03/01/2019
WCVA explores options for East Hall
Ashley Maden
Wednesday, February 27, 2019 1:00 AM
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The Winnemucca Convention and Visitor’s Authority (WCVA) board has started exploring options to either renovate or replace the East Hall facility of the Winnemucca Convention Center.
At last Wednesday’s WCVA board meeting, the board heard from P3 Partners Senior Partner Steven Nielsen and Core Construction Senior Project Director Jason Dondero regarding options for the facility and community needs.
P3 Partners completed the Elko Convention Center and reported that the project was finished ahead of schedule and under budget. Nielsen said the team approaches projects from a strategic development standpoint while addressing public funding facility needs, considering the potential revenue per square foot of a concept facility.
The Elko Convention center was a public-private partnership to build a $12 million, 29,000 square foot conference center with room for expansion. The project construction began April 1, 2015, and was completed by Nov. 20, 2015 and built Core Construction, a P3 partner.
“A new entertainment/event center will be a magnet for visitors and locals,” said Nielsen. “We’re taking a look at how to build facilities cheaper, making them flexible and addressing community needs while bringing visitors into the region for economic development.”
Nielsen said the firm’s finance model is different from traditional public financing models in that the government-owned property is leased out for the builder to construct a facility utilizing tax-exempt municipal bonds, then leased back to the public entity.
After the lease is paid in full, the property would return to ownership of the public entity; this financing structure is called a lease-leaseback model. Nielsen said that under newly change accounting regulations, the money owed would be considered a capital lease to the public entity rather than a debt liability. Neilsen said this model also allows for the project to be considered a P3 Partners private project rather than a public works project, which would have additional prevailing wage requirements.
“I like to think of myself as a creative problem solver,” said Nielsen. “The site you have now has a significant grade drop which is a construction challenge and cost. I think there’s a lot that needs to be looked at.”
The P3 Partners development process consists of five designated phases. The five phases include strategic plan and implementation strategy (60 days), legal/financing structure (30-60 days), pre-development design (120-150 days), financing (30-90 days), and construction (9-12 months).
At the meeting, a motion was unanimously passed to authorize staff to issue a qualifications-based selection process to seek proposals to begin the feasibility process. Nielsen said the strategic development process starts at $25,000 and the WCVA would then have a strategic plan, a concept budget and vision for the facility.
P3 Partners boasts combined expertise in planning, design, construction, finance and management of facilities for governmental and private entities, with over $2 billion in public-private partnership experience.
The WCVA board is comprised of county representative Ron Cerri, city representative Jim Billingsley, motel representative Terry Boyle, board administrator Kendall Swensen, hotel representative Brian Stone, business representative John Arant and legal counsel Bill Macdonald.
“We are looking at upgrades, restoration or an addition to the east hall convention center–the one that used to be the old Star Casino,” said WCVA Director Kim Peterson. “That building was built to be a casino, so it wasn’t built with conventions in mind, plus we’re trying to upgrade the looks of downtown and hopefully have a facility we can attract newer events to come to town.”
