SWOT Analysis of Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, MI

Strengths
– A new stadium offers the team more revenue from additional suites and corporate sponsorships.

Weaknesses
– The Joe Louis lease expires July 1, 2010, but the Ilitch family has to declare its intentions this summer.

– How the Ilitch family would finance such a venture when it’s hard to borrow money to buy a Mazda let alone an 18,000 seat hockey arena.

– Debt financing by the team is iffy at best and has hampered stadium projects elsewhere in the country.

– As popular as the Wings are, the use of any tax money — sales or otherwise — on a stadium project in stimulus times is going to be a tough sell.

– While most of the talk about empty seats in Detroit comes back to “it’s the economy

Opportunities
– Mike Ilitch has “until June 30 to tell Detroit if he will modernize the 30-year-old, city-owned arena or construct a new venue that likely would cost $200 million to $300 million.”

– What the city gains and loses if the Wings move to a new arena

– The Wings could ask for an extension on their decision

– Financing a new stadium through a combination of private money from the Ilitches and taxpayer money through an extension of local hotel and car-rental taxes

– If the Red Wings renew the lease and renovate the Joe, according to Crain’s “the city immediately loses the ticket taxes and in five years loses the surcharge on concessions and suites.” So maybe a new arena would be in Detroit’s best interest.

– Detroit could start charging for police and landscaping services (currently provided for free), and could collect property taxes beyond the current cap of $252,000 annually.

– Build a new arena in Windsor and the problem is solved.

– Just tell people your moving to Kansas City and suddenly everything will fall into place and 300 million dollars will suddenly “appear” for you to build a new arena. Crude business technique, but it gets the job done.

Threats
– On the financing front, the current economic climate makes the credit needed for an arena project tough to come by.

– If we get a new arena, I hope it’d still be called Joe Louis Arena; it just wouldn’t feel right and Detroit would lose a little bit of history if we did.

City of Brooklyn Case Study

Michael Davis
Brooklyn Case Study
It’s hard to take either side of a story that has direct impact on the displacement of a large population of people that are proud of where they live. The best way to address this situation is to break the sides of the decision up and discuss the benefits of both. A major corporation with all of the finances in line; only waiting on the approval of government to build and reconstruct downtown Brooklyn is one side; the other side being the citizens and various supporters of stopping the building and overall destruction of the neighborhood that many have called their home for years. Lastly I want to give my personal opinion of where the finances/subsidies should be concentrated to benefit both parties and still keep a since of accomplishment in improving a community that requires many updates with the changing times but still preserve the history and common interest of its community members which remains strong today.
Major development has been planned for the downtown Brooklyn area in New York to reconstruct the city’s infrastructure and install new housing developments, even some stories high across the river from Manhattan. There plans for new schools, police stations, and even a new sports arena as a new home for the New Jersey Nets professional basketball team. The corporation behind this development feels this project will provide new jobs, housing for the people, and bring money back into the struggling local neighborhoods of the downtown Brooklyn district. These are all things that the city of Brooklyn could use to secure a bright future and keep up with the technology of surrounding areas of New Jersey, Manhattan, and Long Island. The company feels that they have eminent domain in Brooklyn’s rundown sections and that gentrification is almost entirely necessary to stabilize the local economy and save citizens from becoming completely homeless.
With what seems to be a great idea, comes the issue of many negative impacts this construction project could have. According to the video, the corporation does not have the entire support of federal and local governments due to much petition and lobbying congress from the community and other anti-support groups. This disconnection raises questions if the corporation is going to be willing to compensate the citizens that are displaced due to construction. They say that the people will be allowed to live in the new housing units at the same price they were previously paying for rent, but where are they to go for temporary work or a place to live during the few year span that the project is estimated to take? With the building of new businesses, what will owners of local businesses already established do when they have to shut down for good? They don’t have resumes or background experience for new jobs that require a college education. They have been working this one place all their lives and more than likely took over operations from the family member before them that ran the shop. Many citizens see this project as a stripping from all of the culture of growing up and living in Brooklyn this past century.
Personally, I cannot agree with either side since I have never been to Brooklyn and can only draw conclusions from what I have watched from the video. I feel immersing myself into the environment currently in place and gaining a better understanding of the story would make it easier for me to make proper judgment. However I believe that remodeling of some areas is appropriate and quite possibly necessary. The developers should be allowed to build the new sports arena for the Nets to play in. The benefits would be great, including jobs easily accessible to the community, entertainment/source of revenue for a struggling region, and ethically it just makes sense to bring the idea “sport” back to Brooklyn. Sport in most cases always seems to build pride in a community and among fans and players alike. If they just construct one or two anchor assets in the city, then it would be a good founding to slowly build from that onto housing units and so on. People who have been living the same way for a hundred years don’t like change and I can respect that sentiment. Let’s not crush lives overnight with a two billion dollar sledge hammer but get back to the roots of a historically important town and bring positive improvements to a struggling urban America one small project at a time.

Eppler Complex Program Statement Assignment

Eppler Complex Renovation Program Statement

Program statements are very important in the planning phase of building a new facility. Since this project involves the input of alot of people, is usually high in cost, and includes alot of cooperation from different parties, you have to make a statement that covers all areas of the construction/renovation. This process can be complicated and involve up to years of construction and planning time.

Here is a link to the current construction plan of BGSU for 2010 and 2011:

The next link is for an interesting site that has recommendations and other stories of renovations done to aging school facilities:
http://www.edfacilities.org/rl/build_or_renovate.cfm

Objectives:
-Use a uniform style of building design and materials
-Install latest educational technology in classrooms
-Replace depreciated equipment/objects with new items

Factors Affecting Planning:
-Proper disposing of aged equipment
-Bowling Green Hazardous Materials Regulations
-Contracting efficient construction company
-Zoning Issues during renovation

Comparable Facility Analysis:
-Compare current facility issues with other depreciated buildings on campus
-Cost issues with specific materials and equipment in aged facility

Preliminary Data:
-Records of Budget and Funding
-Engineering Issues
-Blueprints

Space Needs and Allocation
-Moveable Parts
-Transformational Aspects for the use of several organizations and activities

Purpose and Use of Auxiliary Space:
-Groups/Organizations using the facility currently or in the future
-Demensions of different rooms in facility

Service Facilities:
-Size of restrooms and office space
-Private donations/grants
-Naming Rights

Spatial Relationships:
-Fire Codes: Emergency Exits
-Disaster Plans
-Inspection for Harmful Designs or Equipment

Environmental Necessities:
-Energy Levels needed to sustain functioning facility
-Program for “Going Green” established

Equipment and Furnishings:
-Installation of new seating, electronics, and building materials