Much Ado About Kalamazoo

The city of Kalamazoo, Mich., has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on revitalization efforts over the past 20 years, but in order to resuscitate a “desolate” downtown district a local group is pushing for one more big-bucks project – an $81.2 million arena development.

Kenneth Miller, chairman of the board of trustees at Western Michigan University and an arena proponent, told the Kalamazoo Gazette that a 6,800-seat arena could inject new life into the nine-acre downtown site.

“For 12 years those blocks have been sitting there with almost no use,” Miller said. “It’s desolate. Nothing will ever happen here if we don’t have the event center.”

The proposed project may be pricey, but supporters claim an arena could draw crowds downtown and bring $150 million in additional private investments to the area as restaurants and businesses are built.

“My experience tells me that as soon as a spade goes into the ground, the phone will be ringing,” Ken Nacci, who heads a downtown development group, told the paper. “That’s what happened with the Arcadia Creek (Festival Place).”

Three sports teams have reportedly been proposed as anchor tenants for the facility, including WMU’s men’s basketball and hockey teams and the Kalamazoo Wings hockey team.

Officials have floated the idea of funding the project with a county tax increase.

A committee has until Oct. 31 to decide whether to move forward with the project, at which point county commissioners could ready a tax proposal for the May 2010 ballot, the Gazette reported.