Case Study: Cultural Facility Feasibility & Business Planning
City of Dothan — Key Stakeholder & Community Engagement for a Civic Facility Roadmap
Location: Dothan, Alabama | AMS Team: Jon Faris, Michele Walter | Subcontractor: JLL (Jones Lang LaSalle)
The City of Dothan engaged AMS and Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) to conduct a comprehensive, multi-phase analysis of its downtown Civic Center redevelopment opportunity. AMS led all stakeholder and community engagement work, translating dozens of perspectives into a governance and financing roadmap the City could act on.
The Challenge
Dothan, Alabama had long relied on a civic center that no longer met community expectations or regional event competition. City leaders faced a multifaceted question: what should replace it, who would use it, and how would it be financed without a permanent annual deficit? Answering required more than a conventional feasibility study. It required a sustained partnership that layered community voice, market evidence, and financial modeling into a well-defined path to action.
Photos: SS&L Architects
Our Approach
Interviews with stakeholders
Potential user organizations
KPIs developed
AMS built the engagement process around three phases: mapping community needs, surfacing where City and arts priorities diverged, and translating that input into governance.
Mapping the Community's Needs
- 45 stakeholder interviews and a facility needs assessment survey of 65 potential user organizations quantified 436 distinct annual uses across arts, youth sports, and community activities.
- Survey respondents ranked affordability of space rental as the single most important facility characteristic, ahead of calendar availability and patron amenities, with a significant response expressing interest in a new small, flexible performance venue.
Surfacing Where Priorities Diverge
- AMS facilitated KPI workshops with City staff, the Mayor, Commissioners, and five key local arts organizations, developing 17 KPIs through joint prioritization.
- The process surfaced a meaningful divergence: City and elected officials ranked economic impact and gross revenue first, while arts groups ranked identity, independence, and community and cultural benefit first, a finding that directly shaped the governance recommendation.
Translating Input Into Governance
- AMS compared governance models across 10 operational dimensions and recommended an organizational structure, giving arts organizations meaningful input and partnership alongside the City, CVB, and business community, directly responsive to stakeholders’ key concerns.
Lawrence Daufenbach
Executive Director/Founder, Athenaeum Center for Thought and Culture
The Solution
Over three years of phased engagement, the City of Dothan moved from an open question about what to build to a fully documented roadmap grounded in community and stakeholder input, including a governance structure designed to keep arts organizations at the table alongside the City, CVB, and business community.
City priorities and community priorities don’t always align. What happens in that gap decides whether a facility plan holds up.
Contact AMS to learn how our knowledge base and our team can help you get on the right path to answer these critical questions.
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