SpiritBank Event Center - Pollstar News

Bixby, Okla., is about to become home to the only privately owned event center in the state with the 5,000-capacity SpiritBank Event Center.

The event center is part of the $60 million Regal Plaza, which is currently under construction and will eventually include 26 acres of arena, retail, dining and office space.

Sam Remy, the VP of operations at the SpiritBank Event Center, told Pollstar that some tenants have already moved in and are occupying space, but the grand opening of both Regal Plaza and the SpiritBank Event Center are scheduled for October.

Remy, whose family developed the project and was hired in-house to manage the venue, said the event center is expected to be complete by the second week of August with some soft openings in September.

Ground was broken on Regal Plaza in August of 2006. According to the Oklahoma City Journal Record, Remy Cos. first met with city officials in April of 2005 to discuss the construction of an event center. After six months of negotiations the city council approved the project in December 2005.

"We definitely had a plan and we talked to city officials and talked to the people of Bixby and it seemed like there was an overwhelming need for an event center down here in south Tulsa," Remy said.

The Journal Record noted that the city of Bixby gave Remy Cos. a $100,000 incentive package.

The project is costing the city of Bixby "very little," Bixby City Manager Micky Webb told the Greater Tulsa Reporter. "We did have some infrastructure costs and we agreed to let them keep one cent of the Bixby city sales tax generated within Regal Plaza up to a total of $5.5 million, but beyond that Bixby is getting a tremendous facility fee."

Remy said the SpiritBank Event Center has a capacity of 4,500 to 5,000 for concerts and 4,200 for sporting events. The SpiritBank Event Center has already worked out a deal with the Tulsa 66ers for the NBA Development League team to call the venue home for the next five seasons.

Remy predicted the venue would host roughly 25 to 35 concerts per year, with everything from adult contemporary to rock to a comedy series.

"Then we’re also going to have concert series we’ll run throughout the year," Remy said. "They’ll be a country series and a Christian series that runs every month or so."