The Roosevelt will survive in downtown block where Event Center will be built

The initial plan for the city's new Event Center convention facility called for the purchase and demolition of buildings along A Avenue NE between Second and Third streets NE but not for the purchase and demolition of the old parking ramp on First Avenue NE between The Roosevelt and Third Street NE.

However, the city is going to purchase the First Avenue NE ramp and take it down, too, the city's Five Seasons Facilities Commission learned on Wednesday.

In other words, only The Roosevelt, now an apartment building under renovation from the flood, will survive in the block between First Avenue NE and A Avenue NE and Second and Third streets NE as the Event Center convention center becomes reality by late 2012.

Also to be demolished for the Event Center project is The Ballroom above Third Street NE that connects to the U.S. Cellular Center and the Crowne Plaza Five Seasons Hotel.

The Event Center's new convention facility will sit, in part, on what is now Third Street NE, which will be vacated for the project.

John Frew, who is the Event Center consultant for the city, and Patrick DePalma, the chairman of the Five Seasons Facilities Commission, both said the city would buy the First Avenue NE parking ramp next to The Roosevelt as part of the Event Center project.

Frew said some discussion is under way about possibly building a new parking ramp as part of the Event Center project.

Frew also said the project design team is studying a way to “merge” the new convention facility to the existing U.S. Cellular Center arena so that the entire space of the two facilities could serve as a big hall for certain large conventions.

Frew said he expected to be back in front of the Facilities Commission next month to show the commission design schematics for the new Event Center project.

The $67-million project includes the construction of a new convention center and an upgrade of the U.S. Cellular Center.

Any discussion of the Event Center project necessarily raises the question of the Crowne Plaza Five Seasons Hotel.

The hotel is owned by its creditors, and in recent months, the city has offered to buy it with plans to renovate it along with the Event Center project and then, likely, sell it.

Frew said one idea would be to move the hotel's second-floor registration desk to the ground floor and to incorporate the hotel's existing second floor into the arena.

Frew said the city is “very close” to completing a deal on the hotel. Both sides have moved from their initial prices. In early July, the city offered $1.5 million for the 275-room, 30-year-old hotel and the city has said the current owner, CWCapital LLC, wants something more than $4 million for it.

The Facilities Commission's DePalma said the city attorney is working on a purchase contract, but he said the city could still end up not buying the hotel.