“We knew going in we had six-, 12- and 18-month benchmarks to hit. That's what we need to do,” said Paul Ritter, fine arts director for Missoula County Public Schools and a member of the performing arts center board.
In 2004, the Missoula City Council agreed to set aside the Riverfront Triangle land at Orange and Front streets for a potential performing arts center. Since then, the arts center board conducted a feasibility study, produced a model of an architectural design and took other steps.
And while several council members worried the foreshortened schedule could kill the project, others argued the land reservation could be scaring off other would-be developers. The Missoula Redevelopment Agency has already spent about
$1.9 million cleaning out a former garbage dump on the 10.5-acre site in hope of attracting a suitable public-private partnership.
Now, MCPAC must produce a “philanthropy feasibility study” assessing its chances of finding $60 million. If it appears promising, the City Council may reserve the land for another 24 months.
In addition, MCPAC must update its business plan and community needs assessment, which envision how the center would operate day-to-day. And it must produce a financial plan showing how donated money would be collected and spent.
That looks like a lot of work. But Missoula Redevelopment Agency Director Ellen Buchanan said all those things were on the to-do list for the next six months before the City Council passed judgment. Not getting the 30-month extension was disappointing, but it wasn't a deal-killer.
“It would have been easier to talk to major donors with the 30-month reservation,” Buchanan said. “But I don't think (the six-month deadline) is going to have that much effect. The performance requirements are identical. In either case, we're going to know in six months if this community is going to have a shot at a performing arts center.”
Buchanan acknowledged she's a fan of the performing arts center proposal, because of what she believes it would do for downtown Missoula. Before the concert hall bleeped on the radar, the riverfront site entertained three serious development proposals. None reached ground-breaking stage. And although MRA hasn't marketed the site since its cleanup, Buchanan said several developers have shown interest in partnering with such a project.
“Having a performing arts center as an anchor is a slam dunk,” Buchanan said. “That totally changes the level of development. Everything goes upscale. And although a performing arts center never pays for itself - it's an economic development investment - study after study shows the economic development potential of a performing arts center versus a football stadium or other facility. They're tremendous assets when you're trying to attract businesses, or levels of talent to your community.”
Another asset that may or may not be on the table is participation by Missoula County Public Schools. About the same time the City Council imposed its short time frame, MCPS officials learned the Legislature would not consider a crucial rules change during the 2007 session.
MCPS Superintendent Jim Clark had suggested using school bonding authority to provide as much as half of the concert hall's cost. In return, the school district would get access to a state-of-the-art facility for its popular and growing band, orchestra, drama and choral programs.
However, current law prohibits schools from spending bond money on land they don't own. Some Missoula legislators considered offering a bill to change that, but then pulled back. Part of the problem, they said, was the potential statewide effect of allowing school bonds to contribute all manner of public projects.
That leaves MCPS with an unmet need for performance space. In the wake of the City Council's six-month edict, Clark said he remains committed to working on the performing arts center effort, of which he is a board member. But he also has not brought it to his board of trustees for their participation.
“Our discussion of a performing arts center is premature,” MCPS board Chairwoman Jenda Hemphill said Friday. “It would be something to talk about after the community demonstrates an interest, shows it wants to have it and raises the bulk of the money. Even then, this would not be a board project. It would be a community project.”
Hemphill agreed Missoula schoolchildren are having an increasingly hard time finding a place to perform. The biggest space they have is the Big Sky High School cafeteria, which seats about 600 people with no suitable acoustics or stage facilities. The other option is to rent the Wilma Theatre or the University of Montana's University Theatre, and each of those has been filled to overflow during all-city events.
Missoula schools aren't alone in this dilemma. Spokane Public Schools officials said they're dependent on the Spokane Opera House for their large-scale events. And in Casper, Wyo., Natrona Public High School theater technician Myron Miller said that 60,000-person community has been trying for more than a decade to raise $22 million for a 1,000-seat auditorium.
“Here, everything has to be approved by the state Commission for Schools, and they aren't funding new auditoriums and gymnasiums and stuff like that,” Miller said. “So some places have a good hall and some places have a good stage, but I don't know of any place that has both.”
Clark said there may come a point when MCPS has to consider building its own performing arts center. If the riverfront site proves impossible, he said the community project might be shifted to school district land near Big Sky or Sentinel high schools. The Sentinel site might even link into a long-simmering idea for a “Missoula central park” encompassing school, city and Missoula County Fairgrounds land.
“One thing about Missoula is we get that mentality of ‘Let's do it for as little as we can,' ” Clark said. “We've done things on the cheap, and we've made them work. That's kind of a blessing and a curse. Often, it seems we haven't thought big enough.”
And $60 million is a frighteningly big price tag.
St. Patrick Hospital's nine-level Broadway Building cost about $50 million in 2000. A 1,500-seat concert hall seems extravagant by comparison. On the other hand, the price of concrete, steel and other construction materials has skyrocketed in the past three years. It's been hard for people to keep their sense of public facility costs up to date.
Either way, MCPAC members know what they'll be doing between now and August. Jim Valeo, the committee's secretary, said the group remains focused on meeting its deadlines. He added that the $60 million figure has yet to be reviewed by a contractor or a bid process, and could go up or down. Even the site is flexible, although the riverfront remains ideal.
“Any community has only so many opportunities to do something of this magnitude,” said MRA's Buchanan. “If this fails, it may be a decade before someone tries again.”
Reporter Rob Chaney can be reached at 523-5382 or at rchaney@missoulian.com.
|
 |
 |
Add your comment now! Write your comment in the form below.
(Email address is for verification only. If you'd like to email a story, look for the link above)