CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – The public is invited to a meeting to present and answer questions on the history, proposed funding structure, location and purpose of a multi-purpose event center in Clarksville-Montgomery County.
County officials plan to provide a transparent process and explanation to the public in moving forward on the venue, which will be located in downtown Clarksville if approved.
The meeting will be held Wednesday, May 8 from 6-7 p.m. at William O. Beach Civic Hall in Veterans Plaza at 350 Pageant Lane. County Mayor Jim Durrett will lead the meeting.
Images courtesy Genesis Studios, Convergence Design, and Montgomery County Govt.
Montgomery County Mayor Jim Durrett said the plan for an event center in downtown Clarksville has been in the works over the past three years.
Durrett said officials will ask the Montgomery County Commission to purchase the land needed for the event center this month.
“Obviously when putting a project of this magnitude together, there were many challenges, and many more ahead,” Durrett said in a statement. “We are proposing to use multiple funding sources.”
The estimated cost of the project is $105 million, which Durrett said will likely come from hotel/motel taxes, seat user fees, sales tax captured within the facility, naming rights for the facility, tenant fees, and a portion of PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) payments.
The proposed location for the event center is in the heart of downtown Clarksville at the intersection of Main Street and first Street. It would include arena seating, a basketball court, a layer of ice for hockey, a restaurant/bar, and other proposed features.
“We are reinvesting in our community,” Mayor Durrett said. “A reinvestment that will generate over $20 million in economic impact every year. A reinvestment that will create over 12,000 new hotel nights in our community. A reinvestment that will allow the people of this county a place to go and get quality entertainment, right here in Montgomery County.”