SAVANNAH, Georgia (CelebrityAccess) — The Savannah City Council has signed off on a $2.8 million contract to hire a Chicago-based real estate consultant Jones Lang LaSalle to oversee the construction of a new arena in the city.
According to the Savannah Morning News, the 9,000-seat arena is expected to take about 38 months to design and construct, with an estimated budget of $160 million.
The new venue, to be built on a parcel of land located west of the city’s historic district, will include 15 luxury suites and 400 club seats.
Meanwhile, the city announced that its curtailing investment in the city’s current Civic Center and they have allocated $845,000 to maintain the 43-year-old through 2018.
“We’re only going to do stuff that is needed, and with a building that’s 50 years old there’s stuff breaking there all the time,” City Manager Rob Hernandez told the Morning News.
The future of the current civic center remains to be seen, with options on the table ranging from demolition to selling the property to help finance the new facility, the Morning News reported.
“Countywide it’s what we have,” Marty Johnston, a deputy to the city manager told the Morning News. “There’s not another facility that seats 7,500 people in an arena or 2,500 people in a theater and there’s a lot to discuss about the building.”
