The board approved the action during a special meeting last week.
The first funding infusion, though, will cover only about a third of the costs needed to revitalize the venue built in 1973 and owned by the city of Dayton until the CFA took ownership earlier this year, according to Plageman.
A total renovation of first-floor restrooms will be the first big-ticket item. To meet current building code, two additional family restrooms will be installed. All new plumbing fixtures will touchless as well as hand dryers. The cash will also pay for continued work on the heating and air conditioning system and pay for some immediate work needed outside, Plageman said.
About $9 million will be available to spend directly on projects after costs for bond administration, financing fees and payments to the architects. Another funding phase early in 2022 is expected to address major changes to the exterior, exhibit hall and meeting rooms, Plageman said.
A Dayton company, LWC Inc., and LMN Architects, a large national firm with convention center design experience, were hired last month as partners to draw up renovation plans for the structure.
The CFA will pay the architects as much as $323,000 for services and up to $12,000 in travel expenses to develop a master plan for the facility.
The architects have until mid-November to produce the master plan which will help prioritize and organize the order of work on convention center. A first meeting will be held next month, Plageman said.
“We have a good foundation, because we agree on what it needs to be, but we’re going to get other people at the table that could really have some spectacular ideas about the best use of the funds and where we need to spend it now,” she said.
The 48-year-old facility has 150,000 square feet of meeting space, a 77,000-square-foot exhibit hall, 22 meeting rooms and spaces, three ballrooms and a theater.
The revenue bond will be repaid with collections of the CFA’s 3% lodging tax, which kicked in at the beginning of March. The hotel/motel tax has brought in $854,081 this year through June, according to the CFA’s records.
Plageman said the coronavirus delta variant has not caused any group to cancel or postpone a scheduled event at the convention center. The venue reopened for events in May.
“We have a pretty full calendar considering COVID,” she said.
The convention center’s board lost two members recently with one of the seats filled this month. Greg Brush and Elizabeth Connor stepped down from the CFA. Montgomery County Engineer Paul Gruner was appointed by Montgomery County commissioners to fill Brush’s seat.
During CFA board action last week, Walter Reynolds was re-elected chairperson and Michael Stevens re-elected vice-chair. Continuing board member Belinda Kenley was appointed secretary to replace Connor in that position. Other board members include David Abney II, Jacquelyn Powell, Jeff Gore, LaShea Lofton, Kevin Weckesser and Tom Whelley.
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