What to know about Savannah Civic Center redevelopment: History and public input
The City of Savannah announced Tuesday its plans to receive public input on the future of the Civic Center site. A series of open houses and a stakeholder meeting will take place over the next 30 days, with Mayor Van Johnson eyeing the end of May for a council vote on future plans.
The public engagement opportunities announced Tuesday include a stakeholder meeting on April 25; a community wide open house at the Civic Center on May 7; a virtual open house on May 16; and a to-be-dated open house on the southside.
But discussions on the Civic Center site's future are not new to Savannah. Here is a refresher on all you need to know as public input ramps up.
Why is the Civic Center site up for redevelopment?
The Savannah Civic Center, which is comprised of the Martin Luther King Jr. Arena, the Johnny Mercer Theatre and various meeting spaces, is a more than 50-year-old building. An assessment by the city in 2022 declared the space “suffers from severe deferred maintenance and functional obsolescence.”
In 2016, a city commissioned study advised against preserving the MLK Jr. Arena due to "substantial costs" associated with the building's upkeep, according to a city press release.
Beyond deteriorating infrastructure, the opening of Enmarket Arena also provided an opportunity to explore future uses of the site. The new arena is home to the Savannah Ghost Pirates, a consistent lineup of concerts and other shows now not booked for the spaces within the Civic Center.
What options exist?
Ever since the coming of a new arena in 2019, city leaders began moving on options for the future of the Civic Center site. A previous council commissioned a panel of experts through the Urban Land Institute to study best uses for the site. The group's recommendation, presented in this report, was to demolish the entire complex and sell it for redevelopment.
A core reason for that recommendation is demolishing the complex could restore the historic street grid from the Oglethorpe Plan in that area, and revive the entirety of Elbert Square, the majority of which is covered by the Civic Center. The Oglethorpe Plan is the name for city's historic planned urban design of squares and wards repeated throughout downtown.
That recommendation was eventually endorsed by that council in 2019. More recently, the city's last council administration explored another option in 2022. A presentation from a council workshop laid out a plan that would retain and renovate the Johnny Mercer Theatre while demolishing the MLK Jr. Arena.
Advocates of that plan seek to keep the Johnny Mercer Theatre as a performing arts venue in the city, saying it fulfills a missing middle-sized performance space in the city. The third component of that plan is to construct a municipal office building at the location of the MLK Jr. Arena.
Why is it so important?
The Civic Center site comprises about 7 acres in the heart of downtown Savannah, adjacent to Montgomery, Liberty and Oglethorpe streets. The prime location would make it one of the most valuable pieces of land in the city; the ULI report estimated it would be worth $12-15 million at the time of the study, which was published in 2019.
It is also one of the highest-stakes urban planning decisions in the city's recent history given the opportunity to potentially restore the street grid and Oglethorpe Plan. It will also be a decision that shapes the character of a key area in the historic district, because under the most likely paths forward there will be new use on the site.
Evan Lasseter is the city and county government reporter for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at ELasseter@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: What to know about Savannah Civic Center redevelopment:
