The Dayton Daily News has been covering this story closely since we broke the news in early December of Huber Heights’ proposal to build a music center. We will continue to follow this story and bring you the latest updates as they develop.
The city of Huber Heights is expected to take a major step Monday night in its $18 million music center project.
City Council is scheduled to vote on five contracts that total about $1 million, and if they pass, will allow the consultants to “be off to the races,” assistant city manager Scott Falkowski said.
The contracts are for design services, architecture, surveying, engineering and environmental site assessment, and the funds to pay for them will come out of the $18 million music center budget. Tax increment financing (TIF) money will be used to pay for the music center, city officials have said.
About $1.1 million was originally budgeted for this portion of the project, project manager Ken Conaway said.
“This would secure every commitment I need to move forward on the project,” Conaway said. “That’s a factor in developing a schedule.”
City Council approved the music center project March 14. A ceremonial groundbreaking has been scheduled for 1 p.m. May 18.
The 4,500-seat covered venue — which will be built along the south side of Executive Boulevard, west of Meijer near the Interstate 70 and Ohio 201 interchange — is projected to open in the late summer of 2014, Conaway said. Crews will begin moving dirt in June, he said.
The preliminary conceptual master plan shows the music center facing Executive Blvd., with four concession stands and green space north of the facility. A $22 million GoodSports Enterprises fieldhouse will be built between the music center and Meijer.
The plan also shows four outlots, potentially for restaurants, that are valued up to $500,000 each, city officials said.
“My major charge since the beginning was to make sure accessibility was great — that people could easily come and leave the show,” Conaway said. “If we could pull a couple outlots off to offset the costs, that’d be a great plus. But I don’t want to forgo what the original mission was, which is to build a first-class facility.”
The five contracts that City Council will vote on Monday night are: MKSK ($376,500); GBBN Architects ($535,000); Norfleet, Brown & Petkewicz, Inc. ($68,700); and two with Geotechnical Consultants, Inc. ($14,700).
MKSK will be the lead architectural group and put together the final site plan for The Heights, Conaway said. The city also contracted with MKSK for $48,500 during the music center’s due diligence process.
“This is a great opportunity for Huber Heights and greater Dayton,” said Brian Kinzelman, senior principal with MKSK. “It’s a great site and extremely convenient. … This is a big piece of property, and if properly planned and executed, will be a big positive for Huber.”
GBBN designed the PNC Pavilion at Riverbend in Cincinnati, and it will solely focus on the music center, including the main structure, concessions, ticket booths and electrical/mechanical engineering.
NBP will provide on-site engineering and surveying, while GCI will conduct an environmental site assessment and soil testing.
“Each consultant can get their portion started and move forward with the true design,” Falkowski said. “We’ll be able to lock some things down and really get moving toward that goal of having a building start to come out of the ground.”
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