A Timeline of events leading up to the opening of the Town Toyota Center in Wenatchee, Wash.
Created by wenatcheeworld on Aug 12, 2008
Last updated: 03/11/10 at 10:00 AM
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Five days after the naming rights are revealed, the arena becomes a center again when Global announces the name of the arena is officially Town Toyota Center.
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Global announces Town Toyota has purchased naming rights to the arena. The building is renamed Town Toyota Arena. Global does not announce the financial terms of the naming rights, instead stating the details will be disclosed when the building is officially handed over to the PFD.
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The possibility of indoor football at the arena is in question as local officials still search for a team ownership group.
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Cline states the completion of the arena could be pushed into October because “there are some things behind schedule.”
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Rob Cline is promoted to General Manager of the arena.
Global holds a press conference to announce a hockey team, The Wenatchee Wild, which will call the arena home in 2008. The team’s ownership group, Wenatchee Sports Partners, signs a five-year lease with Global to use the arena.
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Global announces it is seeking investors to help bring a professional indoor football team to Wenatchee in 2009
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The possibility of a hockey team calling the arena home is in jeopardy when lease negotiations between Global and a local ownership group are stalled.
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Global announces a loss of $31,000 for the third quarter of 2008.
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Disney’s High School Musical On Ice” is announced as the first major event to be held at the arena.
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A project manager for Hunt Construction Group, the company that is building the Greater Wenatchee Regional Events Center, declares the building is between 55 and 60 percent complete.
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The Wenatchee Fire professional indoor soccer club is announced as the arena’s first tenant.
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A proposal is presented to the Public Facilities District Board where local groups pay 33 percent more for ice time at the arena than they were paying at the Riverfront Ice Arena, which was subsidized by the city.
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Global holds a “topping off” ceremony where hundreds of people show up to sign a 35-foot long steel beam that is installed in the arena.
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Kozuback announces that the company will keep lose money for the next two quarters but said the long-term financial prognosis of the company is good.
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A member of a local ownership group attempting to land a hockey team states his group has received conditional approval for a team.
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Global announces slightly more than a $3 million loss in revenue for the second fiscal quarter of 2008.
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The costs associated with the arena leave little wiggle room for Wenatchee’s city budget.
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Global announces a deal with with Feld Entertainment, a production company that stages the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey circus as well as shows featuring Disney characters.
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Global announces it has a deal with Dallas-based North American Hockey League that will locate a team in Wenatchee for 2008.
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Construction crews erect the walls of the arena.
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Global announces a $1.5 million loss for the first fiscal quarter of 2008.
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The British Columbia Hockey League pulls out of talks to bring an amateur hockey franchise to Wenatchee after USA Hockey, the sport’s governing board in this country, speaks out against a Canadian league having a team in America.
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Construction on the arena kicks into full gear as the pouring of concrete for the foundation and other key construction tasks tale place.
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Wenatchee Resident Rob Cline is named assistant general manager of the arena.
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A Sept. 17, 2008 deadline is set for the competition of the arena.
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Global announces it has secured the construction loan needed to continue building the arena.
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By a 4-2 vote, the Wenatchee City Council approved providing a bank a conditional loan agreement committing the city to making up the difference between what the public facilities tax pays for and what the arena actually ends up costing. This basically makes the city a co-signer on Global’s loan that funds construction of the arena.
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Sean Langer, director of the Santa Ana Star Center in Rio Ranco, N.M., a Global project, is hired to be the executive director of the arena. Langer quits before his first day on the job, stating that he tired of being uprooted.
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Rick Kozuback, CEO of Global Entertainment, tells the Wenatchee City Council that it will cost about $63 million to build the planned 5,000-seat arena due to skyrocketing costs for subcontractors. Kozuback says previous estimates were largely unfounded. He presents a scaled-back arena with 700 fewer seats that he says would cost an estimated $51 million to build — still $4 million more than budgeted.
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Mayor Dennis Johnson casts a tie-breaking vote approving a new contract to build the arena at a guaranteed maximum cost of $52.8 million.
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After more than a month of negotiations, Blodgett and Global settle on terms to transfer ownership of the land where the arena is to be built from Blodgett to Global. The project could not move forward until Global gained control of the land and until liens placed on the property by two construction companies that had already done work on the arena were dissolved.
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The city discovers that financing costs were underestimated by about $4 million. The council consents to a new contract with the higher price tag — $48.8 million — that makes Global Entertainment the builder of the arena and pushed the opening of the area from Oct. 2007 to August 2008.
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Ken Blodgett tells the City Council that he cannot secure financing for the project.
Officials say cold weather has delayed the project a month.
The Wenatchee City Council commits taxpayers to cover any part of the debt payment that arena revenue doesn’t offset.
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Blodgett is officially hired as builder. He guarantees to finish the arena by October 2007 at a maximum cost of $44.5 million. The contract lets him keep 20 percent of the amount that he comes in under the projected $44.5 million cost.
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A ground-breaking ceremony at the Walla Walla Avenue site draws nearly 200 people. commerative hockey pucks were given to those in attendance.
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C.H. Johnson finds that Global has “possibly overstated” by $200,000 to $300,000 the arena’s annual revenue. Contributing to the shortfall are inflated projections for luxury seating sales and some underestimated costs, the report says. With the shortfall, the arena’s revenues could come up $100,000 or more shy of covering its annual debt.
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The Public Facilities District is created. The district will control the finances of the arena and pay Global to manage the daily operations of the facility. During its first meeting the PFD approved creating a tax rebate on retail sales throughout the Wenatchee Valley that will help pay for the facility. Upon the completion of construction, the ownership of the GWREC transfers over to the PFD.
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Artists renderings of the arena are revealed to the public during a gathering of about 60 people at the Wenatchee Community Center and some local groups express concern that they will have limited access to ice time.
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The Chelan City Council reverses its vote to not join the PFD, leaving Leavenworth as the lone major city in Douglas and Chelan counties to not be a part of the district.
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The Chelan City Council reverses its vote to not join the PFD, leaving Leavenworth as the lone major city in Douglas and Chelan counties to not be a part of the district.
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The city councils of Leavenworth and Chelan vote against joining the PFD. Leavenworth councilmembers state they felt “under the gun” to make a decision while Chelan councilmembers state they wanted to keep their options open regarding the use of sales tax.
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