Collaboration is Key in New Prescott Valley Arena

by Michèle Van Haecke

Teamwork started long before a puck ever hit the ice at a new 5,000-seat multipurpose arena in Prescott Valley, Ariz.

Planned, designed and constructed by a seasoned group of sports-and-entertainment architects, contractors and developers, the Prescott Valley Events Center was an exercise in cooperation.

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"This is a very specific type of construction," said Dan Vaillant, president of International Coliseums Co., the development subsidiary of Phoenix-based sports-management giant Global Entertainment, which partnered with Prescott Valley's Fain Signature Group to develop the project. "Once you set that opening date, everybody has to pull both oars to get it open. You need contractors who understand that."

Completed this month, the $30 million project included a National Hockey League regulation-size ice floor, pre-cast concrete seating for 5,100 to 6,200, a 60- by 40-ft. stage, an operations complex and high-tech audio-visual and electronic display systems.

The facility's concerts, special events and home games of the Global-owned Central Hockey League Arizona Sundogs are expected to draw 400,000 to 600,000 people annually, so the site plan called for future hotel and restaurant development with pedestrian corridors.

Architecturally, the 134,800-sq.-ft. arena had to create an urban center in a bedroom community that's experienced a 160 percent population-growth rate in the past decade. Until the past five years, the town's architectural image was defined mostly by strip malls and fast-food restaurants lining its primary highway corridor.

"The goal was the development of a main street in the town of Prescott Valley," Vaillant said. "It's a catalyst for future development."

The arena forms a town center with the existing Prescott Valley Entertainment Center and Prescott Valley Civic Center. Its exterior was designed to integrate the neighboring structures' contemporary style and stone-and-glass finishes.

Since 2003, ICC has developed six arenas based on a standardized model Global created to bring world-class entertainment and revenue to midsize communities.

To make the model work just about anywhere, ICC needed a team that understood the economics, timing and construction know-how peculiar to arena projects, Vaillant said.

"It's important to get a sports architect involved, or else you're reinventing the wheel," he said. "We got the exact building we wanted--our prototype--and it's more cost effective."

Arena-design specialists Sink Combs Dethlefs, an architecture firm with offices in Fresno, Calif., and Denver, worked with ICC on three similar projects before tailoring the model for Prescott Valley's unique goals.

"We tried to design the building to fit the community's needs, to create an urban center, a new downtown," said Don Dethlefs, Sink Combs Dethlefs president. "It needed to be affordable but have class and be urban friendly."
Sited close to the street, the building invites people in through three, oversized entries and encourages interaction through abundant windows and roomy second-level balconies. Pedestrian corridors encourage traffic through the entertainment district.

The interior houses the main bowl, operations, team complexes and concessions. Its design solves a scale challenge peculiar to arenas. "Your eye is chasing this little puck around," Dethlefs said. "You want to keep fans close in on the action. It has to be big enough for big events, but small enough that every seat in the house is a great seat."

Contractors for projects like this need to be well-versed in arena construction.

"We know what's coming up, so we're able to coordinate well in advance," said John Morgan, a project manager with the Dallas, Texas office of Hunt Construction Group, the project's general contractor. Hunt has worked on two other ICC arenas in Ohio and New Mexico and built Chase Field and the new University of Phoenix Stadium in the Phoenix area.

"We have an idea of what they need, especially on the building-control side," Morgan added.

He explained that arena contractors need to know how to install bowl smoke systems, work with highly specialized subcontractors, handle materials such as precast retractable seating and save on equipment peculiar to a multipurpose facility.

Since the completion date is critical, they also need to be masters of coordination, he said.

When production of pre-cast concrete seating conflicted with the erection of 1,082 tons of structural steel, Morgan had to juggle steps in the crucial truss erection. Phoenix-based Schuff Steel Co. was the steel contractor on the job.

Pouring the $750,000 ice floor was equally tricky. The 17,000-sq.-ft. slab was made up of a limestone base topped with sand, insulation and 11 miles of plastic pipe carrying 3,000 gallons of brine. The pipe was placed on a mat of .5-in. reinforcing steel and covered with 5 in. of concrete.

The job required a specialty refrigeration subcontractor, Cimco Refrigeration of Mobile, Ala., and took 12 to 14 weeks and required six weeks in which nobody could enter the bowl.

"If you don't bring someone in to do something like that, you could be tearing your floor out," Vaillant said.

Morgan contracted 23 subcontractors and worked with another half dozen chosen by ICC for their experience with acoustic and electronics equipment such as Lapendary Panels, baffling systems and ribbon boards.

Erecting the building with tilt-up panels was one of the smoothest steps, Morgan said. In addition to taking just four days, it provided affordability and durability, goals that the architect said took precedence over aesthetics in the design.

"We want to make sure this holds up," Dethlefs said. "These buildings get a lot of use and sometimes a lot of abuse. We want to make sure it looks good on opening day and after."

Key Players

Owner: Global Entertainment/ Fain Signature Group
Architect: Sink Combs Dethlefs
General Contractor: Hunt Construction Group
Steel: Schuff Steel Co.
Electrical: Delta Diversified
Mechanical: Yavapai Plumbing & Electrical Inc.

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