The Rapid City mayor says he supports constructing a new arena in the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center complex.
Thursday night, he gave a presentation outlining his vision to expand the concert hall and sporting complex just north of downtown.
There are two different futures for the Barnett Arena.
It’s the last complex in the civic center to meet Americans With Disabilities compliance. Following a failed campaign for a new civic center in 2015, the city signed an agreement with the federal government to bring the arena into ADA compliance. That deadline ends this month.
Mayor Steve Allender says the cost to make the facility compliant is around $25 million.
But he says that wouldn’t address the other issue facing Barnett Arena -- it’s ability to host modern entertainment.
“The civic center as is means about $60 million in economic activity annually. That’s a big deal, because we’re in a rundown scenario, right now," Allender says. "We’re not able to get the big acts that bring in the money. We have about 200,000 less visitors than we did in 2012, and the numbers are going down.”
Allender says updating the Barnett to make the arena compliant wouldn’t present much of a return on investment.
He says the other option is to build a new and bigger arena. He says that could cost anywhere from $100 million to $130 million dollars.
Allender presented the findings from a Civic Center Resolution Task Force to a group of about 80 citizens.
It’s the first of several presentations the mayor is giving on the arena.
He says the project could be financed by using money from the city’s Vision Fund, which is supported by sales tax collections. Allender says he plans on bringing the issue to city council around Thanksgiving for a vote to either on either renovating the Barnett Arena, or build a new structure.