The Georgia World Congress Center Authority and the Atlanta Falcons next week begin whittling the list of candidates to design a proposed new retractable-roof stadium downtown.
The 10 applicants include Dallas-based HKS, which designed the much-ballyhooed Cowboys stadium in Arlington, Texas, and tvsdesign of Atlanta, which designed the Georgia Aquarium. Another contender is Kansas City-based Populous, which has already consulted on the new stadium project and designed the London Olympic Stadium.
The GWCCA and the Falcons plan to choose three to five finalists for the job by Wednesday, officials said.
Other applicants include 360 Architecture, AECOM, Eisenman Architects, Ewing Cole, RGC Stadium Design, Rosetti, and Woods Bagot, the GWCCA said. Tvsdesign’s bid is made in partnership with architects Heery International and Gensler.
While the design firm decision moves forward, the facility’s location is still unresolved.
After agreeing last month to a non-binding “term sheet” that provides the business framework of a deal, the GWCCA and the Falcons continue to work on a memorandum of understanding — a more definitive accord — and deciding between two sites near the Georgia Dome.
“The site work, we’re doing kind of on a separate track (from the memorandum-of-understanding negotiations),” Falcons President and Chief Executive Officer Rich McKay said. “We’re trying to negotiate the document … and then (will) determine if we can marry them up when the MOU is complete.”
The site and MOU are just a sample of items that must be addressed before the deal is done.
About $300 million of the estimated $1 billion structure’s cost would come from extending, through 2050, the portion of hotel/motel collections that currently are paying off Georgia Dome debt. While the Georgia Legislature approved the extension in 2010, it still must be agreed to by the Atlanta City Council and Fulton County Commission.
And the GWCCA, which would issue the bonds that the hotel/motel taxes would pay back, need state legislators to raise its borrowing capacity from $200 million, where it stands today, to $300 million.
In the meantime, the GWCCA and the Falcons hope to have the memorandum of understanding completed this month, possibly shortly after the legislature convenes Jan. 14.
“We’re in heavy discussions on that document, and hopefully we’ll get to a point of resolution within the next few weeks,” GWCCA Executive Director Frank Poe said.
McKay said it “remains to be seen” whether the stadium’s site will be specified in that document.
One site on the table is about a half-mile north of the Georgia Dome on Northside Drive, and the other is immediately south of the Dome on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.
The 10 candidate design firms submitted “statements of qualifications” in December. Finalists will be asked to provide additional information, and interviews with Falcons and GWCCA representatives will be scheduled in February. Falcons owner Arthur Blank will attend those interviews, McKay said. The plan is to hire the lead architect by mid-March.
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