City Hall 730 Washington Ave Racine WI 53403 262 636-9101 - - PDF document

City of Racine, Wisconsin

City Hall 730 Washington Ave Racine WI 53403 262 636-9101 262-636-9570 FAX www.cityofracine.org

1 Frequently Asked Questions about Architecture and Design for the Event Center and Hotel Project

• 1. What are specific details for the event center and hotel?

The project includes an approximately 208,000-square-foot building of mixed-use development, inclusive of an event center, hotel rooms, banquet and meeting rooms, restaurant and hotel bar, and office space. At this time, the plans are conceptual in nature and are likely to change as the project moves

• forward. All seating and area estimates are approximate.

Event Center The event center is designed to include approximately 3,500 fixed seats, with 2,900 seats in the lower bowl and approximately 600 seats in the upper bowl (190 tabletop seats are included within this seat count). The event center also includes club/suite seating. The event center floor plan features home and visitor locker rooms, as well as team offices, event center management offices and storage

• space. An approximate 1000-square-foot team store would be located on the Event Level.

Event and ticket offices will be on the Event and Concourse Level. The event center is designed to be a multipurpose space that can be used for a wide variety of community and private events, such as ice hockey and ice skating, as well as conferences, basketball/sports events, concerts, theater, competitions, dirt events (such as monster truck or rodeo), and tall ceiling exhibit space (for events such as boat shows and machinery shows). Hotel The hotel is planned to include approximately 150 rooms, with a mix of queen and king rooms. The queen- and king-sized rooms will range between 350 and 540 square feet. There are fifteen hotel rooms on the Suite Level, along with a fitness center. There is an opportunity to construct an indoor or outdoor swimming pool and whirlpool on the second floor of hotel rooms. The City of Racine is seeking a hotel operator that can position this proposed hotel as the equivalent of a three- or four-star level of service. In addition, the City prefers that the hotel

• perate as a full-service hotel versus a limited-service property.

An approximately 5,000-square-foot hotel restaurant and bar will be located adjacent to Lake Avenue on the Concourse Level. The restaurant can be designed to allow the east wall to be

• pened on game days to expand the west event center concourse, provided a business

arrangement is established between the event center operator and the selected hotel operator. The restaurant will include a capacity of about 230 guests, plus additional outdoor terrace dining seating 100 and indoor private dining room seating 20. Banquet and Meeting Rooms The combination of the banquet area on the Event Level and the breakout meeting spaces on the Suite level would total approximately 10,000 square feet of potential convention and meeting

• space. There will be an outdoor terrace located on the Suite Level directly off a meeting room

City of Racine, Wisconsin

City Hall 730 Washington Ave Racine WI 53403 262 636-9101 262-636-9570 FAX www.cityofracine.org

2 and meeting pre-function space. Additionally, the Event Floor provides 26,400 square feet of space for trade shows, conventions, concerts and large banquets.

• 2. What will the event center and hotel look like?

Elevations, renderings, and floor plan drawings are available on the City’s website for download. The event center and hotel is designed to exist within a single “footprint” and will be a highly- integrated space, but owned by different entities. The City/Racine Development Authority will

• wn the event center, and a private hotelier will own the hotel space, likely designated through a
• condominium. The hotel is designed to be seven stories tall and the event center will be three

stories tall. No portion of the building, except shallow spread foundations, will be built underground in order to respect the environmental cleanup previously completed and restrictions on the property that protect groundwater. The southern portions of the site mainly will be a hardscape and landscaped outdoor plaza area that can be used by the event center or hotel for activities. The southern area of the site will not include any new buildings, and will be maintained as a plaza with landscaping.

• 3. Where is this project located? Does it fit on the site?

The hotel and event center is proposed for the site at 233 Lake Ave., located between Gas Light Drive and the property currently called “Lakeshore Towers.” The Lake Avenue property is

• wned by the City of Racine Redevelopment Authority. The site was purchased by the RDA

from We Energies in 2014 for the purpose of redevelopment. The event center, hotel and exterior plaza improvements are entirely located within the parcel at 233 Lake Ave.

• 4. Why was this site (233 Lake Ave.) chosen?

