City of Lincoln Planning Study Background and Overview

Study Background and Overview

Lincoln's Pershing Center celebrated its 50^th anniversary last year. As the City's long standing civic event venue, Pershing Center has played host to numerous concerts, trade shows, galas, and sporting activities. The aging facility, however, continues to lose events to other newer local and regional facilities. As an arena it is considered functionally obsolete and has limited abilities to house most contemporary concerts and many other entertainment, sports, and community activities.

The City of Lincoln - in conjunction with other partners - is actively pursuing the development of a modern arena in the West Haymarket area of Downtown. Depending upon additional research of the West Haymarket site and an affirmative vote of Lincoln's electorate, this new arena could become operational within the next several years.

This prospect raises the question, "What shall become of the Pershing Center?"

The City is working with the Pershing Center Board and community-at-large to address the follow key tasks:

1. Identifying and documenting realistic adaptive reuse alternatives for the Pershing Center building that retain the basic physical structure of the building on the site

2. Identifying and documenting realistic adaptive reuse alternatives for the present Pershing Center site assuming the substantial or total demolition of the facility

The stated purpose of the study is NOT to arrive at the definitive or final answer to the question of the future of Pershing Center or its present site. Rather, the study will enumerate and elaborate upon realistic reuse options for the facility and site to provide the community with a general sense of what those options may entail.

This study will also strive to eliminate potential options which may be impractical, out of character with the surrounding area, lacking in substance, or failing to meet other criteria set out as part of the study. Should the study find a community consensus forming around a single or handful of options, this conclusion will be expressed as part of the study's findings.

Under any of the assumed set of scenarios, the study shall respect the exceptional setting of Pershing Center along Centennial Mall and its relationship to the Nebraska State Capitol, as well as Pershing Center's place as a legacy facility within the community.

Work Program Outline

The Scope of Work calls for a series of working sessions, stakeholder interviews, and public events designed to engage the greater Lincoln community, the Pershing Center Board, and key groups and organizations in a meaningful dialogue about the future of the Center and the site.

PARS Study Committee

For the purposes of this study, the full membership from the Pershing Center Advisory Board will be participants as members of the PARS Study Committee. The role of PARS Study Committee will be to work closely with City and consultant staff in completing and managing the Pershing Adaptive Reuse and Site Study. The Committee will serve as the main focus for all study activities, including participating in all PARS events and working sessions, reviewing draft materials, and providing recommendations.

Task Summary

A total of five tasks are suggested as the basic Scope of Service Task Outline for this study. These general work elements of each task are described below.

Task 1 - "Adaptive Reuse and Site Ideas Workshop" (July 22, 2008)

Task Goal: Conduct an initial working session with the PARS Study Committee for the purpose of brainstorming ideas on potential reuse opportunities.

This task involves a single working session for the purpose of creating an initial list of potential opportunities for reusing Pershing Center and the site. The session will include presentations on how other communities have reused similar facilities, including special functions and architectural designs. The focus will be on helping people imagine alterative futures for Pershing, not simply choosing from a laundry list of possibilities. Both the reuse of the building and the site without the existing building will be addressed.

Task 2 - Key Stakeholder Outreach

Task Goal: Engage key stakeholders of the greater Lincoln community on a small group basis to enlist and record their ideas.

This task involves a targeted outreach effort to critical local groups and organizations who have a valid and meaningful interest in the future of the facility and site. These will include entities from the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors. A structured interview process will be used so each entity is provided the same basic information and asked the same series of questions. Separate sessions will be held with a representative of each group. The reuse and use ideas generated through this process will be documented, summarized later by staff, and then integrated with the ideas generated throughout the process. This task may take two to three months to complete. City staff will be responsible for conducting these interviews.

Task 3 - Community Session

Task Goal: Conduct a single event inviting the public to comment on and suggest their ideas for the reuse of Pershing Center and the site.

The task will involve a public event at Pershing Center to solicit suggestions from the community regarding what they see as possible futures for Pershing Center. This will be likely be a structured session designed to inform the public about the ideas already generated in the study, but more importantly to garner their thoughts on the future of the facility and the site. In advance of the event, general information will be made available on the City's website, as well as other outreach activities undertaken. The session will seek to allow everyone an opportunity to present their ideas and to hear what others have to say. The event is not intended to be a public debate or contentious forum on the relative merits of the numerous options to which Pershing Center and the site might be used. Rather, the time should be used to better understand what future opportunities exist for the Center and to ensure as many plausible suggestions as possible are captured. All pertinent information gathered at the event would be summarized and published on the City's web site for widespread review and comment.

Task 4 - Review Final Conclusions

Task Goal: Continue to winnow the best ideas regarding the future adaptive reuse or use of Pershing Center and the site through a final working session of the PARS Study Committee.

This task involves the final formal meeting of PARS Study Committee. The purpose of this will be to narrow the list of most probable suggestions concerning Pershing's future and (as applicable) to set priorities on these options. The working session will likely extend over several hours to ensure a full discussion by Committee members on the list of proposed alternatives, and to also arrive at a list of "Not Recommended" alternative uses. The alternatives receiving the highest priority should be clearly identified. A more extensive list of likely alternatives will also be maintained and forwarded as part of the overall study conclusions.

Task 5 - Final Report Production

Task Goal: Document the PARS process and the full range of alternatives considered, accepted, and rejected.

This task involves completion of a final report to document the activities and findings of the study. The final report should encapsulate the tenor of the dialogue taking place during the study process and convey the range of options examined. The final report should recap the tasks with a description of each event and a comprehensive listing of alternatives noted during the process. A summary of the findings and recommendations will be included in the report. The Pershing Center Advisory Board would retain final oversight authority on the recommendations sent to the Mayor.

PARS