Renderings, from Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects, show the interior of a planned 700-seat performing arts hall to be built inside the old Field House building on the University of Arkansas campus.
Staff photo, courtesy images
Discussion of a $1 million request from University of Arkansas Chancellor G. David Gearhart to put toward construction costs of a 700-seat performing arts hall was delayed until August by the Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission on Monday.
The decision to table the issue came after a presentation by Gearhart who detailed the university’s plans to convert its old Field House building into a state-of-the-art venue for musical and theatrical performances.
“We think this will have a dramatic impact on the city, the community and certainly the university,” said Gearhart.
The old Field House building.
Photo: Todd Gill, Flyer staff
The estimated $17 million project, he said, would allow the university to host approximately 40 large ensemble performances each year that could result in a major boost in visitors to the city.
The UA’s Center for Business and Economic Research estimates an annual attendance of 28,000 people during those 40 events which would account for an increase of at least $298,000 and up to $1.9 million in visitor spending each year.
“We do believe it will bring more people into Fayetteville and more money into Fayetteville,” Gearhart said. “We think there’s no question about that.”
Plus, Gearhart said, the venue would be made available to Fayetteville as an additional facility for hosting events not directly affiliated with the university, when scheduling allows.
Gearhart and Mark Power, the university’s executive director of development, said they hope to announce an estimated $10 million lead gift toward the project sometime this fall, but would still need a substantial amount of fundraising to fill the gap, even with the A&P Commission’s commitment.
“We’re full steam ahead and feel very good about where we are at this point,” said Power. “But there’s a lot of other possibilities out there.”
If approved, commission funding would come from a reserve of about $2.3 million and would be dispersed over a three-year period.
Commissioner Bob Davis said he supported the proposal, but with commission members Justin Tennant and William Lyle absent from Monday’s meeting, the group decided to delay further discussion until its next regular meeting in August.
A&P Funds
Legislation created the Advertising and Promotion Commission in 1977 with the passage of the Hotel, Motel, Restaurant (HMR) tax in Fayetteville. The 2 percent tax is split equally between the city’s Parks and Recreation Department and the A&P Commission. The parks money is used for parks maintenance, operations and for capital improvements. The self-reported numbers do not include retail or liquor sales.
» See recent collection totals
By state legislation, all HMR funds shall be used:
1. for advertising and promoting the city and its environs
2. for the construction, reconstruction, equipment, improvement, maintenance, repair, and operation of a convention center
3. for the operation of tourist promotion facilities in the city
4. for personnel and agencies necessary to conduct the business of the A & P commission
HMR funds can also be used for:
1. for funding the arts
2. for operation of tourist-oriented facilities
3. for construction, reconstruction, repair, maintenance, improvement, equipping and operation of public recreation facilities and for the payment of bonds.
Taxes shall not be used for:
1. general capital improvements within the city
2. costs associated with general operation of the city
3. general subsidy of any civic group or chamber of commerce
Source: Arkansas Code / § 26-75-606 – Use of funds collected
Bad Business
For the University to ask? Or for the commission to discuss?
Chancellor Gearhart never said this project was contingent on the A&P contributing $1 million (1/17th the total cost). With or without the A&P’s money the performing arts center is going to be built. Either way, the impact on visitor spending will be the same.
Why does the UofA need to ask A&P for money?…t he venue would be made available to Fayetteville… when scheduling allows” ? So, ‘gimme your millions and maybe you can use it when we’re not…?
I don’t think the UA “needs” to ask the city. I think it’s an opportunity for the A&P commission and city to contribute. If the total cost is $20mil, and the city gives $1mil, would the city have access to the building 5% of the time?
Put it another way, if the building is in use 200 days per year, will the city get access to it for 10 of those days? Seems conceivable.
If over the course of the, let’s say, 50 year life cycle of the new performance hall, will the city receive in turn a $1mil benefit and ROI? Also conceivable.
Will the city see that return anyway? Even if they don’t help fund it? Probably so.
the question remains: why does the UofA decide to ask the A&P for that much money? is this the real purpose of the ‘town & gown committee–to create “opportunities” for municipalities to donate to UofA infrastructure? the UofA thinks the surrounding community owes them something for over building and over populating the campus? providing hoardes of self medicating students out at the bars gets interpreted as a quid pro quo? pretty weird.
