Bond proposal could fund arts center expansion, regional park and amphitheater
A sign noting the future home of a regional park stands at Judge Cummings Road just off Cato Springs Road in southwest Fayetteville in January.
Todd Gill
A plan to help the Walton Arts Center expand its Dickson Street facility has grown to include funding for a 200-acre regional park and a possible permanent home for the Arkansas Music Pavilion.
The Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission will soon discuss a proposal from A&P director Marilyn Heifner to seek nearly $24 million in voter-approved bonds to invest in a plan that could bring in millions of additional tax dollars each year for the foreseeable future.
The idea, according to Heifner, stemmed from studying ways the commission could grant a request from the Walton Arts Center that includes $6.5 million in extended Town Center bonds to help renovate the its Dickson Street campus.
“In investigating potential funding for the project, I also (began) looking at other longterm needs for the tourism industry in Fayetteville,” wrote Heifner in a Feb. 6 memo to commissioners.
Additional projects
Heifner focused on two projects that she believes would have the biggest impact on tourism tax collections in Fayetteville – a park large enough to host regional sports tournaments and a concert amphitheater to attract touring artists.
A conceptual rendering shows what an expanded Walton Arts Center could look like at the corner of Dickson Street and West Avenue in Fayetteville
Courtesy graphic
The park – a long-planned, but un-funded project in southwest Fayetteville where the SouthPass mixed-use development was to be constructed – would be built in several phases to include baseball, soccer, softball and multi-use fields; plus basketball, tennis and volleyball courts; playgrounds, trails, pavilions, a great lawn, water features and an amphitheater.
Expanding plans for the amphitheater to include a permanent home for the Arkansas Music Pavilion is part of Heifner’s idea to help keep the venue from leaving town.
Walton Arts Center officials began the search for a new home for the AMP after negotiations to construct a permanent facility at the Northwest Arkansas Mall fell through in January 2012.
Since then, the Washington County Fairgrounds has served as a temporary location for the venue. The arts center’s lease at the fairgrounds is good through the 2013 season, but beyond that, the future of the facility remains uncertain.
Heifner said with amphitheater construction included in the regional park, and a longterm lease with the Walton Arts Center, the AMP could stay in town and continue to provide tax proceeds and entertainment for residents.
A boost in tax collections
Heifner said numbers provided by the Arkansas Parks and Tourism department show that visitors spend an average of $246 during an overnight stay for tourism-related events.
Using those figures, preliminary estimates show that the potential economic impact of a regional park could reach as much as $4 million each year through the addition of 10 new youth baseball, soccer and softball tournaments.
Heifner said another $2 million could be generated once tennis courts, a disc golf course and an amphitheater are completed.
Funding ideas
Voters approved a $7 million bond issue in 1997 to build the Fayetteville Town Center. The A&P Commission uses a portion of its half of the city’s 2 percent HMR tax to make payments toward the debt, which is expected to be paid off in 2015.
According to Heifner’s memo, preliminary figures show an extension of those bonds could generate about $11.3 million.
If a portion of city Parks and Recreation funds – which come from the other half of the HMR tax – are included, another $12.3 million could be generated on top of the $4.5 million the city has set aside in reserves for the park.
Next steps
When reached on Thursday, alderman and commission member Matthew Petty called the plan “a good start,” but said a host of details would still need to be worked out before he’d be in full support.
For example, additional capital and operational funds would still be required for the plan to come to fruition, considering the park alone is estimated to cost about $27 million.
Options could include dipping into city reserves, using parkland dedication fees, or seeking private funds from donations or naming rights.
The commission’s next meeting is Monday, Feb. 11 at 2 p.m. inside the Town Center conference room on the downtown square.
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.
Love this idea Marilyn! Fayetteville is lucky to have you!
She’s a gift that keeps on giving… our money away to insiders and cronies.
Anyone who would want to give more money to this unchecked disaster is lunacy.
I actually like the idea. Would be a neat idea if the new AMP could go on top of the mountain overlooking NWA.Kind of like “Red Rocks” in CO.
Love the idea of the venue, but I hate to dot the beautiful Ozark landscape with a white tent that will be used maybe 40 times a year. Perhaps a long winding drive so all that arrive and leave see the beauty?
