Why not Dodge?

    Plans for Dodge City's special events center are starting to move forward, now that the state has chosen a developer for Ford County's casino.
    City and county officials are planning to build the special events center, adjacent to the casino, which will be located on the western outskirts of Dodge City near U.S. Highway 50. The Olathe-based company Butler National Service Corp. has been chosen to develop and manage the casino for the state.
    Officials have said that putting the casino near the events center could benefit both projects.
    Over the past two days, city and county leaders met with representatives of the Phoenix-based Global Entertainment Corp. to discuss a project management services agreement for the events center, Ford County administrator Ed Elam said Friday.
    Broadly speaking, the agreement covers issues such as seeking contractors' bids for the project and overseeing construction of the events center, Elam said. He added that he could not give specific details because negotiations are still under way.
    "We can't move forward until the commissioners, of course, approve the project management agreement," he said. "Hopefully, we'll have enough time to go through that in detail with both of the commissions."
    The city and county commissions, who will have to sign off on the agreement, will probably consider it either late this month or in early December.
   
Developing plans
    In the meantime, Global is continuing to work on plans for the special events center, according to City Manager Ken Strobel.
    Under a 2007 agreement with the city and county, Global is developing a multipurpose events center that would include an arena with approximately 4,300 fixed seats and additional portable seats. The arena would be designed to accommodate a variety of events, including rodeos, trade shows and concerts.
    Early plans call for the events center to include about 10,000 square feet of meeting and conference space, although that could be eliminated to avoid duplicating Butler's plans to include conference rooms in the second phase of the casino complex.
    The city and county may purchase land on the casino site for the events center, but that issue has not been settled yet.
    The project's price tag was originally estimated at $33 million, but that's likely to change due to the sour national economy and rising costs for building materials, Strobel said Friday.
    "Of course, in the current state of the economy, a lot of fluctuation going on — both ways, actually," he said. "In some cases, some of the material prices have actually gone down somewhat, but in others, they've undoubtedly gone up."
    He said that Global is taking a closer look at those expenses and will issue a more current cost estimate before long.
    An attempt to reach Ivan Moore, director of business development for Global subsidiary International Coliseums Inc., for comment late Friday afternoon was unsuccessful.
    Strobel said that the city and county put plans for the events center on hold due to uncertainty about the casino, but those plans are moving forward now that the casino developer has been chosen.
    "We have a lot of details to work out and a lot of things to accomplish," he said. "But we're certainly optimistic that we can move ahead at a reasonable time schedule."
    Strobel said that city and county officials will coordinate efforts with Butler as closely as possible.
    Boot Hill Gaming President Jeff Thorpe, whose organization is working with Butler on the casino complex, said the company will keep working with city and county officials to keep both projects moving forward.
    "Architects, engineers from both sides are meeting in future weeks to plan all of that so that we can begin dirt work in the middle of December that complements both projects," he said.
   
    Reach Eric Swanson at (620) 408-9917 or e-mail him at eric.swanson@dodgeglobe.com.