Durand Conference Center
Durand Center Answers Dreams, Meets Community Needs
Sometimes dreams really do come true. That’s the lesson of the L.E. “Gene” Durand Center at North Arkansas College’s Center Campus.
Dedicated on Oct. 24, 2008 in front of a crowd estimated at 400 people, the 22,000-square-foot multipurpose facility was designed to meet a variety of long-standing local needs. The Durand Center has the capacity to host a banquet for more than 400 guests or a lecture-type meeting for nearly twice that number while simultaneously hosting separate events in six other meeting rooms for over 175 additional participants.
The big banquet-type hall, or great room, which serves as the hub of the Durand Center, will seat
424 people for formal dinners at eight-place round tables. Like the remainder of the facility, the room features the latest technology. Presenters at the head table and their presentation materials will be shown on three large screens—one behind the head table and two on the back walls—and design features allow events to be broadcast live on local television.
A moving wall enables the college to divide the banquet room into two large capacity meeting rooms. When the banquet room is partitioned, the fronts and backs of the two rooms will reverse the setup of the undivided room, and the two great room back wall screens will each be located behind the speaker’s area in the divided rooms.
The new east entrance under construction as part of the project gives visitors the option of entering the Tower portion of the Center Campus through the FedEx Freight Atrium, which will also serve as a reception area for major events, or turning right and coming directly into the gathering area for Durand Center offices and meeting rooms.
As a visitor enters the Durand Center from the east entrance, he or she will first see the First National Bank of Green Forest Conference Room, reserved for meetings of 12 people or less, adjacent to hallways leading to restrooms and six Northark offices.
Directly ahead, past an entrance to the banquet room, is the Ginny Hammerschmidt Room, which seats up to 33 in a classroom arrangement.
Across the hall from the Ginny Hammerschmidt Room is the First Federal Bank Room, the largest of the breakout rooms, with lecture seating for 60 people. The Donna S. Barber Room, with seating for up to 30, is adjacent to the Ginny Hammerschmidt Room before the main hallway splits right and left, with the Daniel Sprott Room, which will accommodate up to 29 people, straight ahead.
A right turn where the hall splits at meeting room one leads the visitors to the food staging area and the catering kitchen, which has an outside delivery entrance. A left turn takes visitors past another entrance to the banquet room on the left and restrooms on the right, then past a sitting area with a new entrance from the sidewalk along Main Street. The hallway ends at the Community First Bank Partners Room, a second
board-type meeting room for 12 people.
Designed by Wittenberg, Delony & Davidson Architects of Fayetteville, the Durand Center occupies the renovated space first built for the original Security Bank in the early 1980s. The renovation project will cost about $3.75 million, including technology, furnishings, and a new HVAC system.
Its completion makes a prophet of the late Jerry McFarland.
“I’ll always remember the first meeting I attended with a group of community leaders who were interested in a conference center for Harrison,” says Dr. Jeff Olson, president of North Arkansas College. “I was new in the community. There was no money for the project. After we talked about the need for such a facility, the discussion turned to a way to make it happen. Jerry McFarland turned to me and Jim Stockton from our college and said, ‘I think Northark should take the lead.’”
Olson believed McFarland’s assessment was correct. North Arkansas College needed dedicated space for community and continuing education. Its award-wining North Arkansas Partnership for Health Education, the program co-sponsored by North Arkansas Regional Medical Center, was renting classrooms and offices and looking for a home. And the college couldn’t expand its offerings for business and industry, or add new programs related to entrepreneurship and small business development, without more space.
It was a great idea. A multipurpose facility would help Northark accomplish its mission, and could also host community events and meetings, conferences, and other activities. But the questions remained: How could the project happen? From where would the funding come?
It took six years to answer those questions. The time lapse encompassed a number of starts, stops, and changes in direction, as the college and community supporters labored to find a way to make the vision a reality.
Among the major events along the way, the Harrison City Advertising and Tourism Promotion Commission provided funding for development of plans for a new conference center. In response, the Northark Foundation spent more than $300,000 to purchase land across from the college’s South Campus for a future building site.
However, estimates of the cost of a new building were over $10 million, and efforts to secure funding, including a major grant application to a private foundation, were unsuccessful. For a brief period of time, the project stalled.
Three events jump-started the process and paved the way for the Durand Center and purchase of what is now Northark’s Center Campus, including the former Regions Bank building, office tower, one full block near downtown Harrison, and a parking lot on the south side of West Ridge. The first step was a decision by Regions Bank to build a
new local office and sell its 22,000-square-foot bank building, plus the adjoining five-story office tower, with more than 40,000 additional square feet of office and meeting space.
Step two involved a couple of long-time friends of North Arkansas College playing key roles in helping the college negotiate a better deal. Understanding the vision of the new facility and the benefits it would bring to Harrison, William P. Stritiz of St. Louis, retired longtime board chair of Ralston Purina and a native of area, pledged $300,000 to the Northark Foundation towards renovation of the facilities, if Regions would take $1.2 million for Regions Plaza.
U.S. Rep. John Paul Hammerschmidt of Harrison presented Stiritz’s proposal to his good friend, the late Jack Fleischauer, who served at the time as Regional Chief Executive Officer of Regions Financial Corporation. Thinking of the potential benefits of the facility to the community, Fleischauer and his company approved the deal, Northark’s trustees voted to buy the property, and the purchase closed in June of 2005.
“The support Bill Stiritz provided was so important,” Stockton, who is vice president for institutional advancement at Northark and executive director of the North Arkansas College Foundation, lauds. “Bill loves this community and has been such a great supporter of our college. He has a special ability to see the potential of a project and share the vision of its benefits.”
Another dedicated supporter of the college, the late L.E. “Gene” Durand, took the third step in moving the conference center project forward.
“Our Foundation was already a major beneficiary of Gene’s trust,” Stockton recalls, “but he agreed to increase the amount that would benefit the college, and devote most of the proceeds to the Durand Center.”
Following Durand’s death at age 90 in September of 2006, the Northark Foundation received $450,000 for the Durand Center and $50,000 for the Gene and Betty Durand Endowed Chair at Northark.
“Gene was one of the first supporters from the community I met when I moved to Harrison, and I felt a real affinity for him,” Olson remembers. “The decision he made is a wonderful example of the kind of support that makes a significant difference to our college and the community.”
Even with the Durand and Stiritz gifts, the college needed nearly $3 million in additional resources to make the project happen. The money came from four major sources: state general revenue funds, federal earmarks, local millage receipts, and private donations.
State Senator Shawn Womack, with support from other area state legislators, provided $618,764 in state general improvement funds over two legislative sessions. U.S. Rep. John Boozman, with help from Senator Blanche Lincoln and Senator Mark Pryor, secured $498,799 in federal appropriations for the project.
FedEx Freight ($250,000), First Federal Bank ($100,000), Community First Bank ($50,000), First National Bank of Green Forest ($50,000), and John Paul and John Arthur Hammerschmidt ($50,000) contributed major gifts to name rooms and areas in the facility. Rooms were also named in memory of Donna S. Barber and Daniel Sprott.
In the end, however, Northark’s own board of trustees came up with the largest piece of the remaining puzzle. They pledged $1.7 million from proceeds gained by refinancing the college’s existing debt service to complete the project.
Starting in the fall, the Durand Center will offer Northark dedicated space for workforce development—business and industry classes—for the first time in the college’s history. That’s especially important in today’s economy, with workers changing jobs and careers, and the need for employees to keep pace with new technology.
“Community and continuing education are going to become a more important part of our mission as the workplace changes,” Olson predicts. “These facilities offer us an opportunity to meet those needs.”
Located across the FedEx Atrium from NAPHE’s Dr. Dan J. Hawkins Community Health Resource Center, the Durand Center should be a great asset for NAPHE, which has been forced to host some of its larger conferences in Branson due to a limitation on local meeting space. Moreover, most of NAPHE’s offices are now housed on the third floor of the Center Campus Tower.
Terry Cook, executive director of the Harrison Convention and Visitors Bureau, already has invited the State Parks, Recreation & Travel Commission to meet in Harrison in November. He plans to showcase the Durand Center as a destination for groups and organizations interested in planning a conference in the Ozarks.
"The Durand Center will be a huge boost to our tourism economy,” he predicted. “Presently, we lose a lot of meetings because of space requirements. The new Center will allow us to capture this business and impact the Harrison economy.
"I see the Durand Center also being a focal point for downtown revitalization,” Cook continued. “It gives us the ability to bring in groups that will eat and shop in downtown, and should motivate businesses and individuals to further revitalize our city. The Durand Center will be a jewel for downtown to be proud of.”
Community groups and organizations, with limited access to college facilities due to overcrowding in recent years, now will have space available for their meetings. This includes large community banquets, including the annual Harrison Regional Chamber of Commerce Luncheon, and meets of various groups.
“The Durand Center enables our community to host the types of events that will make Harrison a site for decision-making in our state,” says Pam Christie, president of the Harrison Regional Chamber of Commerce. “What makes this project unique is its north central location that will serve multi-county needs, and also that it is a part of North Arkansas College. Having higher education at the core of any economic or community development effort is critical to these efforts.”
Looking back at the project’s development, lasting more than six years, with three of the key players (McFarland, Durand, and Fleischauer) passing away during that period, it has taken real determination to see the Durand Center through to its upcoming completion. “Northark deserves a lot of credit for sticking with this project and making it happen,” says D. Jeff Christenson, who chaired the local committee which included McFarland and several others. “The Durand Center should be a great thing for our community and the area.”