well good afternoon everyone thanks for coming on such short notice my understanding is that governor christie from new jersey is making an announcement today so i'd like to beat him to the punch now i know we tried that once didn't work out so well but  todd whiteman as well as council member dave for extra council members brian birch and nancy de boer could not be with us today but they certainly are here in spirit as well well for more than twenty years there's been kind of one vexing problem that has persisted and that is what to do with this building this iconic building in the city of holland a building that has seen so many wonderful events throughout its sixty plus years of history and today we are here after seemingly endless amounts of study and endless amounts of discussion and zigs and zags and u turns and all sorts of experiences throughout the road of getting us to this point to announce that we believe that we have a design that is still in concept form but puts us on the path to figuring out what to do with this building and what to do with this property not just for today but for the next sixty years as well one of the things that we have experienced in this great community is tremendous investment in our downtown area as we stand here today there is more than two hundred million dollars of new investment happening in downtown holland this project is estimated to be around eleven million dollars of additional investment it will transform this facility remodel it restore it but make it functional into the future so it will include things like air conditioning for example so on a day like today you might have have a better sense if the of clauses is palpable it will include new facilities that one would expect from a modern facility it will in large measure look and feel similar except look and feel so much better because it will not have the tired feel of a sixty year old building the bones of this structure are incredibly solid and incredibly good but as you look around as you see the space you understand that it has served us well for sixty years but it's time to be refresh and substantial ways so we're excited about that the other thing that we want to accomplish with this project is not merely related to the building itself as important as that is but it is to look at the entire site on which this building sits as i mentioned a moment ago we have tremendous development activity happening in downtown holland and that development in part is heading toward the westerly edge of downtown toward our waterfront like there have been some big impediments to that continued movement toward our waterfront and this block has been a substantial impediment on a day like today as you look into the parking lot you see vehicles here surely but you see a lot of empty spaces on days where there's a farmer's market it is a wonderful bustling place that adds to the vibrancy of our community but that happens only twice a day for six months out of the year our goal in our hope with what we're talking about today is to add the same kind of vibrancy year round every day and at the same time to make the farmer's market which is wildly successful even better than what it is at this point i want to make one sort of further announcement before we start looking at a few conceptual rendering and that is this those of you who perhaps have asked me questions about the civic center over the course of the past decade or have read things that i've said about the civic center certainly might wonder why is it that we're looking at this facility in this location today why did we settle on what we're doing today i've told many people that if if the answer to the civic had been easy it would have been done a long time ago but after the failure of the area center to happen after the building of the device field house at hope college after the new jack miller musical center at at hope college the use and the purpose of this facility has always been a bit of a struggle it gets used incredibly often incredibly exciting ways and good ways for the benefit of this community but in ways that are different from which it was initially intended well throughout those discussions that have happened i think around living rooms and tables throughout this community as well as in the media a person called me about six weeks to two months ago  someone out of the blue called my office and asked me to come to his or her house and the person said you're going to want to take this call and take this visit and so i did and the city manager and i were pleased to learn that this person wanted to make a two million dollar contribution to the civic center project that was a catalyst to what we're doing and talking about here today it gave us renewed energy renewed focus to focus on this building and this site for the benefit of the community for decades to come so taking that wonderful and greatly generous donation we began quickly a team of community leaders and city council members to think through the potential options for what could happen on this on the site with this facility and that's how we got here today the donor is is incredibly generous obviously the donor wishes to remain anonymous the donor however would like the facility renamed in honor of the donors parents so there will be an i don't know it's been coming in future weeks and months about the exact naming of the facility but know that  the future it will be a named civic center so we're very excited very thrilled about and we think there's opportunity and interest in this community for continued private investment into this wonderful public structure structure we know in in holland we have a tremendous ability to work together private sector and public sector and i think that this is going to be the next and perhaps one of the finest examples of how that can happen well let me show you of a bit of what the facility mind looked like and this is certainly subject to further discussion as well as input by various members of the community but this gets the ball rolling and gives you an idea of the kind of things that we are talking about first i want to note that where we stand here today is a strategic location in the western part of our downtown area i mentioned that a moment ago we're two blocks from lake mecca tower and with this project and other projects that have been discussed publicly and i think more detail will be forthcoming in the future we will see a dramatic opportunity to move downtown holland and the activity of downtown further toward our waterfro which is truly a transformative experience for this community both from an economic development standpoint from a residential enjoyment standpoint and from a tourism standpoint so if this is a strategic location that we want to be sure to get right not merely so we can get it done but so that we can get it right for future generations so here is the idea of the potential of what this site could look like you see in this rendering a new two story glass atrium  some of the initial impression of stepping into the building could go away and be replaced with something modern sleek light and airy as well as further cements the relationship of this building not just to the area to the east of us but to eighth street so the primal entrance as it is described in this rendering primary entrance is on the corner of the north east side of the building which fronts both the parking lot to park and that i think will really transform how the site is used and the central of the of this location into our downtown community you'll note that there's a lot of green place making is a big part  of sort of the lexicon of urban development these days but i think we were concerned about and thinking about place making long before it became a buzzword but this is a further cementing of how we think about place in this space and how we think about space in this place there is some water there and what that exactly looks like how it exactly functions i think is open for some discussion but the hope is that during the summertime and warm months we have the opportunity for splashing activities  wonderful spot for families to recreate wonderful spot for children to splash around and that is an exciting part of what can be offered in our community in this new park additionally there are plans assuming all the funding works generation underneath that summertime splash areas that in the wintertime the ice the water turns to ice and for the first time in the city of holland we have an outdoor refrigerated skating facility which has been a long time goal for this community and i think we are on the cusp of seeing that happen and we're so excited to see that take place others the potential for additional bandshell and kind of entertainment venues potential playground areas or sculpture parks for children to walk around and play in and really just a wonderful spot that is pedestrian friendly as you make your way from downtown to the waterfront or from down or from the waterfront to downtown so it is a pretty exciting idea and we look forward to having more discussion with the community about what exactly it should look like and feel like here's more of a site plan idea and it's again conceptual in nature but you do get a sense of some of the key elements that we think will make this facility and this site really form a central gathering place for the greater community for generations to come so as many of you know this is in what the last less than twelve hours of office so while we work hard to date on getting to where we are today i'll be handing it off well not that i was handling it all in the first place but  council under the leadership of soon to be mayor bob and of us will be the person and the team that really shepard's this project forward to really engage the public take the best ideas form a plan that works that's feasible and that can get done in a relatively short order so with that i would like to turn the microphone of the podium over to the future may you some guys like to make a mess and then walk away from it and expect somebody else to clean it up but you know in all seriousness this is just a tremendous opportunity for the city of holland where the  top step of a long attempt at making this iconic historic structure that has meant so much to so many of the people holland i mean all sorts of events that have happened here in the past i think myself and several of us had our high school graduations here a lot watched lots of basketball here and that's been a great service to the city of holland but it's time for something different and it's time for it to be in the twenty first century and we certainly owe a great debt of gratitude to kirk in all of his background work in getting this done and there's a lot to be done yet in the way of public and private partnerships we've talked about what's going to happen on this site but we know from little many announcements that have been made in the in the past few weeks that there are great things that are on the on the jumping off point just to the east of us here and we're looking forward to that with great anticipation as well and hoping for an announcement that very soon so a great opportunity for us to move the excitement the dynamic nature of our downtown further to the west and be a real community gatherings space for four seasons of the year and just do great things so