ISSUES —Is plan for performing arts centre way too much, way too late?
Will a performing arts centre rise from the KDN’s ashes?
ISSUES — The plan — more like a sketch — for a performing arts centre unveiled this week confirms the cost of procrastination.
At $90 million, it’s six times the estimate in 2003 when a performing arts centre was identified as a need in the City’s first Cultural Strategic Plan. It’s more than triple what the Interior Savings Centre cost, double what it took to build the Tournament Capital Centre and rehab the McArthur Island Sports and Events Centre.
The award-winning Shadbolt Centre for the Arts in Burnaby was built for $3 million in 1995. The Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre was completed in 2001 for less than $10 million.
Four years ago, the guestimate-estimate for a new performing arts centre in Kamloops had doubled to nearly $30 million. And now, it’s triple that.
Focusing on a $90-million cost — which Mayor Peter Milobar acknowledges is “huge” — will defeat this proposal at referendum. It doesn’t matter that $26 million of that will be for a 350-stall in-ground parkade (as compared to the 355-stall, $8-million parkade-in-the-park that was defeated four years ago).
No matter that $4.8-million of it has already been borrowed to buy the KDN building from Glacier Media last year. Or that $10 million more will come from grants and revenues. That the arts centre itself will actually be about $46.7 million of the $90-million total. Or that expected revenues could be higher, and costs could be lower.
Public assent will depend heavily on converting perception of the question into dollars and cents per average taxpayer, and that’s where the two-percent solution comes in that was broached Thursday night along with the concept.
The two percent is actually a one percent tax increase in 2016 plus another one percent in 2017. Then, no more tax increases, Milobar assured the crowd.
How is this possible? It’s the magic of compounding. If you were taxed $100 last year, a one-percent tax increase this year means you must pay $101. If you pay a one-percent increase next year, you will have to pay $101 plus $1.01, or $$2.01 more than you paid two years previously. If the increase is zero in subsequent years, you’re still paying more than you did at the start.
In the case of the performing arts centre, it would be on top of your regular annual tax increase, which has typically been about two percent for the past several years.
Still, in dollars-per-household terms, it’s not a daunting prospect. Convert it all to the tax that will likely be paid on an average house and people can more easily grapple with it. In 2014, a two percent tax increase on a $340,000 home came to around $35. Put that into the context of the previous paragraph and it starts looking affordable. Those are the kinds of numbers people can understand, and that will have to be fine-tuned and carefully explained.
Still, $90 million is, as the mayor acknowledged, a huge number for taxpayers to wrap their heads around. But he makes a very important point that will be essential to the success of this omnibus project — if Kamloops residents hadn’t had vision and a willingness to invest in their community, we wouldn’t have the ISC or the TCC.
A performing arts centre has always been the next big community investment. The same arts and culture groups who were singing the praises of this project this week are the ones who stopped it from moving forward a dozen years ago, opting instead for a bandaid on the Sagebrush Theatre. That caution cost Kamloops time and a lot of money. But, as George Bush once famously said, the past is over. Time to think ahead.
Thursday night’s unveiling of the plan seemed almost apologetic. There was a drop-it-and-run-for-cover atmosphere about it. If it has a hope of success, mayor and council, and those arts groups, will have to champion it enthusiastically and unapologetically, not simply say, “Yeah, it’s a big number, let the public figure it out.” Be loud and proud.
Is it all too much, too late? As Milobar says, think about what Kamloops would be like now without its TCC, arena, Mac Island, art gallery. Ten or 15 years from now, will people be talking about the need for a $300-million performing arts centre that could have been built for $90 million?
Great cities need great amenities, and great amenities can’t be built without great vision.
