‘Pretty leery’ Pasco city leaders frustrated by county’s handling of HAPO Center

Pasco leaders are questioning whether the city will continue its 30-year partnership with Franklin County for operation of the HAPO Center.

The HAPO Center is owned and managed by the county. The city currently splits funding for it, but does not pay for capital improvements.

Pasco has contributed nearly $2.3 million toward the facility’s operation over the last decade. But the aging facility is needing repairs and improvements and some on the council raised clear concerns about the vision for the center.

“I just think either the county needs to 100% take care of (the HAPO Center) or it needs to sell it,” Mayor Pro Tem David Milne said at a recent meeting.

“We keep putting into this and the three commissioners can’t even decide what they want for the facility. We need to make some kind of bigger decision for the citizens of Pasco.”

Some council members were worried that they were being asked to move forward with the partnership without a long-promised master plan in hand.

For now, the Pasco City Council approved an extension on the agreement. But that will expire at the end of May 2025.

Recent history of center

The original agreement between the city and county expired in May this year, and at that time, they agreed to extend through the end of 2024 while they worked together to determine what the next phase of the center would look like.

The HAPO Center has about 85,000 square feet, but the rentable space had been largely limited to 39,000 square feet in the exposition hall and banquet rooms.

For two years, the HAPO Center had been only half a facility, after a sports program, Clubhouse Sports Academy, moved into the 43,000-square-foot arena full-time. Only a handful of large events were able to use the entirety of the center.

Then in May, Franklin County cut the company a deal to help them find a new home. Clubhouse Sports Academy left the HAPO Center after sports tournaments ended in June, cutting their contract short by about six months.

The arena has been available for rent since then.

City awaits county master plan

Franklin County and city staff have been collaborating on a master plan for the center for months.

The county is working with Idaho-based White-Leasure Development Company and Pasco-based engineering consultants Mackay Sposito.

Franklin County also plans on doing community outreach to receive feedback on the plan.

This summer, the draft master plan by Harris White Leasure group included exploring new uses for the center. The company is looking at potential improvements to expand uses for the hockey rink as well.

The group manages a variety of event centers across the county, as well as several hockey arenas and various large-scale annual events and festivals. The Harris portion of the team also contracts services for military base and government building commissaries.

Larry Leasure, of White-Leasure, oversees the hospitality portion of the contract. He has Tri-Cities ties dating back to the ‘90s when he first tried to bring a convention center to the area. His company also built the Colonade shopping center on Canal Drive in Kennewick.

Leasure could not be reached by the Herald last week about the HAPO Center.

City Manager Adam Lincoln told the Pasco City Council at a special meeting in December that the extension to next May buys some time for the county’s consultants to finish the master plan.

A draft of the plan is expected to be complete by early 2025. Then the city council will have an opportunity to review it.

“We absolutely need to see a legitimate budget with cost estimates in the plan,” Mayor Pete Serrano said.

“We’ve extended this agreement a lot and I struggle to continually extend it and not get what we need. That said, it’s an important facility for the city and the county. I’ll roll the dice with extending through May … I’m pretty leery about going beyond May.”

The city and county have already agreed on $4.8 million in improvements to basic building systems and the HAPO Center site, including parking lot repairs and overlay.

Other possible improvements include new access control and video security systems and a new voice fire alarm.

The county spent $6 million in American Rescue Plan Act money in 2022 for a new HVAC system in the center’s exposition hall.

It’s also considering another $5 million to $6 million investment in the HVAC system for the arena. The former rodeo arena has never had air conditioning and has traditionally been limited in use during the hotter months of the year.

That could open the door to more events or concerts on the arena side, which has seating and concession booths. It was previously used as the home of the Tri-City Rush indoor football team.

Councilwoman Melissa Blasdel asked city staff to clarify the purpose of the center and whether it was ever intended to make money.

“As somebody who works in local government, it’s hard to plan for these kinds of facilities to make money, but that doesn’t mean that it’s impossible,” Lincoln said.

Councilman Leo Perales said that he supported a year-long extension to the agreement to show “goodwill” to the county, but that idea didn’t move forward.

The county also will provide monthly financial reports to the city moving forward.

County officials previously said they were hoping to see the partnership become more equal going forward. The original contract says the city can buy in at a 50% ownership stake for $1.

Pasco also has the option to leave the partnership completely or to buy the center.

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