An artist rendering shows what the Walton Arts Center could look like after an expansion of its Dickson Street campus and completion of a planned downtown parking deck.
Courtesy: Walton Arts Center
The Walton Arts Center has asked the Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission to foot nearly half the bill for a planned facelift and expansion of its Dickson Street campus.
Officials last week submitted a formal request for $8.5 million in A&P funds to put toward the estimated $20 million cost of the project.
Included in the plans are a new facade and entryway at the corner of West Avenue, a larger lobby, an expanded Starr Theatre, additional backstage space, and a re-configured Rosen Memorial Rose Garden.
The request comes just 12 days after a controversial decision to contribute $500,000 in A&P reserves to the University of Arkansas for an on-campus performing arts hall. The university originally requested $1 million for the project, but commissioners decided instead to award only half the amount requested.
Still, the ask comes as no surprise. Walton Arts Center CEO Peter Lane told board members earlier this month he planned to begin fundraising for the project with a “significant request” for A&P funds.
“We believe that going to the A&P is the right move, because it fits squarely within their domain,” said Lane. “It will drive economic activity and impact, and it will certainly bring more people downtown.”
Plus, he said a financial commitment from the commission could help get other donors on board.
Funding possibilities
Specifically, the arts center is asking for two separate $1 million donations – one in 2013 and one in 2014. The commission keeps an estimated $2 million in annual reserves, but has already allocated $500,000 in 2013 reserves to the university’s concert hall project.
To cover the remaining $6.5 million, Walton Arts Center officials have suggested the commission extend bonds used to the build the Fayetteville Town Center.
It wouldn’t be the first time the group considered using bonds for a Walton Arts Center project.
In April 2011, Mayor Lioneld Jordan suggested extending $9.5 million in Town Center bonds, set to be paid off in 2015, for up to 25 years. The move would have secured $6.7 million to contribute toward a new 600-seat theater on the arts center’s Fayetteville campus. At the time, University of Arkansas Chancellor David Gearhart planned to match the commission’s award in order to help bring another performing arts hall near campus. Those plans fizzled once the university decided to build its own venue.
The commission will likely consider the request at the Jan. 14 meeting. If the group decides to extend bonds, the plan would be forwarded to the City Council. If the council were in favor, a bond extension would require voter approval.
Is the Walton Arts Center not receiving enough money of parking as it is? Where is all the money they make off that going? This seems ridiculous.
The A&P is an easy mark. They’ll want to give the WAC the money, just like they did with the U of A. However, I believe this time the voters will have a say.
This is crap!
Enough is enough! YOU JUST GOT A NEW PARKING GARAGE FOR CHRISTMAS!
This addition will add MINIMAL amounts of NEW “heads in the bed” as the A&P like to call it! Any event scheduled for Dickson St. will bring more NEW visitors to Fayetteville than this expensive addition before they pull the programs to Bentonville.
Go ask Alice for this.
-WAC donor
-WAC supporter
-Fayetteville resident
Where/when did the WAC board state their intent to “pull the programs to Bentonville?”
Like how the horrors at Newtown may be the last straw leading to a sensible restriction on assault weapons, perhaps the UA bendover and this will be the things that finally get people to demand some accountability with these “responsible stewards of public money.”
Or you can keep having it stuck to you. Whatcha gonna do, Fayetteville?
Good god, man. We’re having a discussion about art center funding, and you choose to make your point by invoking an act in which innocent children were slaughtered? Do yourself a favor and take a break from the internet for awhile.
Thank you Mike.
Work on your reading comprehension, farmers. I’ll try and use smaller words for you. Certain / some events / things that happen lead to a tipping point / end of tolerance / acceptance of bad conditions / realities. A gun tragedy can make people fed up about gun laws. A fiscal impropriety can make people fed up about the shadowy, unchecked actions of a group in charge.
Got it?
Maybe instead of Newtown you would have preferred I mentioned Jonesboro, or Columbine, or Va Tech, or Tucson, or Aurora, or a Sikh temple, or… I dunno, pick DOZENS of cases of something happening, public outrage and NO ACTION.
Kind of like giving money to BBBBBBBBBQ year after year, or willfully and knowingly violating FOI laws and getting away with it, or giving money to the UA (which doesn’t need it) or (eventually) giving to the WAC (which doesn’t need it), et al.
PAY ATTENTION!
And think more, knee-jerk less.
I got your point just fine. It’s the manner in which you presented it that makes you come off as unhinged. Kudos on doubling-down on the comparisons to mass murder, though. I do enjoy a good troll now and then.
If those events are really what comes to your mind when you consider the actions of our A&P commission, then please refrain from posting until you seek psychiatric help.
Nope. You still don’t get it. Wrong = wrong. Degree doesn’t matter.
IO, you are an idiot if you cannot understand how invoking a tragedy to make your point isn’t offensive…that or you’ve been in your mother’s basement too long. Either way your post was flat out offensive and your attempts to defend it even moreso.
I agree, you need a break.
Wrong = wrong, Tracy.
Why don’t we just setup a WAC tax? You have to pay a toll every time you come into Fayetteville. All the money goes to the WAC. Of course it will be run and setup by the city and paid for by tax dollars!!!
I just wish the WAC would hurry up and move up north. This is getting really old.
Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.
AAAAAAAACCCCKKKKKKKKKK PPhftt!!!!
I didn’t realize that WAC stood for “We [redacted vulgar verb] Citizens.”
