Arup, a global design and consulting firm for the built environment, announced that it has broken ground on the Long Beach (California) Civic Center. The milestone marks the beginning of a development that will bring tremendous economic benefits to the Southern California community, as well as help reinvigorate one of the City’s most prominent public spaces.
“The new Civic Center will strengthen the connection between City Hall and the community, help revitalize the Downtown core, and generate thousands of jobs,” said Mayor Robert Garcia, addressing key partners in the project who attended today’s groundbreaking ceremony.
Orion Fulton, Arup project manager for the Long Beach Civic Center, said, “Arup is excited to be the City’s lead consultant on this project, which uses a public-private partnership (P3) structure to design, build, finance, operate, and maintain the Civic Center. This project provides a model for other cities to combine infrastructure and real estate P3 principles to create significant economic development for the community.”
As the City’s lead advisor on the project since 2013, Arup has provided comprehensive services integrating financial, commercial, real estate, engineering, and cost consulting while assisting the City with the P3 procurement through the current detailed design and construction phase. The firm was able to reduce the planning, entitlement, and procurement process to two years, down from the traditional three-to-five-year period, resulting in considerable savings for all stakeholders.
Under the P3 model, the City of Long Beach will not have to finance or take risk on the $520 million construction project. Instead, it will make service payments only after construction is complete to the developer over a 40-year time frame. In return, the developer will provide turnkey design-build services to construct the facility as well as perform routine and preventative maintenance to keep the facility in good condition at all times. Importantly, the P3 model also protects against difficult deferred maintenance challenges down the road, extending the life of the asset and the initial investment far beyond the 40-year term.
When completed, the Long Beach Civic Center will help transform the Downtown, making it a true statement of civic pride. Constructed in 1973, the current complex is not well integrated with surrounding neighborhood and its buildings are inefficient and seismically unsound. The new project, which will be LEED™ Gold certified as well as meet resiliency performance standards equivalent to REDi Gold (a new industry standard developed by Arup and others), comprises a 270,000-square-foot City Hall, a 237,000-square-foot Port Headquarters, a 92,000-square-foot Main Library, underground parking for 469 vehicles, a 73,000-square-foot Civic Plaza, and a revitalized 4.9-acre Lincoln Park. Additional plans for mixed-use development on the site of the current City Hall will bring modern residential, retail, and hotel facilities to the area, rounding out the mix of uses and creating a vibrant new part of downtown Long Beach.
The Long Beach Civic Center is scheduled for completion in 2019.
About Arup
Arup provides planning, engineering, design, and consulting services for the most prominent projects and sites in the built environment. Since its founding in 1946, the firm has consistently delivered technical excellence, innovation, and value to its clients, while maintaining its core mission of shaping a better world. Arup opened its first US office more than 30 years ago and now employs 1,300 people in the Americas. The firm’s employee-ownership structure promotes ongoing investment in joint research to yield better outcomes that benefit its clients and partners. Visit Arup’s website, www.arup.com, and the online magazine of Arup in the Americas, doggerel.arup.com, for more information.