— Mel Rothenburger
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Visionary? Hardly! Prince Rupert built their highly regarded PAC in 1987. You can imagine for how much! Prince George’s proposed PAC stalled in 2012 ($42.5 M) when higher level funding never materialized. The proponents are now trying again a t 51.05 M. Performing Arts Centers have been build or are proposed all over the map. We are too late to be even playing copycat – and with far too grand a proposal. What we need is something truly imaginative and affordable for a downtown revitalization – and it’s probably not one thing but a multifaceted approach. For starters, how about something novel that will bring in families and actually make us a destination. Come on – an orchestra pit for the symphony – a trouble art form that is just hanging on or on the brink in many cities? The orchestra pit will probably sit about where the old printing press sat. Is there a message there? I say build an above ground parkade in the right place (maybe 10 M now) – how about one straddling the tracks. And lets start with a truly public exercise to come up with ideas to stimulate our downtown – at a cost we can afford. This has all be done with too much secrecy and with a very dubious land acquisition. It deserves to fail – too late, too grand and too blatant an insult to the taxpayers. Frank Dwyer
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It is always good to read you insightful comments, Frank.
“What we need is something truly imaginative and affordable for a downtown revitalization – and it’s probably not one thing but a multifaceted approach.”
Amen!
There is no worse deaf that someone who does not want to hear…cue PM & court.
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It would be interesting to see attendance figures for events at Sagebrush Theatre. It’s barely half full for some concerts. No doubt those numbers would improve at a new facility, but for how long? Once the novelty wore off, we could be stuck with a white elephant.
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Nothing new about the cost of procrastination! If my memory serves me correctly the Old Court House at one time could have been obtained for a symbolic $1.00 but was purchased at a later date for $800,000.
I have not had time to go over details of the new Performing Arts bldg. proposal but I believe with a careful business plan , astute management and strict oversight on costs, it could be of very great benefit to our city.
Will the TNRD be sharing in the tax structure as well?
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I love the Old Court House. It is a small-ish white elephant…check it out, I mean really check it out.
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My thoughts…
1. 90 million is too much to spend in a small city for a “world class” arts centre that doesn’t achieve the lofty goals the politicians and administrators have set for it.
I have the interesting perspective of splitting my time between my house in Kamloops and my condo in the “arts district” Vancouver. In Vancouver, which is still struggling to become a truly “world class” city, when I walk past the Orpheum Theatre, the former Ford Centre (now a church!) and the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on my way to my office it is pretty clear that these expensive, empty, blank walled facilities are not the generators of growth and prosperity in downtown. You only need to look up at the residential and office towers to see what really makes the place tick!
At the end of the day, like the Orpheum, Queen Elizabeth and Ford Centre, an arts centre will be a largely blank walled facility that will sit empty many more nights than it will be partially full. From time to time visitors from the suburbs will come for a few hours and then return home. Not the generator of vitality and growth the City had in mind.
2. 1200 seats is a large venue for a small city. There are few, if any, cities in Canada with 80,000 inhabitants that have arts centres this size. Most are in the 600-750 seat range for good reason, they can be filled from time to time at that size.
3. There seems to me to be a great deal of things that taxpayer money can be spent on. I drove by my childhood home in North Kamloops last week and more than fifty years after it was built the street it is located on still doesn’t have curbs or sidewalks. Nor do the streets around it. The same aged home that I live on on the South Shore has sidewalks on both sides of the street. Pretty embarrassing for a City hoping to build a “world class” arts centre.
4. The argument made by elected officials and administrators that the arts centre will only cost taxpayers a dime or two a day is insulting to many taxpayers who will never use the facility. Let’s face it, the idea for this facility came from the lobbying of a handful of special interest groups who will benefit from it. The majority of citizens who have turned up to provide their input into the planning of the Arts Centre have been members of the arts community. A lot of people I know are tired of seeing tax increases. They work hard and at the end of the day want to come home and spend time with their families with a few dimes left in their pockets.
5. To be transparent to taxpayers, the referendum question needs to include not only the amount to be borrowed but also details on the annual financing costs and term of the amount to be borrowed and annual operating costs for the life of the facility. In other words, the full costs the taxpayers will be on the hook for.
I don’t like to rant without offering solutions. So if it is determined that a new arts centre is the will of the majority of citizens, then a more cost effective approach that achieves many of the goals set by the politicians and administrators might include the following:
1. Continue to utilize the Sagebrush Theatre as a live theatre venue. It functions well for that purpose. Perhaps spend a few dollars to improve the bleak lobby and back of house areas.