I agree, and since the tent was blown away, there is no need to design that into the “new” AMP.
I would like to see a concrete structure not a tent. Use Ozark stone, but build something like…
http://assets.flavorwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/red-rocks1.jpg
40 times a year? The Amp in its best of times might have been used 10 times a year with an avg attendance arouond 2,000. Alot of wasted money for something that might have an attendance of 20,000 throughout the year.
A better facility will attract bigger and better bands, which will attract more people to shows, which will in turn provide funding to book more bands.
This is a great idea! I like cory’s idea as well about the AMP being on the side of the mountain.
There is nothing like a loud concert , complete with loud bikes in the middle of a peaceful, serene valley.
think of it as beautiful music negative nancy
I’m not the only one. Music is in the ear of the beholder. If you listen nature has a much more beautiful song.
http://www.hswlt.org/sanctuaries/moorman-wildlife-sanctuary.html
http://aubreyshepherd.blogspot.com/2008/12/barbara-moormans-questions-about.html
http://fayettevillearkansas.blogspot.com/2009/01/demand-for-development-versus-supply.html
You might enjoy reading a bit about music theory. Music, as it is generally known, is inherently appealing to humans because of its foundation in the rhythms and melodies of nature. Even Ted Nugent!
I do not need to read others definitions to know what I like.
To quote Rick from the Young Ones: “You don’t understand our music because you DON’T LIKE IT!”
Also…you don’t like any kinds of music?
I am a musician. I love music. I think there are better places than this to disturb with any more man-made vibrations
I also am a musician– composer, retired performer, and informed listener. Yet I love music. I guess that makes us even. If an outdoor theater can be built on this land with a proper orientation to the sun, adequate ancillary facilities and a few diverting attractions to create a suite of experiences, I’m all for it.
Your move.
Arkansas has no shortage of serene valleys. Why not enjoy some music in one of them?
I-540 passes through that valley and the Cato Springs Road interchange is right there, so even if engine brakes are prohibited in that stretch of the valley, the valley is not really peaceful and serene. It’s hardly even pastoral or bucolic.
That’s subjective.
So is your contention. Suddenly subjectivity is a problem?
No, just yours.
Sound carries and affects people distant from it especially as it travels up ravines and hollows. But I don’t expect much of anyone in this crowd to care as long as it isn’t them being bothered.
Heaven forbid anyone should be affected by other people’s activities.
Fayetteville NEEDS this. Anytime you improve recreation space for youth, you improve the quality of life in that city.
great idea marilyn. kills lots of birds with one bond.
No more debt. Parks already has a tin of money, let them pay for it.
I like this idea as well
We don’t want to loose the AMP, but it has to go in a better location than the mall parking lot (I know it’s at the fairgrounds now).
I do like the “Red Rocks” idea. That place is one of the best outdoor music I have experienced.
Why can’t the AMP pay for the AMP? How much money do they have? When are we going to stop subsidizing WAC projects?
Because as long as its been around (for 10 years or so) the AMP has been a huge money losing proposition. The first owners lost a bunch of money and then were able to unload it on the guy who know books acts for it. He was able to unload that piece of plastic when he couldn’t make money on it to the AMP for a huge sum. I don’t think they did any due diligence on it at all. They probably paid 5 times too much for it.
Then they go and hire the guy who couldn’t make it work for himself to book the acts for the place.
The storms knocking it down and them getting some insurance money out of it was the best thing that happened. They just need to forget this overpriced pipe dream.
If the WAC is so set on having an amphitheater, they should buy into the “Osage Creek Amp” if they are dead set on wasting millions in NWA.
Finally! A dozen comments without anyone griping about the WAC stealing our money. Thought the Flyer had gone soft.
If we’re going to build infrastructure to support an amphitheater, that’s great, but why should it be for “the AMP”? There should at least be a search and bidding on a lease for any amphitheater space. What is the AMP? Is it a mobile stage that falls apart in heavy weather? Is it the management team which was incapable of negotiating the use of an empty parking lot? Is it admittedly low-priority “back burner” subsidiary of the WAC?
