CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The American Bank Center is a major attraction to the City of Corpus Christi, but it's in need of millions of dollars in repairs.
Made up of three parts, the Selena Auditorium, which was built in 1975, the Convention Center, built four years later; and the multi-use arena, which was built in 2004, make up what we call the American Bank Center today.
Last year the City of Corpus Christi hired M.E Engineering to look over the facility under an emergency declaration.
The company found two areas in critical need of repairs, the facility's two large chillers and the landscaping around the area, which was damaged in the big freeze.
City Council Member Mike Pusley recently took a tour to see problem areas.
"The American Bank Center needs a new facelift kind of from top to bottom it’s an old facility it’s been kind of neglected in the past and if we are going to utilize it and make it something viable for the future we are going to have to do the upgrades." Pusley said.
Assistant director for The City of Corpus Christi Elsy Borgstedte says The American Bank Center is one of the city's top destinations, hosting many events with over 900,000 attendees every year.
“One of the main features of keeping these types of projects and repair and enhancements is to make sure that we keep offering these types of events without interruptions," Borgstedte said.
Pusley also says these mechanical issues cause many setbacks, as the existing chillers are over 20 years old.
“A while back they had a problem and they couldn’t get the ice frozen for the ice race, so we had to rent a portable ice machine to help with that. So there are a number of mechanical issues with that building,” Pusley said.
The total cost of the repairs needed would cost the city $6.5 million dollars.
This afternoon the Corpus Christi Business and Job Development Corporation discussed the engineering firm's findings and will send off the recommendations to the city council.
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