2. As was the case for the TCC, enter into an agreement with TRU to lease a piece of land on the edge of that campus for a dollar a year, and build a much smaller $15-$20 million concert venue with great acoustics suitable for musical performances. The advantage of the TRU location is that the land lease option is cheap for the taxpayer, and there are over 2000 existing surface parking stalls that sit empty in the evenings when most classes are out and most theatre and music events are going on. Having a venue filled with theatre and music professionals on the TRU campus also benefits local arts students in terms of mentoring, training and job opportunities. An incredible learning laboratory in our city.
3. Resurrect the concept for a parkade on Lorne Street. That concept was incorrectly painted by naysayers as a “parkade in the park” when it was in fact a “parkade under an existing parking lot” hidden from view. The parkade concept included with the Arts Centre study is an expensive option, two to three times the cost of the Lorne Street option. Why, because it is a fully underground parkade that has an inefficient shape and has to be mechanically ventilated to ensure users won’t die from carbon monoxide poisoning. These factors can double or triple the cost of each parking stall over a stall in a naturally ventilated parkade. The option is also located far from the centre of the majority of day to day office activity in downtown Kamloops which is closer to second and third avenues. The advantage of the Lorne Street parkade is that it is in a very good location that generates three streams of revenue: 9 to 5 workers downtown; ISC users in the evenings; and park users in the summer months. It is also an extremely cost effective option because it takes advantage of an existing parking lot that is perfectly proportioned to maximize stall counts and because it is naturally ventilated.
The City of Kamloops has construction ready documents for this parkade and I am sure they would be more than happy to see it move ahead.
4. Hire appropriate professionals to look at development concepts for the former Daily News site that will actually enhance growth in the downtown core. The concepts would look at providing high quality residential, office and retail options that don’t currently exist downtown and that, if built, would have a hope of driving further growth downtown. Based on concepts that the City creates with professionals, the City would then subdivide the property and sell off the parcels to private development companies to build out the concepts. The City would recoup the cost of the land and the planning costs and would gain the benefit of a well planned quality development that brings residents, office workers and shoppers to downtown, and sets the bar for future developments downtown.
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Thanks very much for your very thoughtful comments. Just a note with respect to your concerns about a 1,200-seat theatre. The preliminary proposal is that the theatre be designed to accommodate a maximum of 1,200 seats but that it also be configured so that it can be scaled down to 1,000, 800 or 650 seats for various events “while maintaining excellent room acoustics and preserving the intimate theatre going experience.”
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Understood, however the space still needs to be built to accommodate 1200 seats even it is configurable downward to 600 seats. That additional space along with the ability to reconfigure comes at emourmous capital and operational cost and at the expense of intimate scale and great acoustics. Size the facility for the majority of events and have two or three shows if needed to satisfy demand.
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You do offer some good thoughts, thanks for doing that.
I do not fully agree with your discussion regarding the parkade. A one level parkade exists right now behind the ISC and it could be fully occupied, specially during the day, if the downtown really had a parking problem. This existing parkade is closer to the rail overpass than the proposed one further down the road.
Downtown Kamloops does not really have a parking problem. It does have a problem with it being boring, dirty and dangerous at times. As some experts have stated before: Give them a reason and they will come!
That reason BTW, will not be a new PAC. If it gets ever built, once the novelty wears off we will be stuck with an arts centre that will be largely a “blank walled facility.”
I also do not see your logic behind your last paragraph. The city has practically killed a good opportunity for quality residential development downtown by ignoring the closure of Stuart Wood Elementary.
If the old KDN site was that desirable, it would’ve been beautifully up by now, or almost.
Please send your valuable feed-back directly to the people in charge. If we all speak-up maybe, just maybe they will re-consider…
An expensive PAC will not make Kamloops a great city, however a great city deserves a PAC.
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This isn’t visionary.
What would be forward thinking is if all the entertainment and arts groups collaborated and created a trust. For each and every arts event/play/concert etc. that occurred in Kamloops a nominal fee of say $1.00 per ticket would be placed into the trust. This money could then be used to as the down payment on a new PAC – it would show the general public that the arts groups were committed to financially supporting the venue and willing to put their money, time and effort into it.
The money coming into the fund would also be an unequivocal measure of the economic impact art/music events have on the city and would clearly indicate the level of support they receive from the general public.