There you go asking the questions that that Fay Adverting commission should be asking. Not to mention, attendance, revenues etc for the past 10 years.
Seriously, is something that has an attendance of around 20,000 a year, worth blowing millions at because some might eat, drink in Fayetteville. Especially when probably 1/2 those are already from Fayetteville.
You guys are missing the point in your haste to be critical of something. The MAIN part of this are the athletic fields. Those fields will bring tournaments, which bring lots of people, which means $$$ for our city. Thats what this is about—-I think the AMP portion is ancillary. Frankly I’d rather see the AMP in FYV than anywhere in Benton County….and they already have the athletic fields so this catches us up nicely. And if I read it correctly its all tied together, so if the WAC wants it’s face lift, they have to pretty much keep the AMP in Fayetteville. Again, smart.
The proposal is terrific move for our city.
Fantastic plan, just what Fayetteville needs! Great job Marilyn!
“The idea, according to Heifner, stemmed from studying ways the commission could grant a request from the Walton Arts Center that includes $6.5 million in extended Town Center bonds to help renovate the its Dickson Street campus.”
Why in the world are these two ideas tied together? “Yes” on a beautiful awesome regional park for Fayetteville — an emphatic “No” on handing the Walton Arts Center millions of dollars for expansion.
Its a pretty ham-fisted maneuver. She wants to fund the WAC expansion, and the only way to raise the money is to extend the bonds. Extending the bonds will raise far more money than is needed for the WAC expansion, so now they’re coming up with grand plans to spend the excess. Of course the grand plans will actually cost more than the excess, so they will have to spend millions more A&P dollars to accomplish them.
I hope enough voters will see this obvious angle, better yet our elected officials see through this pork plan. Just pay the bond off and continue to ask for transparency in spending of HMR taxes. A&P and Parks has had decades of cash from this tax and what is really to show for the millions and millions of dollars.
“Pork plan” doesn’t really seem an appropriate term, as the taxes are accrued locally and spent locally. You might as well say that every use of the revenue is a pork project, which stretches that meaning of “pork” into a state of uselessness.
RE “A&P and Parks has had decades of cash from this tax and what is really to show for the millions and millions of dollars.”
A really nice trail system, an improving park system, the Fayetteville Town Center, quite a bit of funding for a lot of organizations in town, a favorable civic profile nationally….
RE “Of course the grand plans will actually cost more than the excess…”
It’s a possibility, but it is also possible that there will be just enough money to pay for the grand plans. It is even possible that there will be more money than needed for the grand plans, and the city could put in a shooting range.
At first glance this seems like a plan that will give everyone in town something they want. Including the park plan with the WAC request and the added bonus of keeping the AMP in Fayetteville will mean much more support city-wide.
Individually- the WAC improvement on Dickson is important if city residents want to keep Fayetteville the Entertainment Capital of NWA. We all know there are very vocal opponents of anything WAC-related but the attendance at WAC events shows that they are a small minority.
The park at the former Southpass development is needed and will ensure city-wide support for the bond issue. Considering that it will be moving forward without the horrible Southpass development itself that aspect of the plan is very welcome. The development itself would have created a separate community on greenfield space and would have had no real community connection to the city.
Keeping the AMP in town is a no-brainer regardless of the troubles it has faced with the lack of a permanent location. With one and a more attractive facility the chances of drawing bigger artists and more fans increases. Personally, I think it needs a roof over most of it- the summer sun here in NWA is brutal and any shade is precious on a 100 degree day in July.
Well said Daniel! Ditto!
Throwing more money at the Fayeteville WAC isn’t going to do anything. When the new Walton Arts Center in Bentonville opens, that’s where all the good shows will go. The WAC in Fayetteville is too small. It has been and that won’t change with the improvements.
I don’t know why they don’t build the AMP in Bentonville around the new WAC and Crystal Bridges. That would be the most logical place. Then people who arrive early to shows could tour the museum and then go see the other shows.
The Roger’s mayors idea of building it off 540 by Pinnacle Hills Mall is also a good one.
imho, I doubt we’re going to be seeing Fayetteville voters vote Yes to taxes on any such plan. Voters already dislike the parking system giving WAC a parking deck, and Southpass is a joke. The AMP needs to stands on its own, or fail. Most of the “talent” booked there is shoddy, anyway. Pat Benetar!?! Nugent? Gimme a break. A citywide vote on this mishmash will fall flat on its face.
