Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena

Better Jacksonville Plan's Biggest Project to Date Now a Reality

By Scott Judy

The joint venture of Turner/Perry-McCall/Northside Partnership has pushed the Better Jacksonville Plan's single biggest project to date into reality with its completion of the $105 million Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena.

The city-owned, mid-sized arena will seat up to 14,000 for hockey and arena football games, 15,000 for basketball games and between 14,000 and 16,000 for concerts. The city dedicated the new facility on Nov. 19, just two days before an Elton John concert would bring the new facility to life.

The days leading up to that opening event were frenetic, though, as project officials with Turner Construction, designer HOK Sport + Venue + Event of Kansas City, Mo., and dozens of subcontractors scrambled to pin down final details. Tile contractors finished up the floors in the concourse area, glazing contractors buttoned up the exterior windows and wall contractors applied final finishes.

John Reich, project executive for Turner, said he's proud that work was completed on Nov. 17, when the team said it would be. "This arena will have been built in 22 months," he added. "It was a very aggressive schedule, so there's an awful lot of satisfaction."

As work wrapped up, the project's end users were getting antsy with anticipation.

"Coming from a 40-year-old facility to a facility like this, this is truly a step above any new arena that I've seen in the last five or six years," said Robin Timothy, assistant general manager with Philadelphia-based SMG Inc., the firm that will market and manage the facility. "I just can't wait for them to hurry up and get out."

Past Year: Taking Shape

The Turner-led joint venture pushed the project to a topping out last spring and was able to get it dried in by this past July.

Getting the structure topped out and the roof on required a dance between two major subs. Coreslab Structures of Tampa used several cranes to install the precast concrete seating risers from the interior of the arena bowl at the same time that Buckner Steel Erection of Graham, N.C., was erecting the structural steel frame and roof trusses from outside the emerging structure.

For safety reasons, these contractors worked from opposite ends of the project. While they were able to switch ends as they closed in on each other, eventually both were left with only work in the middle of the structure. For this reason, Coreslab Structures had to depart the project for about three weeks while the steel erector completed its work.

The approximately 16 main trusses connected to a four-girder box frame that itself connected to four cast-in-place concrete "supercolumns" designed to support the entire roof structure. The girders in this box measured approximately 30 ft. deep, Reich said. Additional intermediate struts and supports further tie those 16 trusses together.

While this phase of the project required significant coordination for safety purposes, "It went as planned," Reich said.

In all, the structural steel work required approximately five months, while the following roof membrane installation took about three months. Staying on schedule here was critical to the project's overall timetable.

"The biggest challenge to any arena is getting it dried in," Reich said. "You have all of these high-end finishes throughout the arena, in the suites and concourse areas and the seating areas, and you have to have a dry building to install that work."

Also critical to getting the building dried in were the efforts of the mason, Allan Spear Construction Co. of Gainesville, Fla. With masonry covering nearly the entire exterior of the roughly 435,000-sq.-ft. structure - and the total number of brick estimated at 750,000 - Allan Spear's timeliness was going to impact the work of numerous other subs and the project's overall progress.

"The exterior masonry started pretty much as soon as we got the structure topped out," Reich said. "We were still pouring the upper concourse when the mason came in and started putting in his masonry backup. He was basically following the structure up."

Coordination with the steel erector was an issue as well.

"That was the biggest challenge - keeping the mason from having to work under the steel contractor," Reich added.

With the steel erector moving around the project, the mason needed to be more nimble than usual. For this reason, Allan Spear invested in a self-climbing scaffold system that it used to more quickly set up and work in open areas. With several of these units located around the structure's perimeter, the mason could move to another area on short notice.

"If the structural steel needed to work over him, he could pull off and go to another scaffolding and not have to build (scaffolding)," Reich said.

Allan Spear Construction also initiated a change order that increased its efficiency. Instead of using the standard-sized brick included in the original bid package, the mason suggested moving to a larger brick to reduce labor costs and speed the project.