Bob Davis and everyone else on the A&P Commission who thinks the commission needs to give the university money for its theatre obviously have not read the law cited above. The money they want to give to the university will not be going for the promotion of or the advertising of Fayetteville or its environs; it will not be going to support a convention center; it will not be going to support the operation of tourist promotion facilities;
it will not be going to support personnel or agencies necessary to the conduct the business of the A&P commission; it will not be going to support the arts; it will not be going for the operation of tourist related facilities; and it wil not be going to support equiping, operating or payment of the debot on public recreation facilities. In fact, that money will not be spent in support of any the activities the law requires. That money, our money, will be spent to support the mission of the university which is to educate students not promote Fayetteville. The university is building a theatre for its students not for anyone in Fayetteville.
Our A&P Director has admitted she committed criminal acts because she would not follow the law and her admissions got her convicted of criminal conduct. If these commissioners vote to give away our money in a manner prohibited by law, are they creating the reason to start the entire criminal process again? Well, they are the Advertising and Promotion Commission and no doubt that criminal activity clearly gets publicity and advertises Fayetteville. Perhaps we should simply thank them for creating the publicity that Fayetteville is the city that disregards the law.
Didn’t you hear? We’re the city of Second Chances.
I am not opposed to giving the university the money, if the university gives the A&P Commission a 10 year contract guaranteeing 100 nights each year at no cost to the A&P. That contract also has to guarantee at a minimum of 7 six day weeks as a part of the 100 days. It also needs to guarantee that the 100 days will not include any Mondays. The contract has to spell out that the university cannot charge the A&P any rent or operational charge for using the facility for any of those 100 days and that the university will guarantee 600 parking places on those days for free.
That all seems fair. If the city is going to give the university cash, then the university has to give the city a specific contract with the A&P for specific calendar days for each year with the total of days available being 100 days with free use of the facility and free parking.
Oh, yeah, one other thing the university has to agree in the contract that it will not attempt to censor any programming the city wants to bring to that facility.
If the U of A will do this, then our citizens can go to the A&P to use the university theater at no cost and not have to deal with the university burearucracy to get permission. Seems like to me that will work.
Interesting proposal.
This is going to be a University facility primarily used by students located in an area secluded from general public access. It will not have remotely the impact that a Dickson Street venue would have had for local business or city promotion. If the A&P Commission approves this request I would think that it would be grounds to take legal action to disband the Commision. The downside is that the legislation allowing the granting of the request is so vague that the powers that be will probably ram this through like they always do.
I don’t really think the location is the impediment to public accessibility that you make it out to be. It will be no more difficult for the public to get to this venue than to the University Theater or the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall, or rooms in the Union, and it will be much easier to get to than Giffels Auditorium (in Old Main) and other on-campus venues used by the public. That said, I don’t think the law really allows the disbursement of the money, except by a stretch of the imagination, and if that stretch is undertaken, then the money should have strings attached so as to make the disbursement comply more closely with guidelines for allowable uses.
Did the U of A help pay for the Walton Arts Center? (Not a loaded question, I can’t recall exactly but I think those millions were a combination of city and Waltons-via-UofA) I know at that time I was a little sad to see the U of A seem to turn its back on what I thought of (still do think of) as its own role in the arts. I hope the university does get a larger theater, in what can be an attractive and relatively accessible building and also that it maintains its Fine Arts Center. I realize these thoughts don’t have a lot to do with the $1-million controversy, sorry if it’s off topic.
This whole transaction smells illegal to me. Surely they check with the City attorney on this, and get advice, right?
Been Watching said: “Surely they check with the City attorney on this, and get advice, right?”
Wrong. The A&P is not affiliated with, or accountable to, the City of Fayetteville. They do not have access to the city attorney expect for matters related to the collection of delinquent HMR taxes.
So are they liable if they do something illegal? As a commission? If they give the University money, and it’s illegal, which I believe it is, and they get sued, who pays the price for that? I think they should, if they don’t have access to the City Attorney’s services, pay to get a legal opinion before they decide. Actually, I think they should shake the Chancellor’s hand, wish him good luck,,and not give him the funding. But if it’s even an option that they might approve it, they better get their legal ducks in a row.
It is past time to change to a new head of the A&P. She should have been bounced on the FOIA debacle.
This.
This too.