The Lake Avenue site was chosen for the following reasons:  An environmentally clean site with commercial zoning  Easily accessible for vehicular traffic  Street infrastructure in place to facilitate truck deliveries  Parking decks directly adjacent provide required parking facilities  Within the downtown for maximum economic impact to Racine businesses  Lake views for the hotel and meeting spaces  Water and sewer infrastructure already in place and adjacent to the site

• 5. What type of programming and events will occur within the event center?

The event center is designed to be multipurpose, which means that it will be capable of accommodating functions far beyond sports and typical arena-type events. For example, the floor of the event center “bowl” can be used for trade shows (corporate, boating, home shows, large equipment), banquets and training activities. Arena-type events include concerts, theater, ice performances, sports on various type of floors (hardwood, ice, dirt) and even eSports competitions.

City of Racine, Wisconsin

City Hall 730 Washington Ave Racine WI 53403 262 636-9101 262-636-9570 FAX www.cityofracine.org

3 Preliminary designs for the event center contain a community ice-skating setup that includes a skate rental facility and the ability to open portions of the building for bathrooms and concessions for public ice skating, local sports practices and community events. The event center also contains rooms for banquets, conferences and meetings, and special events like weddings and ceremonies. Programming and events will be scheduled with the managers of the event center.

• 6. How many seats will be available?

The event center is designed to include approximately 3,500 fixed seats for hockey, with 2,900 seats in the lower bowl and approximately 600 seats in the upper bowl (190 tabletop seats are included within this seat count). However, seat configurations will change depending on the set up required for each event. For a basketball event, general admission seating would be approximately 4,100 seats and 600 club/suite seats (total 4,700). For center stage concerts, seating would include approximately 2,900 general admission seating, 2,200 floor seats, and 600 club/suite seats (total 5,700), or approximately 5,000 seats for end stage concerts.

• 7. Can the event center hold events with tall boats or machinery?

The event center has been designed specifically to ensure that tall boats and large machinery can access the bowl floor for trade shows and corporate shows. This will ensure maximum usability and will increase the ability of the event center to capture national events and conferences.

• 8. Could we have _________ conference or event there?

Yes! In addition to the 15 major events held in Downtown Racine (parades, athletic events, art fairs) and the numerous corporate and statewide organizations that could use the event center for conferences, the RealRacine (Racine County Tourism Bureau) provided a sampling of the types of sports events that it would try to schedule appointments with at the annual National Association of Sports Commissions (NASC) show that would be looking for a site with a 3,000- plus seat arena and 250-300 nearby hotel rooms.  Drone Racing League https://thedroneracingleague.com/  International Roller Hockey https://ncrha.org/  Pan American Tae Kwan Do https://ncrha.org/  US Dog Agility Association https://www.usdaa.com/  USA Badminton http://www.badminton-information.com/usa_badminton.html  USA Boxing http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Boxing  USA Fencing http://www.usfencing.org/  USA Weightlifting http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Weightlifting  World Armwrestling League http://www.walunderground.com/  USA Ultimate Frisbee http://www.usaultimate.org/index.html  International Shuffleboard Association http://world-shuffleboard.org/  ESPN's X Games http://xgames.espn.com/

City of Racine, Wisconsin

City Hall 730 Washington Ave Racine WI 53403 262 636-9101 262-636-9570 FAX www.cityofracine.org

4  American Cornhole Association https://americancornhole.com/  USA Pickleball http://www.usapa.org/  National Lacrosse League http://www.nll.com/view/nll  Spikeball https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RULU1m9_008  Pro Rodeo http://www.prorodeo.com/  Monster Jam https://www.monsterjam.com/en-US/  International Dog Show http://www.iabca.com/ The event center is also expected to be a very valuable concert venue that can tap into a specific market and bring concerts to Racine. The event center is designed with “green rooms” and “star dressing rooms” and with very high-quality loading dock systems in order to make it a preferred destination for traveling artists and and their crews. In addition, nonsporting events such as gardening, crafting, cooking, music, etc., would be welcomed and enjoyed at the event center.

• 9. What type of hotel is being designed?

The hotel is planned to be a 150-room hotel with a mix of king and queen rooms. The hotel will also contain a restaurant/bar with an outdoor patio and the ability to open the bar into the event

• center. The City will work with a hotelier to bring a three- or four-star (full-service) hotel facility to

the site.

