Newspaper Page Text
Page 10, September 23, 2019, The Islander
City conference center
Continued from Page 3
the currently designed larger center.
A date has not been set.
In a separate telephone interview
with LaRon Bennett The Islander
asked him to further discuss the plans
for the conference center and its use.
Bennett said that the architect,
Gunn Meyerhoff and Shay, had done
a study in advance of creating the cur
rent design. “They designed a confer
ence center to meet a niche need,” he
said, “after looking at 15 to 18 confer
ence centers in the area.”
“The size and scope of the center
was based on the desire of the City
Commission to meet local community
needs, not to support a hotel,” he said.
“We wanted to use the center as a
draw for the hotel and an economic
development catalyst for downtown
Brunswick,” he continued.
“The Key Advisors study was to use
the conference center to support the
hotel,” he said. “That’s a departure
from the prior objectives.”
“That will create a problem for the
city down the road,” he said. “If we de
sign the center to meet hotel needs, it
won’t serve the public or the needs of
the city.”
“To build a center that would stand
on its own without a hotel was the
original plan,” Bennett said.
He pointed out the Coffey report,
done in 2018, which pegged the first
year’s net operating loss without a ho
tel at $360,529.
First year net operating losses with
a hotel Coffey placed at $237,819.
“There will be no cash flow in the
first five years with or without a ho
tel,” Coffey said.
“The Center will generate economic
growth from event related spending,”
he said.
The net regional impact in dollars
without a hotel would be $437,755 in
the first year and $1.8 million with a
hotel.
Bennett said he believed that with
in three years, with or without a hotel,
the center could stabilize based on its
present design.
Then Bennett said that Coffey’s
study was conservative and that it
would be a challenge to stabilize the
conference center within three years;
that it would stabilize within three to
five years if the economy holds but cer
tainly easier to stabilize with a hotel.
“We could meet the overhead within
three years,” Bennett said, “and take
care of the debt service in five years.”
Bennett said he envisioned the
conference center would be used for
conferences “similar to Jekyll Island
meetings.”
He believes weddings, banquets,
corporate events, FLETC use, and lo
cal government needs would be met
by the conference center and support
a hotel as well.
“The niche the Oglethorpe Center
would fill would be those groups for
which Jekyll Island is too expensive
or too big or other nearby centers that
are too small,” he said.
The current size of the conference
center Bennett said, includes banquet
seating for 500 and he believes that
would accommodate 900 to 1200 for
graduation seating.
Another reason Bennett did not
think the conference center should
solely support the hotel is that he did
not want to leverage public funds to
support a private entity.
A situation to be ironed out con
cerning the property the conference
center would sit on is that technically
the city is in default of the contract or
MOU (Memorandum of Understand
ing) with Glynn County regarding the
property.
On April 7, 2016 the County deeded
the Oglethorpe property to the city for
the construction of the conference cen
ter. The Memorandum of Understand
ing between the City and County as
well as the deed language require sub
stantial completion of the center by
April 7, 2019.
The Glynn County Board of Com
missioners (BOC) discussed amending
the MOU with the City of Brunswick
at their joint meeting with the City
Commission on Mar. 20, 2018, and
agreed to give the city two more years
to substantially complete the project
which would have placed the substan
tial completion date at April 7, 2021.
However the county never voted on
the MOU or deed amendment.
The consequences to the city per
the original MOU:
• reimburse and and pay into the
SPLOST IV and SPLOST V accounts
any SPLOST IV or V funds expended
on the Oglethorpe Center located on
the former Winchester Building site,
including the $442,380 already ex
pended to demolish the Winchester
building;
• pay the County the fair market
value of the former Winchester Build
ing site.
However, the county never formal
ly voted on the change so the city is in
default but the county has never col
lected on the default.
County Commission Chairman
Mike Browning told The Islander that
while the county has never voted to
extend the substantial completion
deadline, the county has not called in
the terms of the contract.
Browning said Mayor Harvey has
approached several commissioners
and asked if the situation could be
worked out.
Browning said, “We want to work
with the city, and LaRon Bennett has
asked to bring a proposal to the county
(on this matter).”
Browning stressed that so far it has
only been asked about informally no
formal proposal has been brought to
the county by the city.
“We will listen to the city,” Brown
ing said, “and see if we can work with
them.”
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