A new committee recently met for the first time to discuss how to develop the area around the Classic Center’s new arena—starting with parking, then trying to lure a hotel to address a shortage of rooms.
Leasing property owned by Athens-Clarke County and the Classic Center Authority near Akins Ford Arena for development will be crucial to repaying the bonds sold to fund most of the $170 million project. But Atlanta-based Mallory & Evens dropped out as the master developer for the new entertainment district, prompting the mayor and commission to form a new Arena District Steering Committee.
“The long-term vision wasn’t that the arena was going to stand on its own, but it was going to be a center of activity,” said the committee’s chair, Mayor Kelly Girtz, comparing it to The Battery development around Truist Park in Cobb County.
“It’s cheek to jowl with a really vibrant downtown,” he said. “That’s why it’s been so successful.”
In addition to Girtz, the steering committee includes commissioners Allison Wright and John Culpepper, Classic Center Authority board members Tres Small and Jennifer Zwirn, and Athens Downtown Development Authority board members Jason Leonard and David Bradley, who also serves as president of the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce. It met for the first time on Apr. 4. Its first task will be to write a job description and hire a professional to oversee the district’s development.
Parking has been a challenge since the arena—which seats 5,500–8,500 people, depending on the type of event—opened in December, officials said. The Classic Center’s existing deck has seen 15,000 additional cars since the arena opened, and can struggle with ingress and egress as drivers arrive and leave at the same time, as well as with overlapping events, according to Parking Director Brandon Stroud. Parking for the arena’s 300 employees also eats into spots for event attendees.
Classic Center President and CEO Paul Cramer said he wants to expand the 700-space deck to add 424 new parking spaces at a cost of $15 million, or $35,000 per space. That location is “right in the nucleus, which will help the convention center, theater, arena. That’s where everyone wants to park,” Cramer said. According to the Classic Center’s estimates, revenue from the new parking would more than cover the $960,000 annual bond payments needed to build it, with $327,000 left over. The modular construction would take just six months, he said.
Longer-term, officials are considering a surface lot for buses, trucks and trailers, adding angled parking on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and “down the road, once development happens, maybe look into a 500-space parking deck,” Cramer said. The Classic Center also wants to take over management of the courthouse deck and add entrance and exit ramps on Washington Street. The courthouse currently only has one way in and out, on Hancock Avenue. “It’s full during the day, but evenings and weekends, it has a lot of capacity, if only we could move people in and out of there,” Cramer said.
There are already more than 4,000 public parking spaces downtown, not counting those at private developments, according to ADDA Director of Business Services Linda Ford. The ADDA manages more than 2,000 of those spaces, including the College Avenue and West Washington parking decks, surface lots north of Dougherty Street and on-street metered parking. Besides the courthouse and Classic Center decks, there’s also the 800-space North Campus deck at UGA and about 225 spaces in private lots managed by ParkMobile, Ford said. There’s a lot of competition for those spots, though—the ADDA has a waiting list of 500 for monthly parking, mostly college students who live in downtown apartments without parking or can’t find parking on campus.
Parking revenue and development rights are two key sources of revenue for paying back the three rounds of bonds totaling $118 million the CCA issued to fund arena construction. Payments will range from about $5 million to $7 million a year. Revenue streams include naming rights ($510,000), a catering contract ($420,000), hotel/motel taxes (about $1.2 million now and rising each year), ticket fees (about $800,000, also rising), parking ($700,000), land leases ($1.5 million starting in 2028), a special tax district ($48,000) and other arena income ($300,000). The authority set aside $2 million to cover payments while those revenue streams ramp up.
“If those monies were not there, that’s when the unified government would have to step up, and it would have to find revenues… The ultimate backstop would be you levy a property tax to make up the shortfall,” financial advisor David Cheatwood said.
Already, though, the arena is exceeding expectations, according to Cramer. Initial projections called for it to host 125 sporting events, concerts, family shows, conventions and community events a year. “We are well on pace to hit or exceed that event load,” with 75 in the first half of 2025, Cramer said. The Rock Lobsters hockey team is breaking league attendance records, fans are spending more on concessions than expected, and country star Megan Maroney played two sold-out shows last weekend.
Overall, the Classic Center’s gross revenue is up 150% since 2019, Cramer said. Its economic impact on the community cratered from about $50 million to $10 million during the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, but is now on pace to hit $90 million this year, including $30 million from the arena. That comes in the form of not only payroll, but visitors who stay overnight or just stop for dinner or a drink on the way to an arena event.
However, a lack of hotel rooms is hindering the Classic Center’s ability to draw major conventions, with studies showing a shortage of 400 rooms, Cramer said. After parking, his next highest priority is a hotel in the arena district. “We are turning away giant groups of people because we don’t have hotel rooms to put them in,” he said.
Sprucing Up College Square
Commissioner Melissa Link still doesn’t like the brick pavers, but several other commissioners nodded their approval for a more detailed schematic design to remake College Square.
Originally closed to car traffic to create more outdoor public space during the pandemic after decades of discussion and resistance from business owners who didn’t want to lose parking, the ACC Commission made the change permanent in 2021. Now the Athens Downtown Development Authority is creating a $7 million plan to beautify the makeshift pedestrian plaza.
“I’m still concerned about the expansive brick,” Link said at an Apr. 8 work session. “I’d like to see more smooth pavement, because I think it would increase the diversity of activities that go on there… It’s not good for any kind of wheel activities or things like ballroom dancing.”
But architects told Link that similar spaces around the country use brick pavers, and that with quality installation and the use of “tree wells” to prevent root damage, they will be smooth.
“I think it’s going to look good for downtown, and people in Athens will enjoy it,” Commissioner Mike Hamby said.
Commissioner Allison Wright also defended the pavers, but suggested adding a bike path to prevent collisions with pedestrians.
Almost half a million is set aside for the project in TPLOST 2023, the voter-approved sales tax for transportation projects. The ADDA is taking out a bank loan to cover the rest, repaying the loan with parking revenue. Bonds for the West Washington Street deck are about to be paid off, freeing up $545,000 a year. The commission also raised the ADDA’s share of parking revenue it gets to keep from 20% to 40% (the rest goes into the county’s general fund).
Assuming it’s approved in May, a request for construction bids will go out this fall.
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