JONESBORO – A commercial real estate company has been hired to find the right venue for a new indoor sports complex, and interviews have begun to determine the size of the proposed facility, a Jonesboro Advertising and Promotion Commission steering committee learned Tuesday.
Committee members met with John Wack, CEO of Eastern Sports Management (ESM) in Fredricksburg, Virginia, to discuss the process. The ESM was awarded the contract to help plan and develop the complex.
Jared Carnes, who works for Pinnacle Indoor Sports in St. Louis. Petersburg, Fla., Also attended the meeting.
Pinnacle is a subcontractor to ESM and meets with major stakeholders, such as leaders of youth sports organizations, to try to determine the demand for the new facility.
“We’re both here in town today to really get started with the meat from the feasibility study, which is just a minor part of the overall what we’ve been contracted to do,” Wack said.
Wack said several individual meetings have been held this week and he has received information on 13 potential locations to consider for the facility.
“Our overall goal is to have a draft of this for you in June,” Wack said. While Wack meets with community leaders, Carnes will ask questions to stakeholders.
“People who can answer the question: How many teams do you have?” said Wack. “How many players are there in your club? How much are you paying right now to use a gym? How many hours do you expect to spend on training time? Would you place your teams in a local league? Do you want to host a tournament? How many tournaments do you participate in per year? ”
Wack said answers to these questions would generate data to develop a conceptual design for the building and whether it would be economically feasible.
Carnes said he has met or plans to meet with officials in the area’s school districts, Arkansas State University and private sports clubs.
The construction of the complex will be financed by a tax of 2 percent on prepared foods, which came into force on New Year’s Day. City officials have estimated that about 360 businesses in the city would collect the tax on behalf of the city. It has been estimated that the tax would raise about $ 2.5 million a year. This revenue is expected to be used to fund a bond issue to pay for the construction.
By the time the draft report is ready in June, Wack said the city will have levied the new tax for a long enough period to understand how much annual revenue can be expected to support the construction project.