Nationwide Arena may be catching another break. Possibly as soon as next week.
The Columbus Dispatch reports that an agreement is in place to either forgive or pay off the remaining loan debt on Nationwide Arena. That loan came courtesy of the state of Ohio.
From The Dispatch:
Don Brown, executive director of the Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority, said little about the agreement Thursday but provided requested public documents about it.
Of the $10 million in the original agreement, $2 million would be forgiven if the Columbus Blue Jackets, the professional hockey team that plays in the arena, continued to meet specific payroll and job goals.
The deal originally called for the hockey team to have 60 full-time jobs with an annual payroll of $45 million.
Documents released by Brown show that the team far surpasses those goals: 319 jobs with an annual payroll of $79.5 million. The payroll is important because it generates $1.7 million in state income-tax revenue per year for governments to use.
In addition to the $2 million that will be forgiven, the other money would come from naming rights to the Greater Columbus Convention Center parking garage, advertising, and payments of $200,000 over the next five years. In total, the money is supposed to amount to $5 million to ensure that the state loan is fully paid off.
This isn't all of the money that was used to purchase the arena. Most of that came courtesy of Nationwide Realty Investors in the form of $44 million. The loan was a necessity at the time due to operations losses of $10-12 million annually, which the Blue Jackets claimed back in 2011. Nationwide Arena turned an operations profit of $1.5 million this past year, but isn't enough of a profit to repay the loans.
The Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority will meet next Tuesday to see if the agreement will be approved.
Follow 1st Ohio BatteryFacebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube
