Case Study: Cultural Facility Feasibility and Operations
City of Savannah: Key Stakeholder & Community Engagement for the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center
Location: Savannah, GA | AMS Team: Jon Faris, Michele Walter
The City of Savannah engaged AMS to lead a stakeholder and community engagement process alongside its market demand, programming, and operations study for the Johnny Mercer Theatre. AMS combined stakeholder interviews, user research, and a community-informed definition of success to ground the redevelopment plan in what residents, arts leaders, and civic officials thought was of primary importance.
The Challenge
The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center has anchored cultural life in Savannah, Georgia for decades, but limited capital investment had taken a toll. The Johnny Mercer Theatre’s aging infrastructure, below-standard acoustics, and accessibility barriers left it unable to compete for the touring productions and community programming Savannah residents wanted. With plans to remove the adjacent arena and renovate the theatre, the City needed to know directly from officials, arts organizations, and prospective users what the redeveloped facility should offer, who it would serve, and how it could sustain itself financially over time.
Our Approach
Responses from existing and prospective facility users
Local residents in attendance at community open house
Hearing From Stakeholders
- AMS conducted 29 stakeholder interviews with City officials and staff, arts and business organizations, venue operators, and touring entertainment promoters, and facilitated a press release exercise at kickoff inviting participants to envision the facility’s impact decades into the future.
- AMS synthesized their input into a shared definition of success across four dimensions: community impact, cultural development, economic benefits, and civic achievement, giving City leadership and arts organizations one common vision to plan around.
Testing Demand With Users
- An online user demand survey drew 20 responses from existing and prospective facility users. Only half had used the Civic Center before, but all 20 expressed interest in using the renovated spaces.
- Respondents, mostly smaller organizations with budgets under $1 million, most commonly requested meeting, class, and lecture space alongside concerts and private events, directly shaping which spaces AMS and the design team prioritized in the building program.
Turning Input Into a Program
- AMS translated stakeholder and user input directly into the operating model, recommending a cross-subsidy structure that would provide discounted rental rates for local not-for-profit organizations across every space type.
- Management and operations recommendations, including a formalized City-use access policy, responded directly to concerns stakeholders raised in interviews about affordability and continued access once the facility reopens.
- AMS presenting its final findings at a community open house in February 2026, attended by over 100 local residents, where team members answered the community’s questions in one-on-one and small groups.
Lawrence Daufenbach
Executive Director/Founder, Athenaeum Center for Thought and Culture
Our Solution
Grounded in 29 stakeholder interviews and direct user demand data, the City of Savannah now has a redevelopment plan for the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center that reflects what its community asked for: expanded access, restored cultural prominence, and a financial model built to keep the facility affordable for the not-for-profit organizations who rely on it most.
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