FARGO – Renovating what remains of the Fargo Civic Center into a state-of-the-art, 2,200-seat performance hall would cost $54.5 million, according to a new study consultants plan to present to city commissioners at their meeting tonight.

The $107,800 study commissioned by the city estimates tearing down the arena and building a performance hall on the site would be cheaper, with a price tag of $51.4 million. Either way, the study says the city-owned venue would need about $140,000 per year from taxpayers to break even, assuming it's managed by officials who already run the city-owned Fargodome.

The consultants for the study, Chicago-based HVS, Schuler Shook and JLG Architects of Fargo, project that the new venue would inject $7.4 million per year into the local economy, plus an estimated 80 jobs.

Commissioner Dave Piepkorn said Sunday evening it would have a "huge impact" on the downtown area, especially on restaurants, bars and "hopefully some additional hotels."

"If it's continually busy, it could be a little economic engine for downtown," he said.

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Mayor Tim Mahoney agreed that the Fargo Civic Center site is a good location.

Both Mahoney and Piepkorn mentioned private donors and the Fargodome's reserve funds as possible revenue sources for the project. Mahoney says the dome has $40 million to $45 million saved up and a portion of that money could be tapped to help pay for the project, maybe about $14 million.

"But that would take some discussion," Mahoney said. "If we want to do anything different with it, we'd have to have a discussion about it and perhaps a public vote."

The new-construction scenario includes an optional $2.7 million "seating wagon" that would provide flat floor space at the front of the auditorium seating. HVS estimates that additional events and attendees attracted by the flat-floor seating would reduce the annual operating subsidy by about $40,000.

In an earlier version of the study presented in June, consultants told commissioners they believe there's a demand for a mid-sized concert hall in Fargo-Moorhead. Piepkorn said the projected venue's size would hit a "sweet spot" not otherwise filled by other venues in the city.

"The Fargo Theatre and the (North Dakota State University) Reineke Fine Arts Center have much smaller capacities," he said. "Especially for these touring plays, 2,500 is kind of the number of seats they have to have to make it financially viable."

The study estimates that 154 events would be held at the performance hall in a stabilized year, which would occur about four years after the opening of the venue in 2020. That would include concerts, touring theater, symphony, opera, dance, local theater, meetings and banquets or other social engagements.