The Shorthorn - Officials dig in at special events center groundbreaking

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Officials dig in at special events center groundbreaking

Written by Sharayah Sherrod, The Shorthorn staff

Monday, 08 March 2010 06:33 PM

Excel among a few other student organizations broke ground at the groundbreaking ceremony for the new special events center East of Arlington Hall on Friday afternoon. The Special Events Center offers a spot for concerts, conferences, commencement ceremonies and other community events. (The Shorthorn: Aisha Butt)

The special events center was planned and designed with students in mind, and now construction for the building will commence the same way, with only minimal impact to students during the project’s early stages, university spokeswoman Kristin Sullivan said.

“Construction is not going to begin in earnest until late May to minimize the impact on students and staff,” Sullivan said after the groundbreaking Friday.

She said crews are now beginning on-site preparations like arranging for the proper utilities the special events center will need.

To kick-off the construction, city, university and community members gathered at parking lot 43, which is located east of Arlington Hall, to celebrate the groundbreaking of a long-awaited center. Several hundred people were on hand for the festivities.

“This is something that’s been anticipated for about two decades,” Communications Vice President Jerry Lewis said. “I think students and community members for years to come will look back on this day and say, ‘Wow, that was something big for the university.’”

The special events center will hold about 7,600 people for concert type events and about 6,500 for court-based athletics, allowing UTA’s sports teams to make their new home in the $78 million building — something alumnus Lucas Ross said has been a long-time coming.

“With the absence of a football team here at UTA, we need to put emphasis on the basketball team and having a serious Division 1 basketball program,” he said. “I think this is a great step in achieving that.”

Senior basketball guard Marquez Haynes spoke during the ceremony and afterwards said he agrees the facility will help both in recruitment of more top-notch athletes and in continuing to better UTA athletics.

“I think it’s definitely a sign that the university is taking steps in the right direction to become a premiere university,” he said.

Haynes said buildings and facilities are some of the first things people notice when they visit a school and having the center will be easy on the eyes to prospective students.

President James Spaniolo talks with mayor Robert Cluck at the groundbreaking ceremony for the new special events center East of Arlington Hall on Friday afternoon. The center is expected to open by December 2011. (The Shorthorn: Aisha Butt)

“I think this facility will definitely help UTA pass the eye test more easily as well,” he said.

It may pass another test, too — designed with the city of Arlington in mind.

“What we see is that the university is a big part of our community, our economy and our fabric,” Arlington City Manager Jim Holgersson said. “I think the vision that the city and the university have is that our downtown and our university will one day run together.”

Mayor Robert Cluck said the center will do just that.

“For too long there has been a rigid line between the city of Arlington and UTA, and now we are softening that line with the special events center,” he said.

In January, the city voted to pay $18 million toward the College Park project, which will sit just north of the center and include a parking garage to be used by the city and the university, a residence hall and retail space.

“Today, we are putting our money where our mouth is,” Cluck said.

Students have done the same, voting to help pay for the center’s operating costs in a 2005 student-approved referendum which adds $2 per semester credit hour to students’ tuition beginning in fall 2011.

At the groundbreaking, social work junior Maggie Garza said the university’s coming feature excites her.

“It makes us put our athletics, our events, on a pedestal where they should be,” she said. “We’re really excited because in a few years, we’ll be graduating in this.”

The building, designed by HKS Inc., will hold future commencements, instead of students graduating in cities that start with ‘G’ or a ‘F,’ as Cluck referred to Grand Prairie and Fort Worth, where he said commencements have been held in the past.

Hunt Construction Group, Inc. will serve as construction manager for the 218,000-square-foot events center.

After years of dreaming and planning, President James Spaniolo said the building is now becoming a reality — one he said people told him they’d believe when they saw the dirt turned.

“Well today we’re going to dig the first shovel of dirt,” he said.

And they did, officially beginning the process expected to end by December 2011 — the birth of the special events center.

“Today we’re breaking ground on more than a building,” Spaniolo said. “We’re really breaking ground on the next chapter of the history of UT Arlington and the city of Arlington.”