Reich said the masonry job was tough.

"This isn't a real simple building," he said. "It's not just flat, straight walls. There's a radius along the whole north wall. You have so many inside and outside corners. They did a good job for us."

Part of a Bigger Design

While the new Veterans Memorial Arena may stand apart, it doesn't stand alone. As part of the city's "Sports Complex" district - which includes Alltel Stadium and the new minor-league Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville - the new facility was designed to be part of a greater whole.

HOK Sport + Venue + Event, the designer for the arena, was also involved with the design of the recently completed Baseball Grounds as well as the transformation of Alltel Stadium several years ago.

Bradd Crowley, project manager for HOK, said the first step was to position the arena and ballpark projects within the proposed district.

"We proposed that the arena rest exactly where it's sitting today - directly across from the ballpark, on axis with Alltel," he said. "We were excited about the energy the ballpark and arena would have playing off of each other."

Crowley said the exterior designs of the arena and ballpark across the street took their cues from the existing architecture, most notably a small brick church facing the arena's entrance.

"The (church has) this red brick, and some precast that accents the red brick," Crowley said. "A lot of the shapes were pulled from the glass and from that (church) structure. That was the birth of the brick material on both the ballpark and the arena."

Inside the arena, the "energy" can be felt through the extensive use of glass curtain walls that provide arresting views of the Jacksonville skyline and neighboring ballpark. Large exterior balconies are actually functional, enabling patrons to also go outside during their visits.

"We tried to pull the outside into the seating bowl, and actually all the way into the bowl, where we've opened up the concourses in very wide areas that can really get some outside light," Crowley said.

Another incorporation of the surrounding community can be found in the inclusion of a Hall of Fame area within the arena's entrance lobby. This area will serve as a Florida Sports Hall of Fame, Florida/Georgia Hall of Fame and Jacksonville Hall of Fame.

"We were always looking for something that would bring a little excitement to that lobby," Crowley said. "Prior to that Hall of Fame coming about, it was a blank wall. Nothing really made sense until that came along. And really all we had to do was take a little bit of storage space and incorporate it in there.

"We're real happy with that late addition to the project (and) very excited about the lobby," he continued. "It kind of explodes upwards with crisscrossing escalators and elevators."

Multifunction

Though the arena doesn't have a major-league sports tenant, its amenities are designed toward that level, with 28 suites, including four party suites and one large "party deck" that seats about 120.

Turner's Reich said only a few suites had not been sold yet. "It's a big hit here in town," he said. "They could bring an NBA team in here. They'd have to make some modifications to some of the parking arrangements. But you could take this (facility) and put it in any major city and it would be comparable, and maybe even better, than a lot of other arenas."

Crowley said he believes the amenities in the new arena are "maybe a little more extensive and a little more upscale than some mid-sized arenas."

Without a major-league sports tenant, the arena's main function will be to serve multiple purposes, most notably entertainment events.

"This facility is really leaning a little more to the entertainment end rather than the sports end, though it will handle the sports magnificently," Crowley said. "The sightlines are great for basketball and hockey and, of course, concerts."

The level of amenities on this project has been a function of the budget. As a result of excellent subcontractor pricing and the normal value-engineering process, the Turner-led team and the city were actually able to add some amenities, such as premium retractable seats that can be placed on the arena floor for concerts. These seats are identical to the rest of the facility's permanent seats.

Dollar for dollar, Reich said the new facility stands up well. "For the cost, and what they're getting for it, I would put this one up against any major city's (arena)," he said.

"We're really excited about the finished product," Crowley added, just days before the opening. "We can't wait for the first event, and 15,000 - 16,000 people coming in there and enjoying themselves."

Project Team:

Owner: City of Jacksonville
Construction Manager: Turner/Perry-McCall/Northside Partnership, Jacksonville
Architect: HOK Sport + Venue + Event of Kansas City, Mo.
Masonry Contractor: Allan Spear Construction Co., Gainesville, Fla.