Construction date for Idaho Falls Event Center up in air

IDAHO FALLS — The groundbreaking date for the Idaho Falls Event Center remains uncertain.

Idaho Falls Auditorium District Board Chairwoman Cindy Ozaki says the board is getting closer to figuring out a date, but they aren’t there yet.

“We just don’t even make those kind of projections, because we don’t know what could happen. We want to make sure that the community knows that we’re working very hard to get this done as quickly as we possibly can,” Ozaki said.

Ozaki said when a building of this caliber is being built, thousands of decisions need to be made. The building’s estimated cost is more than $40 million, a little over the $35 million projected in 2015.

So far $8.5 million have been raised through the transient room tax, or hotel tax. Hotels have been making payments since voters approved the auditorium district’s formation in 2011. She said funds are also received through grants, sponsorships and donations.

The city of Idaho Falls approved the annexation of the land for the event center at Snake River Landing in the fall of 2015. In summer of 2016 a general contractor was chosen — Bateman-Hall/Hogan.

Ozaki said the top three things that need to be done before breaking ground are:

1. Hiring an executive director.
2. Securing all funding for the facility.
3. Completing the final detailed design of the facility.

The board has been without an executive director since June 2016 and is in the process of hiring one. Ozaki said it hasn’t hindered the board not to have a director, but having one will help speed up the process.

“We would just like to move ahead faster now, so that’s why we’ve decide now that we need an executive director so we can move ahead,” Ozaki said.

Ozaki said the board is also looking at different options for financing the facility.

She said the building could be leased, or voters could approve a bond.

Ozaki said the least costly way to fund the event center would be a through a bond.

“If we went to a bond, yes the voters would have to approve it by two-thirds majority vote,” Ozaki said.

Officials said the district would be responsible for paying off the bond and that it wouldn’t affect citizens’ property taxes.

As far as the final details for the building goes, Ozaki said that too is underway.

“What we’re doing now is we’re still looking at different options in the building. One of the things we’re looking at is the design of the building’s the power supply,” Ozaki said. “What we’re doing is trying to figure out how to get the most bang for the buck in what we’re doing.”

Ozaki said no exact deadlines are in place for the event center.

“We have a lot basic things set, but there’s still a lot of decisions that still need to be made,” she said.