A board assigned to oversee expansion of the Monroe County Convention Center presented preliminary designs to the city council Wednesday, with a goal of construction starting in 2025.
Doug Bruce is the Capital Improvement Board (CIB) vice president. The seven-member board is composed of representatives assigned by city and county government.
Bruce said the CIB wants the convention center, located on the corner of West Third Street and South College Avenue, to expand across the street, eastward. The design includes a hotel site between Third and Fourth streets.
The design presented includes a skywalk over South College Avenue, which council person Matt Flaherty opposed.
"One of the things that we agreed on in prioritizing the pedestrian realm and high-quality, compact, urban form in our downtown was that we did not want to see skywalk connections," Flaherty said. "...skywalks undermine human interaction with, and the quality of, public space."
Bruce said the designs presented are preliminary concepts. The CIB met with three hotel companies that responded to a request for proposals to develop a hotel in connection with the convention center.
Bruce said the existing convention center’s location makes connecting it to expanded sites difficult logistically without a skywalk.
“Not being able to go back and forth in January or moving items back and forth from the loading docks to one building, and having to go outside to do it is just not, really feasible.”
Bruce said a design is not finalized. But the CIB is leaning toward a connector between the existing site and its expansion.
Eric Spoonmore, the CIB’s treasurer and another person appointed by the city council, said the board wants to adhere to the city’s goals of reducing pedestrian deaths and injuries.
“Having a skywalk to connect the two facilities is really the only 100 percent way that we can make sure that pedestrians are going to be safe with putting the new convention center downtown,” Spoonmore said.
City council person Kate Rosenbarger likened skywalks to gerbil tubes. She said the meaure will not improve safety, and the focus should be on making streets safer for pedestrian use.
”If you think we should be putting gerbil tubes for pedestrians, we have a lot more intersections than just Third and College," Rosenbarger said. "We have all our city intersections. That's not okay."
The CIB will hold a community meeting September 16 to get public feedback on the convention center expansion. Next steps include working with the city for bond issuance and hearings with the Plan Commission in early 2025.
