ENTERTAINMENT FACILITY, PROFESSIONAL SPORTS OPERATION, or Similar Use at TOTAL MORTGAGE AREA

Defining the southern edge of Downtown Bridgeport, Total Mortgage Arena sits alongside I-95. The most accessible large-scale entertainment facility in Connecticut, the Arena is served by an adjacent 1400 car parking garage and by two adjacent surface lots offering over 500 spaces. A skywalk connects the site to the Bridgeport Train Station and to Metro North and Amtrak service. The site is also adjacent to the Bridgeport-Port Jefferson (Long Island) Ferry Service Terminal, which hosts the oldest interstate ferry service in the country and serves over a million customers per year. Part of the fabric of the broader community, the Arena is a short walk to the University of Bridgeport's campus, the Housatonic Community College Campus, the City's spectacular 300-acre Seaside Park, the dynamic Steelpointe Marina, and the host of restaurants, theaters, museums, and cafes that call downtown home. The Arena is a tremendous public asset. Valuing it as such, the State and the City combined have recently invested over $20 million in capital improvements. There is another $8 million in public money still to be invested in cooperation with the new private partner we hope will emerge from this RFP process. This is a moment of transition for the Arena. As has been widely reported, the Bridgeport Islanders organization has announced that it is moving its AHL affiliate team, and its 36 games per year, to a new venue in Canada. The City and the State are seeking proposals not just to make up for that loss, but to breathe new life into the Arena, to build upon its successes and to capture new opportunities. We are looking for highest and best use proposals that will utilize the facility the greatest number of days and nights possible, that will attract the most attendees, that will produce the greatest economic impact, that will hire the most employees, that will support the dynamism of the "Arena-Amp Entertainment District," and that will enliven and improve the broader downtown and the adjacent South End neighborhood. We seek experienced developers and operators of entertainment venues, professional sports organizations, or other large-scale assembly uses. Respondents must have a commitment to strengthening the physical, functional, and economic connections between the Arena its surrounding neighborhoods by, for example: coordinating with nearby small businesses and with nearby institutions; providing transit-oriented development enhancements; improving pedestrian connections to downtown and the South End; and by articulating a clear and sustainable vision for how this facility will be both a local economic driver and a regional asset for the years to come. The City anticipates entering into a development and operating agreement with the successful respondent. The agreement, likely to be of at least a ten-year duration with renewal option(s), shall stipulate the level of private investment required, the timeframe for completion of capital improvements, the ongoing requirements for the funding of maintenance reserves and replacement reserves and operating reserves; the specific performance and operating requirements for the venue; and all other financial terms and performance benchmarks and default measures governing the business relationship between and among the State, the City and the successful respondent.