Salina City Manager Jason Gage stopped into the KSAL Morning News Tuesday with a look at housing needs around the city and downtown revitalization including opening Fieldhouse Salina, “We’ve been focused more on when we start than when we open,” Gage said.

“If we can get started by the end of May or beginning of June we think we’ll probably will have it all buttoned up by winter and work through the winter inside and get all that done. Probably have a little bit of finish up site work in the spring. Get that done and open it up.”

In 2017, Fieldhouse Salina is expected to help generate other projects, and investors, and to spur a total revamped downtown with a bowling alley, a high-end 5-stroy hotel and perhaps an automobile museum.

Gage also touched on a recent housing report that has calculated how many new homes will need to be built in Salina over the next 10-years.

“We have a big meeting next Monday,” Gage said.

“A special study session from 1pm to 4pm and we’ll have RDG, the company that did that study for us.”

Gage said City Commissioners will be gathering more input and feedback on the 2015 Live Salina Housing Assessment during the meeting scheduled for Monday, March 14th before they adopt and implement the plan.

The study suggests that Salina will need about 116 new houses built a year over the next decade to keep pace with the 4.4 percent population growth.

Under 60 homes were built in all of 2014.