Friday, March 18, 2011

TOP STORY > >State fair move seems doomed


By STEPHEN STEED
Special to The Leader

Moving the Arkansas State Fair, whether to Jacksonville or anywhere else, will cost about $200 million and would take several years, while funding remains uncertain, according to a consultant’s study.

But Jacksonville’s mayor questions some of the figures in the study.

Mayor Gary Fletcher, who was reviewing the study late Friday, said Jacksonville is presenting the fair association a $30 million gift between offering to donate about 450 acres of land, utilities and an already built highway interchange.

“Someone said something about sweetening the pot. I think the pot is pretty sweet already,” the mayor said.

He added, “It is a sacrifice to do what we are doing. We are not a rich city. But we believe in sacrifices when we know the future impact is going to be strong. We did that in the ’50s, donating land for the air base and now it has a $700 million economic impact on the area.”

Fletcher said impact from the state fair won’t be that strong, but would generate hundreds of jobs and would still be worth the sacrifice.

Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola said on Friday he wasn’t surprised that the cost of moving the fair would be some $200 million.

“From a financial standpoint, I just don’t think it’s feasible,” Stodola said, adding he and other Little Rock officials are ready to do what’s needed to keep the fair in his city, including buying property a few blocks east to Battery Street.

Jim Durham, Jacksonville’s director of administration, says the fair board needs to decide soon where it will go because the land the city has offered could be used for another development if a serious prospect shows interest in the area at the I-440 interchange in south Jacksonville.

The fair board on Thursday received a long-awaited consultant’s study on the feasibility of moving the fair from its longtime home on Roosevelt Road in central Little Rock to a more rural area that would allow the fair’s expansion by hundreds of acres.

“If we drove a stake in the ground tomorrow, it still would take us three to five years to move, or even 10 years,” said Ralph Shoptaw, general manager of the Arkansas Livestock Show Association, which puts on the state fair for 10 days each fall and runs a variety of non-fair events during the rest of the year.

The fair doesn’t have $200 million, or anything close to it, Shoptaw said.

The nut graph of the 73-page report: it would cost about $200 million, primarily in new construction but excluding the cost of acquiring property, to move the state fair, but the livestock association also could see yearly net revenues of up to $1.8 million. Still, that figure is “wholly insufficient” to pay for a relocation, the study said, adding that the association “must become a partnership of private and public entities.”

It noted that private and public Verizon Arena (formerly Alltel Arena) in North Little Rock was paid for with private and public funds.

Jacksonville has proposed buying some 445 acres along Interstate 440 and Wooten Road and giving that land to the association, along with a break on utilities, as an enticement to moving.

Three other locations are being considered:

 467 acres at the intersection of Interstate 40 and I-440.

 865 acres near I-440 and Galloway Road.

 632 acres east of I-440, also along Galloway Road and abutting the 865-acre tract.

The study, conducted by Rod Markin Consulting of Maple Grove, Minn., didn’t look at any of the four sites in detail. “It should be noted that the results of our analysis would generally be applicable of any number of sites between I-40 and Jacksonville and I-440 and the Pulaski County line,” the report said.

Fletcher said, “We have the location, the space and the interchange.” The mayor still expects the Jacksonville site to “rise to the top. It’s the best option they’ve got. They’ve got to do something because if they stay in the current site, it will die,” he said.

Fletcher said the state fair is the number one choice for the area, “but we are in dialogue with something that would be just as attractive” if the fair move stalls.

He said other cities are piping back in. “It will get competitive over the next three months,” the mayor said.

The fair’s current home consists of 148 acres. State fairs across the nation average 366 acres, Shoptaw said.

“We’re going to study this over the next few weeks or a couple of months,” Shoptaw said of the work still facing board members. “We don’t meet again until July. A big question is how we’d finance such a move if, indeed, we wanted to make that move. If we can’t get funding, it’s immaterial anyway.”

How to pay for a move wasn’t part of the consultant’s assignment.

A bond issue would be one option, and the board could seek money from the state or from the city that gets (or retains) the fair, Shoptaw said.

The city of Little Rock wants to keep the fair on Roosevelt Road. A study commissioned last year by the city said improvements at the current location would cost $25 million to $57 million.

Shoptaw said he was struck most by the level of economic impact cited in the study if the fair was moved.

“The increase in the number of non-fair events was good and the revenue stream from those events looked good,” he said.

Non-fair events Keep Falling 

The study said the number of non-fair events at the Roosevelt Road site has steadily declined: from 98 in 2007, to 78 in 2008, 82 in 2009, and 72 last year. At a new site – one that’s open 365 days a year for such events as RV and motorcycle rallies, car shows and concerts – the association could expect significant increases in paid attendance, parking fees and camping fees.

“With our site, the association could put down the asphalt and get started with some of those non-fair events right away to bring in additional income,” the mayor said.

The study envisions a new fairgrounds consisting of an arena with 5,000 fixed seats, a primary exhibition building of 100,000 square feet, a year-round park for up to 2,500 recreational vehicles, and various horse and livestock facilities totaling 280,000 square feet.

The study’s authors conducted a small survey of businesses in North Little Rock that hold meetings or other events requiring outside space: Of 42 responses, 17 said they’d be willing to move to a new fairgrounds site. Eight said they weren’t interested in making such a move. Seventeen didn’t answer the question.

The annual State Fair, if relocated, could expect paid attendance to increase by up to 50 percent a year and the number of vendors and exhibitors to increase by at least 50 percent, according to the study. In 2010, the State Fair collected $507,000 in admission fees, $92,000 in parking revenue, $723,633 in carnival revenue, $104,300 in beer sales, $181,772 in food sales, and $107,854 in exhibitor fees. Revenue from all those categories would increase at a new site, the study said.

“Also what looked really good was the economic impact from construction alone,” Shoptaw said, referring to the study’s estimate that some 1,850 workers would be needed for initial construction at a new site, providing a revenue boost to the state of $24 million to $38 million a year.

Once constructed, the state fair and non-fair events would provide 512 to 647 jobs each year and generate between $527,000 and $828,000 in sales and use taxes each year, according to the study.

Crime – or the perception of it – keeps potential visitors away from the fairgrounds on Roosevelt, the study said, citing police reports, various crime statistics and, apparently, the words of state fair management.

“By moving the fair and fairgrounds to an unincorporated portion of Pulaski County, the annual fair will be situated in a very safe area and is expected to generate a higher attendance and participation trend for the fair, with a distinctly different demographic,” the study said.

The fairgrounds have been along Roosevelt Road since opening in the 1940s. It is in the middle of a residential district, and a railroad, a four-lane Roosevelt Road, and narrow side streets limit access. The centerpiece, Barton Coliseum, opened in 1953.

Shoptaw said he has heard from associations representing nearby residents since talk about moving the fair began nearly two years ago. “The neighborhood associations, I think, would like to see it stay,” he said. “It’s been a big part of their community. They’d hate to see us move.”

Fletcher said, “What we need to remember is that this is not Jacksonville’s fair or Little Rock’s or North Little Rock’s. It belongs to Arkansas, so it needs to be the best possible site, and that’s us.”

Leader staff writer Rick Kron contributed to this report.