• 10. Who is the architect of the event center and hotel?

The architectural firm is SinkCombsDethlefs. Don Dethlefs is the principal architect on the

• project. The firm, located in Denver, Colorado, is one of the nation’s premier arena and sports

and recreation architects and is considered the best architecture firm for small event centers in the U.S.

• 11. Will the construction of the event center and hotel happen at different times? At the

same time? In order to save time and money — and acknowledging that the hotel and event center are integrated buildings — they will be built at the same time by the same contractor. The City/RDA will apportion costs between the hotel and event center.

• 12. Can the hotel and event center be built upon the monolithic cap that was part of the

environmental cleanup for the 233 Lake Ave. site?

• Yes. Our geotechnical consultant’s research indicates that the monolithic cap can be built upon.

Spread footings are planned to be used as the foundation for the hotel and event center.

• 13. Will the DNR and We Energies allow the City to build upon the site?
• Yes. We are in contact with both DNR and WE Energies relating to the project.

City of Racine, Wisconsin

City Hall 730 Washington Ave Racine WI 53403 262 636-9101 262-636-9570 FAX www.cityofracine.org

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• 14. Will the site meet environmental standards? Will building on the site exacerbate the

environmental pollution? The building and the hardscape planned around the building will create a very secure cap over the site that will meet all environmental standards. The groundwater monitoring system and the system monitoring building will remain in place and will not be disturbed as part of this project.

• 15. Why is there no parking located on the same site as the event center and hotel?

There is sufficient street and structure parking to serve the needs of the event center within a six-block walk. The hotel and event center are served by two parking ramps directly adjacent to the site.

• 16. What type of traffic will be generated by the event center and hotel?

According to the traffic study prepared by SRF Consulting Group, Inc., the hotel would generate approximately 1,225 daily trips. Depending on the type of event, the event center would generate between 1,660 and 3,800 daily trips. The transportation study shows that traffic volumes on Main Street, Lake Avenue and Gas Light Drive are currently under capacity based

• n the range of capacities expected for a roadway of a certain size. Additional traffic generated

by the hotel and event center can easily be accommodated on downtown streets given the existing traffic volumes. The study notes that there are peak times and events that might require special traffic control. For instance, hockey and concert events may have 60 percent of the vehicles arriving within the hour of the start of the event and 90 percent of the vehicles may exit within one hour of the event.

• 17. Are the streets sufficient in the downtown to handle the traffic for the event center?
• Yes. Our current downtown streets are under capacity related to vehicular traffic and the

vehicular traffic for the hotel and event center will not maximize vehicular capacity.

• 18. Will it be safe for pedestrians to walk from the parking decks to the event center with

all the traffic?

• Yes. The transportation study provided several recommendations for improving the pedestrian

experience including installing curb extensions (i.e., bump outs), implementing wayfinding signage and considering converting Lake Avenue into a two-way street.

• 19. Will police officers be needed to direct traffic before and after large events?

Large events (concerts, hockey games) may require special traffic control such as “human” traffic direction within the peak hours of the event. The transportation study noted that the hour before large events and the hour after large events may be congested.

• 20. What improvements are likely needed to needed to the City’s street system to

accommodate the event center and hotel? No road widening improvements are necessary. The primary recommendations are pedestrian-

• riented, including pedestrian improvements to State Street/Gas Light Drive/Lake Avenue

(approximately $25,000), pedestrian improvements at Lake Avenue/3rd Street (approximately

City of Racine, Wisconsin

City Hall 730 Washington Ave Racine WI 53403 262 636-9101 262-636-9570 FAX www.cityofracine.org

6 $50,000) and consideration of converting Lake Avenue from a one-way street to a two-way street (approximately $60,000). The existing parking options in downtown Racine are expected to accommodate the proposed development during both non-event and event conditions. The Gas Light Drive and Lake Avenue ramps can accommodate parking for the hotel and also when there is a conference at the hotel. A sold-out hockey game would likely require parking beyond the four closest ramps (Gas Light, Lake Avenue, Shoop and Civic Center). A sold-out concert would require street parking as well as parking beyond the nine ramps within six blocks of the event center. ++++