Had this been done 5 or 10 years ago by someone/some group with vision – we would be having a whole different conversation.
Personally I support artistic endeavour – but I also don’t see much proof of the city being fiscally accountable or willing to make hard choices when it comes to managing the chequebook. This makes me unwilling to trust that this venture is worth the money or that it will come in on budget.
When I realized I was eventually going to have to replace my car I started saving, a few year later I was able to afford to buy a new vehicle. You want a brand new shiny monument of a PAC – great! Start saving, come to the table with a plan that shows you are serious, make your business case and show me the value. Put YOUR money where your mouth is and I will probably be willing to chip in a little too – but based on the current financing plan and available information I’m a no.
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I would like to know what percentage of Kamloops’ population would actually use this type of facility. If it was 1%, then what makes it feasible for the entire population to pay higher taxes for a small group. I understand they have 2 facilities in need of some very expensive repairs. I have to ask, if they are not able to maintain facilities, expensive ones that a higher population of Kamloops use, why would the tax payers want to fund another building that could potentially be in the same boat down the road. I am a supporter of the arts, enjoy the live theatre, but I have yet to go to Sagebrush and see a sold out show.
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I am so torn by this. Yes we do need great amenities/facilities and the costly TCC is undoubtedly one great facility.
However, it can be easily argued amenities/facilities do not necessarily make for great cities. That was in the past. A past riddled with expensive exercises in public expenditures without regards to the environment. Air pollution, noise pollution and even light pollution are very important components of quality of life and the less of them, the better. A vibrant city, a quality city needs good infrastructure/amenities. It also needs well-cared for urban forestry, less crime, less or no homelessness, a strong sense of community where everyone is made to feel welcome and a responsible administration for which every dollar count, just to name a few off my sleep head.
The PAC is a want not a need. PM needs a bronze plaque, this is his chance
And relating to some of your previous writings, a vision for a great city does not include Ajax…therefore we do not have a vision.
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I’ll agree Pierre that for most, the city does not include ajax. However any future work can’t grind to a halt until te ajax issue is settled. The world keeps spinning. One could have called the TCC Mel’s need for a plaque although I believe Terry Lake was mayor when it opened. A lot of people said we didn’t need the TCC at the time but in hindsight it has done great things for the city. I believe this project can too. But that’s just my vision.
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I agree with you Pierre. Apparently the different arts cannot even fill the Sagebrush to capacity for anything, so how is this necessary . A PAC will just be another black hole to shovel tax dollars into, and the cost per stall for the included parkade seems to be ridiculous as well. Council needs to get on with looking after all of the other mundane issues that need to be taken care of. If this goes through, I envision a name change for the city also. Detroit comes to mind.
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WHY are the costs growing so fast? Way beyond the rate of inflation? We should all question these numbers. I love the idea of a performing arts centre, but I would rather the cost be modest, the money saved up first etc…. Mr. Rothenberger, do you know where we stand with debt in this city? Any chance we ever get to a situation where we could avoid interest charges and pay for projects outright.
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The mayor himself even said that the size and cost are up for debate. The cost is not finalized yet. By 2020 the city would have saved 25 million for the centre although it still requires future debt. Similar to the TCC years ago. Not sure if any city could outright pay for things without borrowing as populations and costs increase more upgrades etc need to be done. Maybe Mel knows more in that regard. I still see this as an investment in the city and I’m hopeful for it.
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I wish the proponents of the performing arts centre much good fortune as they attempt to encourage the tax payers to vote yes on any future referendum to be held sometime in the future. It will be interesting to note what the wording on the referendum will be. And so the war of words has begun. It is hoped that the vast majority of eligible voters will turn out and vote. As with many referendums, one can assume that until the yes side gets what it wants, the referendums will continue. Classical example of this happening, was in Chase, where it took, I believe three referendums until the yes side got what it wanted, namely a new hockey arena. It is all a matter of demographics.
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I’m in!! A vision and performing arts centre such as this makes me ecstatically proud to be a citizen of Kamloops. Even worth loosing my former place of employment for! I am absolutely thrilled about today’s announcement and commend the City — and all who played a key role in the process. Right on! Let’s make it so.
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