorage’s new crown jewel – the civic and convention center.

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ACVB Slide Presentation
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ACVB Slides 1-10 2.8mb

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