If the A&P is going to contribute this substantial amount to a private entity, one has to wonder what other Fayetteville initiatives could be funded for the public good instead…
The WAC has brought some good shows to Fayetteville, and I’ve enjoyed my visits there. But, the WAC serves the good of people who can afford to attend shows there, and the surrounding restaurants. WAC shows are not cheap, at least not the ones I’ve been to. If I’m mistaken, someone please correct me. You can buy 10 shows for $10 each, but that’s $100, which is not that affordable, and certainly isn’t affordable for most small families in this state.
If the WAC insists on seeking public funding for their private enterprise, the city should take over the WAC and turn it into a park. This way, the WAC will be for public use, funded with public money, with shows priced for more general consumption.
I find it galling that anything with a Walton name would seek funding. Really?! Can’t one of the heirs clean out some pockets and find eight million bucks?
Better yet, keep the WAC, and once the new parking deck is built, turn the existing WAC lot into a public park instead.
I find it galling that anything with a Walton name would seek funding. Really?! Can’t one of the heirs clean out some pockets and find eight million bucks? I second that..
If the WAC had chosen Fayettevile as the site for the new 2,000 seat theater A&P funds would certainly have been used to help fund that project. If the 600 seat theater now slated for an on-campus location had been built on Dickson Street A&P funds would have been used for that. It is reasonable that A&P funds will be used to help fund this project. Regardless of the poor judgment and heavy-handed methods used by the WAC organization in the past it is still in Fayetteville’s best interests to support an improved WAC facility on Dickson Street.
The amount asked for seems excessive and they probably don’t expect to receive that much. It would be prudent of the A&P to put stipulations on how the money will be used to ensure the maximum return on investment. Stipulating a minimum level of quality programming should be looked at.
this just has a bullying feel about it, the WAC with all its big corporate sponsors and multi-bazzillionaire namesakes appears to demand A&P funds… or what? what would happen if no A&P funds were forthcoming? would they completely pull up stakes? It really looks from steet level like walton money wants to dictate terms to any municipality that hosts one of its namesake facilities…as if what, they don’t get their way enough
I think they would simply scale back the plans to the project’s detriment.
It kinda feels like bait & switch. HEY look at our “fast track plans!” Now give me my money!!
I wonder what Bentonville’s investment is going to be in their WAC facility, compared to what Fayetteville has invested over the years.
There is no doubt that it isn’t fair but the alternative for Fayetteville isn’t a good one. The WAC could leave the present facility as is and have minimal programming there. We know from past experience that there is little chance of removing the WAC from the facility so it is a case of making the best of a bad situation.
I imagine the only support the City of Bentonville will need to offer is free rein to the WAC to do whatever they want wherever they want to do it.
It just seems like an awful big price tag to renovate and minimally expand a facility, especially if we are sharing.
What else could Fayetteville build for 8.5 million? A Dickson Street Market pavilion, for starters….
Or the money could be spent to purchase the Old Post Office at the center or our downtown and use that for a Public Market Pavilion where small merchants could sell their wares and perhaps increase the local economy. That would leverage the current success of the farmer’s market and perhaps allow some mercantile energy all year long.
And, the design of the new WAC looks like a rather tepid convention center, in my opinion. Where is the Dickson Street flavor?
The city should have bought at least some of the east side of the square when it was for sale and put arcades for a covered market on the first floor, with specialty library, museum, set for Aida, etc. above. Who did they not want to offend? And how much of that cavern is still empty? Maybe there are other buildings that would work for something similar, not sure OPO is suited despite great location. How would it be redesigned to host the farmers’ market? WAC as tepid convention center is apt… so was the first reaction when it was built …. a Texas high school that went missing.
Something needs to be done with the old post office . Right in the middle of the square and it sits empty. It i s like no one really sees it . When the powers that be are giving away our tax money I would like to see some spent on the OPO.
If the WAC is non-profit and truly independent of the Walton family then the A&P should give the monies to improve the building with a caveat. The “WAC” and building(s) should be renamed the “Fayetteville Arts Center”.
Something could be built on the old Mountain Inn site that would house a farmers market pavilion and a lot of other very interesting things. Could help prosper the south part of town, remove the in-your-face-blight from College Ave, make affordable space for small business development. Its a rare opportunity–if an opportunity in fact exists. Does the City have no standing at all to influence what happens there given all the TIFF monies poured into that site already?
I’m convinced. I agree that the old Mountain Inn site is a better location for a public market building. And I agree in general that the A&P should be looking for some new institution to create and nurture rather than a mature one such as the WAC. The current WAC facilities are completely adequate for most events. The architecture of the building is bland and sterile. But I doubt that the solution is to wrap a 80′s brick box/curtain wall with a 20′s International Style white box/curtain wall.
And to be clear, I love the WAC and what they add to our town. That doesn’t mean that we should give them our tax dollars for this fast track scheme.
That would work, too. Although the WAC lot we already own and its right off the bike trail.
Which would promote fayetteville better: improving some of the facilities at WAC or investing the 8 million in an effort to turn the city hospital real estate into the children’s museum? Which would bring more people in town for our restaurant and hotels?
How about 1 million to help expand WAC and apply the rest to this or one of the other good ideas mentioned…
I understand you folks love to whip out your pitchforks every time the A&P is mentioned on this website, but you guys do understand that this is a request by the WAC that hasn’t even been heard yet by the Commission? I mean I hate to let facts get in the way, but you folks are getting upset at the wrong people.
Who are the people we should be getting upset with? (It’s not upset “at” unless you can’t speak English correctly. Oh wait…)
Enlighten us with your facts.
I cannot support a&p money for the wac or the u of a. Both already have their incomes. Let the a&p draw more people into Fayetteville for smaller venues, instead of filling the bullies pockets. Especially wax since they are talking if moving including the amp.