Savannah community turns out for Enmarket Arena opening

The City of Savannah hosted a Community Day event to mark the long-awaited opening of the Enmarket Arena on Saturday and the community showed up. The line to get into the towering glass front facility snaked around the corner and down the block long before the doors opened.

Inside, visitors were greeted by live music, free popcorn, hot dogs and drinks and giveaways and games.

"It’s nice to have the arena this close, to have an entertainment venue this close. I was surprised when I put in the address it said it was only 18 minutes away,” said Pooler resident Renee Williams, who was checking out the facility with her husband Vernon.

The couple will be back at the arena in about a month for the Mike Epps "No Remorse Comedy Tour."

“We wanted to come in and get a preview of everything. We’re looking forward (to coming back),” Vernon Williams said.

Leroy Jacobson drove from Beaufort to tour the arena ahead of the venue's first ticketed event, a Riley Green concert on Sunday.

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"It's a great arena, a great place," said Jacobson, who was also excited to visit again on Sunday for the concert and had some ideas for future events.

"I'd like to see some bigger acts, and I think this would be a great place for monster trucks."

Prior to welcoming the community to the arena on Saturday, a large group of community leaders along with past and present local officials gathered inside to mark the day with a ribbon cutting.

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"Savannah, welcome to the personification, the manifestation and the realization of our vision, Savannah's Enmarket Arena," said Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, who was joined by former mayors Otis Johnson, Edna Jackson and Eddie DeLoach.

Crews broke ground for the 9,500-seat, 149,000-square-foot arena in 2019, but discussions around a new arena go back to the mid-1990s. Through the years, the project has passed through five mayors, six aldermanic administrations and seven city managers.

In 2016 council finally voted to build the arena at the current site and two years later approved an $8.8-million design contract and $11.2-million construction management contract.

The arena and the surrounding Canal District are the biggest public projects ever taken on by the city. Plans for the Canal District include greenspace along the Springfield Canal, restoration of the historic Water Works building, a Wetlands Preserve Park and road upgrades and improvements.

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Community leaders said the projects bring long-needed economic investment to the area and are hopeful for more to come.

District 1 Alderwoman Bernetta Lanier, who represents the area around the Stiles Avenue facility, said there was intention behind the decision to build the arena in the west Savannah community.

“This represents leaders who are trying to set up new institutions, new opportunities and create new community assets that will provide for the new post-COVID economy and for Savannah,” she said.

“Let's pause and recognize that this is a good day. This is a day that we ask Savannah to document that we have pivoted toward physically creating avenues to build that equity, to have that inclusion. We’re going to have the opportunity to work with management to create opportunities to make sure that these impacted neighborhoods benefit from that, so the work goes on."

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Following the event on Saturday, the arena will wrap up opening weekend with Green, a country music artist, on Sunday. The months ahead will bring The Eagles, the Harlem Globetrotters, Bon Jovi, Jimmy Buffett, Keith Urban and Savannah’s first minor league hockey team, the Savannah Ghost Pirates.

“I think what really excites us is that although the capacity is smaller and the market is smaller than some of these other markets, this is an A building,” said Peter Luukko, co-chairman of Oak View Group, which manages the facility.

“This is an arena with all the amenities of the big city facilities. From the ability to have great food and local food, from the club seating to the suites to the bowl, it's gonna be a great place to watch a show or a hockey game or any event.”

Luukko said the building is "Savannah's arena" with 75% of the operating expenses going to local and minority-owned companies. He gave city leaders credit for helping make that possible.

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"We've really been able to find a way where we can bring a lot of small businesses into the arena, to perform various duties and be a big part of this in terms of our spending," Luukko said. "This is an arena that is going to regenerate dollars into the community, not something where it's just a national company coming in and taking money out of the market.

"We're recycling the dollars into the community and we're really proud of that. It's just very important to the community that we do that."

Katie Nussbaum is the city and county government reporter for the Savannah Morning News. Contact her at knussbaum@savannahnow.com. Twitter: KnussSMN

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah community turns out for Enmarket Arena opening on Saturday