Memorandum

City of Lawrence

Parks & Recreation Department

DATE:           Tuesday, August 7, 2012

TO:              Dave Corliss, City Manager,

Cynthia Wagner, Assistant City Manager

                             Diane Stoddard, Assistant City Manager

                   Mark Hecker, Asst. Director Parks & Recreation

FROM:          Ernie Shaw, Interim Director Parks & Recreation

RE:               Sports Village Recreation Center Budget comparisons

Please find attached the spreadsheet showing costs per square foot for operations of current Lawrence Parks and Recreation facilities, including Holcom Park Recreation Center, East Lawrence Recreation Center, Lawrence Indoor Aquatic Center and the Community Building.  Also included is an estimate for the proposed Lawrence Sports village Center (LSVC), as well as information gathered on Johnson County Parks and Recreation District’s New Century Fieldhouse, and University of Kansas Ambler Student Recreation Fitness Center.

Please Note: not all budgets are developed with the same operating guidelines. For example, KU Ambler center, Johnson County’s fieldhouse and the Lawrence Indoor Aquatics Center follow cost center budgeting, taking into account all operations/maintenance, programming, staffing, capital costs, etc.  LPRD’s facilities budget is developed separately as facility operation and maintenance budgets.  Most programming expenses and program revenues are budgeted in the program operators’ budgets. For example, youth sports will budget expenses and revenues for any youth sports leagues that will be operated at any LPRD facility, including the proposed new facility. The same would apply to the adult sports division, the recreation instruction division and the other divisions of the department.  The LSVC is anticipated to have some contractual agreements, structured like the department’s current concession contract which is operated by an outside vendor. By contract, the vendor pays a percentage of the revenue after taxes to the department but isn’t reflected as part of the operational cost for the facility, i.e. personnel, supplies, etc.  The estimated budget of the LSVC was developed as a first year budget only not taking into consideration the additional cost of increased expenses and revenues, as the building becomes fully operational  and finds its market and programs.

We feel the operating figure of $5.32 per sq. ft. may be conservative due to the current stage of the planning process, building construction plans, energy efficiencies and usage for the first year of operation are still unknowns. However, the comparison of the LSVC to our existing facilities is comparable, as well as manageable.