The Chamber

Chamber Supports Event Center in Kalamazoo

The Chamber Board of Directors, representing more than 1,800 organizations in the region employing over 65,000 people, has unanimously endorsed the proposed Arcadia West Event Center project after an in-depth analysis of the information available about the project. To that end, the Chamber recommends that the county board put the question of a 1% county tax on restaurant food and beverages and lodging to the voters this coming August. Additionally, they recommend a ‘yes’ vote on the question.

The reasons for the Chamber's support of this project focus on job creation and retention, both short and long term, and economic development.

First, an $81 million construction project built largely by local firms and workers will create hundreds of direct jobs that are much needed in our community today. The project will generate jobs for engineers, architects and managers, and jobs for hundreds of electricians, iron workers, plumbers and workers in all the trades. Those jobs and the payroll and benefits that come with them will help pay for groceries, mortgages and taxes throughout the county–wherever those laborers live.

Long term, we expect the project to have an even greater economic development impact for the county. New private investment and development in and around the downtown area would broaden the property tax base and bring new jobs to all kinds of workers who, again, by virtue of employment, would be enabled to pay for a movie ticket, a new pair of running shoes, groceries for the family, and rent throughout the county. In addition, they will pay property, sales and other taxes that will help fund services provided by the city and the county, both of which are currently in dire financial straits.

Our confidence in the long term impact comes in part from our past experience with the Arcadia Commons East project. It was proposed years ago to redevelop a run-down and crime-ridden part of the city, and it had its skeptics. Today, in that area we have a festival place, a downtown college campus, a museum, a fine hotel, a cancer center and more. That project represents a couple hundred million dollars of investment in the core of the county, not to mention nearly 2,000 jobs. It proved projects like this can work.

Our confidence in the Arcadia West Event Center proposal comes from the plan for this project that The Chamber Board of Directors has been able to review, including the details of the vision and the numbers that establish the viability of the project, both from a construction standpoint and from an operational standpoint. The vision for the overall project includes far more than just an event center, and has been titled ‘Arcadia Commons West.’  It continues the work and momentum generated by Arcadia Commons East. Leaders of the three major colleges in Kalamazoo County have stated their support for the project and a commitment to work together on the synergies and collaborative opportunities presented in zones around the event center site. That commitment has huge positive implications for a successful project. All three educational institutions can make use of the event center in a variety of ways, including–but not limited to–athletics. The entire community will see long term benefit when Arcadia Commons West becomes a lively destination for entertainment and recreation for visitors, conventioneers, and for county residents who attend events or who choose to live and work in the vicinity. It will connect the core neighborhoods and once vacant land will play a role in boosting the county’s vitality by providing renewed opportunities for business development, housing and entrepreneurial investment, to serve the nearby neighborhoods and those who choose to live in and around Arcadia Commons West.

Two independent feasibility studies say the project will be successful and the Committee appointed by the County Board to review and analyze the financial side of the project says the numbers work. We’ve reviewed their analysis and agree–the numbers make sense.

We at The Chamber start a discussion of increased taxation of any kind with a skeptical point of view. However, the idea of adding a small tax on restaurant food and beverages and hotel rooms for this project is a good one. A $10 meal would be taxed just a dime. Plus, our residents do not have to shoulder this tax burden alone. This kind of tax–especially the 1% on hotel rooms–spreads the cost across the thousands and thousands of visitors, tourists and other out-of-towners who enjoy Kalamazoo County on a daily basis.

From our point of view, an essential part of this plan is the private money that is being raised to protect taxpayers from any potential losses arising from the event center construction or resulting from the operation of the event center. This commitment to raise as much as $20 million was announced last week and, in our view like the commitments from potential long-term tenants such as WMU Athletics and the K-Wings, it is vital. We would have had a difficult time supporting the project if there appeared to be any significant taxpayer risk.

Across the nation, downtowns and urban centers are being reenergized as places to work, live, shop, and play. Arcadia Commons West is Kalamazoo County’s opportunity to build upon its decades in the making, quality of life assets that have blended into Kalamazoo's downtown core becoming an attractive market for residential, commercial and sports entertainment development. We believe this project will spur the measured growth and improvement in the county’s urban, suburban and rural areas. We look forward to seeing this question placed on the ballot so that the voters of Kalamazoo County are given the opportunity to support this project with a resounding "yes" vote.