100 things to about Hot Springs
Hot Springs Convention Center
By the mid-1990s, the Hot Springs Convention Auditorium, located on the present-day site of Horner Hall, could no longer attract the marquee groups that had once propelled Hot Springs to the forefront of Arkansas’ convention cities.
With inadequate seating, antiquated sound systems and lighting, not to mention a perpetually leaky roof, Hot Springs desperately needed to upgrade its convention facilities, but civic and city leaders recognized it would be an expensive proposition to sell to voters.
The project was not without its birthing pains. The first proposal failed at the polls and had to be reworked. Many concerns were expressed about the impact on the immediate neighborhood, and the relocation of the Hot Springs Police Department, which at the time was located immediately east of the convention auditorium’s main parking lot.
Hot Springs voters approved a halfcent sales tax to pay for a bond issue in March 1995 to expand and remodel the convention auditorium, then agreed to relevy it for the arena project in 2001. The tax was retired after the bonds paid off in 2007.
David Bartlett, who co-chaired both the convention center and arena campaigns, noted during a “mortgage burning” ceremony in 2007 that, because of economic expansion and growth brought about by the convention center and local attractions, the bonds were repaid in half the original time estimate.
Bartlett also recognized groups that played an integral role in the projects: the Hot Springs Board of Directors, which oversaw both construction projects; the Hot Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission, which managed the center and the arena; The Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce, Fifty for the Future, and the former Garland County Economic Development Corp., which campaigned for the projects.
Bartlett also singled out the contributions of former city director and ad commission member Bob Wheeler, noting that it was Wheeler who “had the vision” for the next phase of the convention center expansion, which became Summit Arena, now Bank of the Ozarks Arena.
The Hot Springs Convention Center, coupled with Bank of the Ozarks Arena, now offers meeting planners the option of choosing from several intimate meeting rooms to an arena that can accommodate thousands.
On various days throughout the year, the center’s exhibit hall will be filled with trade shows, from a florists’ convention to the latest in timber projects; Horner Hall, now a state-ofthe art assembly area, will host sitdown banquets or a Debutante ball; and the arena will be filled with screaming basketball fans or EAST students displaying their latest ideas. For those reasons, the center is a testament to the foresight of the city’s leadership and the citizens who were willing to take a bold step into the future.