4,000-seat multi-purpose arena proposed on Highway 40 in O'Fallon - 6-25-09
O'FALLON, MO.
If the city builds it, the St. Louis Bandits will come. O'Fallon officials are showing interest in a 4,000-seat "multipurpose arena" that would become the new home for the junior league hockey franchise and be funded by a special tax district. The proposed $35.1 million arena is expected to take at least six months to plan, design and approve, planners say. Construction could take up to 18 months. The 168,000-square-foot venue would include space for two ice rinks that could be converted for a variety of athletic events, festivals, performing arts, graduation ceremonies or an emergency shelter if necessary. The 12-acre site near the August A. Busch Wildlife Conservation Area is owned by McEagle Properties.
The Bandits, part of the North American Hockey League, want to leave their home at Hardee's Iceplex in Chesterfield for a bigger, more modern facility. "We have a good home in Chesterfield, but we just can't achieve our financial objectives playing there," Bandits co-owner Mike Brooks said of the 2,200 seat Chesterfield arena. Brooks said a multipurpose arena would help the team attract a bigger audience and lure corporate sponsors, and give a boost to the team's $750,000-a-year operating budget. The team has struggled to meet that budget despite three straight Junior A championships and the third-best attendance in the league. This week, representatives from the Bandits pitched plans for the arena to O'Fallon city officials, arguing that the venue easily would pay for itself in 20 years. The plans call for a "community improvement district" that would repay state issued bonds for the construction from the arena's tax revenue and profit.
Laura Lashley, a principal at Development Dynamics, an O'Fallon, Mo., a consulting firm hired by the Bandits and McEagle, projected the arena would draw at least 875,000 visitors and generate an estimated $59.1 million in retail activity yearly. The city has just begun reviewing the plans and is far from taking a vote. But officials are receptive to the prospect. "Any time you can bring in a development like that that's going to bring in (nearly) $60 million a year in revenue, that's pretty cool," Greg Smothers, O'Fallon's assistant city administrator, said Wednesday. The proposal also includes plans to bring hotels and restaurants to the proposed site at Highway 40/Interstate 64 and Highway DD, near the Great Escape Theater.
St. Charles County already has at least two hockey arenas but neither has as much seating as the proposed arena in O'Fallon. The Lindenwood Ice Arena in Wentzville holds 750 people and the largest of St. Peters Rec-Plex's three rinks has seating for 1,200. The Family Arena in St. Charles, which seats 9,600, is too big for the team's needs, Brooks said.
The North American Hockey League that the Bandits are in is a developmental league for players 20 and younger.
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