By Staff
The ESG Companies handed Rubin Communications Group a large and complex assignment: manage the public announcement that the longtime Virginia Beach developer would submit a proposal to the city to build an 18,000-seat arena. And it would do so with private money, lent to ESG by a bank in China.
ESG’s CFO Andrea Kilmer looks over plans for the proposed arena with Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms just before the big public announcement.
Needless to say this would be no ordinary news story. Generally cities or counties, not private firms, build and own major entertainment centers, and the government carries the debt, aiming to repay it with tax revenue generated by the facility. Virginia Beach reportedly has little stomach for that kind of borrowing so ESG, which had been introduced to Chinese contracting giant CMEC, and its Beijing bank, decided on a different course. It would construct and own the arena, asking Virginia Beach to cover the costs of parking, storm water, road and other infrastructure improvements, a much less expensive option for the taxpayers. ESG would repay the loan.
The company brought together a stellar team of architects (AECOM from Kansas City, Clark Nexsen from Norfolk), contractors (Mortenson from Minnesota, Ballard from Virginia Beach) and an arena operator and promoter (SMG from Pennsylvania). “We suggested holding a major news conference at the Virginia Beach Convention Center, across the street from where the arena would be sited,” says Joel Rubin. “We said let’s bring in all the vendors, invite all the local media, display the renderings and answer everyone’s questions.” Being transparent fit the style of ESG principals Andrea Kilmer and Joe Gelardi.
Doing so actually served several purposes. It enabled the development team to meet face to face, it gave local elected officials and city department leaders a chance to get to know the players and it offered the media a chance to talk to everybody at one time and in one place. “Reporters came from all three TV stations and two print publications,” says Rubin. “They asked good questions, particularly about this unique Chinese investment and whether an arena of this size can be successful without an NBA or NHL franchise,” says Rubin. “I had prepped ESG officials as best I could for what was coming, and the leadership did a commendable job.”
Even harder queries are probably coming from the City itself as it determines whether an arena financed privately is in the citizens’ best interest and how it stacks up against a competing proposal. At RCG, we’re excited to be on board and helping ESG through the significant communications issues ahead.
For more information on the proposed arena, visit VBArenaNow.
