San Francisco's EDAW Wins $50,000 Contract to Tell City if Arena is Salvageable

ORLANDO-The Downtown Development Board, a city-funded advisory and marketing arm, is retaining San Francisco-based EDAW to prepare a fast-track, $50,000 study on the physical and economic health of the 12-year-old, 17,500-seat, 375,000-sf TD Waterhouse Centre and the 30-year-old, 500-seat, 66,000-sf Exposition Center next door.

EDAW and the Downtown agency are racing the clock as Orlando Magic owner Rich DeVos prepares to lay out his demands for a new arena in April. If the city and Orange County won’t build a new arena for his National Basketball Association team, DeVos has hinted he may have second thoughts on keeping the team in Orlando.

The study is the fifth commissioned by separate arena-debating participants in the last 18 months. DeVos paid a total $200,000 for at least two separate studies. One, by CS&L of Dallas, concluded the Magic and its related companies have pumped $1.2 billion into the local economy since their startup in 1989.