Published May 2003

Center allows for larger trade shows, conferences

By John Wolcott
SCBJ Editor

Sports topics have filled most of the news headlines about construction of the Everett Regional Event Center, especially focusing on its October opening and the first game for the Everett Silvertips, the newest team in the Western Hockey League.

When the ice yields to two end-to-end basketball courts, there may be state high school tournament competition, and when the courts give way to bare floor space, there will be chairs for concert events, along with the permanent seats around the main ice sheet.

There’s also a smaller sheet of public ice, for everyone from novices to Olympic-hopeful figure skaters and junior hockey league practice.

But the event center also will become home to a new array of business conferences, conventions, fund-raising events and the offices of the Everett Area Chamber of Commerce.

The first public event to be held in the arena, in fact, will be Housing Hope’s annual fund-raising gathering on June 7, when construction is expected to be about 75 percent complete. Housing Hope, which provides housing for homeless and low-income families, expects to attract as many as 500 people for the meeting, which also marks the nonprofit agency’s 15th anniversary.

Fred Safstrom, assistant to Everett Public Facilities District Executive Director Don Hale, guided news media on a recent tour of the construction, emphasizing the wide range of events expected at the center, including more and larger conferences and business gatherings than the city ever has been able to attract.

When it’s completed, the facility will offer 57,000 square feet of space for exhibitions and trade shows for everything from autos and boats to recreational vehicles, homes and gardens — by combining the 45,000-square-foot arena area with the 12,000-square-foot conference center.

The conference center will be adjacent to the arena area, so sponsors of a trade show on the floor of the arena can also provide nearby break-out rooms in the conference area for group meetings, lectures, training sessions or additional displays.

With 12,000 square feet of space, the conference center by itself will seat 850 people for a sit-down dinner, provide extensive space for small conference gatherings or trade shows or offer extra meeting space by being divided into smaller, segmented areas.

“This is a first-class facility for Everett,” Safstrom said. “We expect 600,000 people a year to be attracted to it, which will also mean more business downtown in evenings and on weekends, helping the city to grow its retail district downtown. We think the event center will help to promote new development and building renovation in the downtown core.”

The presence of the Everett Area Chamber of Commerce offices at the event center will further encourage business and tourism uses for the downtown facility, he said.

“A lot of events can no longer be held in Everett because there is no facility large enough,” Safstrom said. “Now, some groups that have gone elsewhere will be able to come back, and we’ll attract new groups who have never been here before.”

To put the event center’s attractiveness into perspective, Safstrom said, “We have a cool facility here, not a cookie-cutter design. It’s unique; we’ve checked and there’s not another conference facility and sports arena (combination) like this in the country.” The event center is being built and will be operated by the Everett Public Facilities District, paid for by county and city sales-tax rebates that can only be used for public facilities districts; by a share of existing county and city motel and hotel taxes; and by net operating revenues earned by the center.

Also, a total of $15 million of the construction costs will be financed by the city of Everett through an admission tax on ticketed events at the center.

Back to the top/May 2003 Main Menu