I find myself thinking that the WAC should get A&P funding…to a degree. They get almost $300k from parking fees, a lot of A&P support, a partnership from the city on lots of property deals (Nadine Baum, which they rent for $1 a year from the City, and in turn rent to other programs. I think Theatre Squared, which is a nationally acclaimed, Tony award-winning theater company shells out almost $60,000 a year in rent to the WAC.) I feel like the Walton Arts Center gets a lot of help. Ànd bundling it in with a park, which is probably needed, and another WAC owned entity, the AMP, is more help than any other community driven programs in Fayettville are getting.
While Last night drew several thousand people this year, Block Party drew 12,000 people, World Poetry Slam brought in several hundered tourists, all with little (mostly NO) A&P funding, I wonder why the WAC projects aren’t more self-sustainable.
Especially with talk of moving a bigger WAC venue to Bentonville, I’m not sure this is a good investment. At least A&P can get audited, and is subject to FOIA. If the City continues to invest in the Walton Arts Center Projects with tax dollars, shouldn’t the public also have access to their financials? So there is an amount of transparency to them? I’d feel less suspicious of continuing to shell out public tax money to them if they were a city run events center.
“I wonder why the WAC projects aren’t more self-sustainable.”
They would be more self-sustaining if they quit lining their own pockets. I wish it were a requirement to open your records for an FOIA in order to recieve government subsidies… on can only wish.
This is well said. I think the WAC is great, but this specific request from the WAC would be a waste of city money and it shouldn’t have even been requested.
City run events centers are notorious for being money losing venues. In our region an example is the Fort Smith Convention Center which has always been a money loser and a constant source of friction there. The WAC has the backing of a very financially secure source that wants community backing for it’s projects. The City of Fayetteville by itself would never be able to afford providing the programming and venues that the WAC offers. Instead of looking a gift horse in the mouth Fayetteville should take advantage of what largess is offered.
Actually, the number one priority for collecting an A&P tax, by state law, is to fund a city event center. The Town Center is ours, the Aud, in Eureka is theirs. The convention center in Fort Smoth is theirs. Everything that is left over after funding for that center is dispersed publicly. I don’t see why this amphitheater can also be used as an A&P events center, then leased to the AMP, as they’re leasing from the fairgrounds, then see for other events throughout the year. Building this specifically for a program as infrequent as 12-15 times a year, to call it their “home” is expensive and ridiculous. Hefner has run the Town Center in the black for years. I’m sure she can do the same with this one..
I still hate the idea of handing out millions of dollars as a sign of friendship or good faith. There has to be solid proof that it’s a good investment for the city. The WAC is great, but I think this specific request would be a waste of money, much like the recent donation to the UofA. If the WAC said “look we want to keep Fayetteville the main campus and we can’t afford it so can you help us expand and keep the best shows in Fayetteville?” — then yes, by all means donate the money they need. If we were to pay for the expansion, I think it would first be very reasonable to require the WAC to detail their plans for booking shows once they have two WACs. Obviously it’s not in their plans to invest their own money in expanding the Fayetteville building. Are they going to split the shows relatively evenly? Are they going to send the whole Broadway series to Bentonville? I love the WAC, but if the major shows are moved to Bentonville, then there are far, far better ways to spend this money.
Developing the regional park is the best example.
Just for the record- WAC officials have said publicly said that programming in Fayetteville would be largely unaffected by the expansion PAC in Bentonville. They have said there would still be 6 to 8 Broadway shows in Fayetteville for the next 20 years regardless of what happens. They project adding 22,500 new attendees per year and to do that a reduction in programing wouldn’t be possible. Of course- everthing said has to be taken with a grain of salt.
Ryan: agreed!
Daniel: I think a lot of our attendees at the WAC series are from up North. I just don’t see a magical 22,000 more people appearing in NWA to attend shows. We’re just not that populated……yet.
Fayetteville city officials need to be more thoughtful about this plan instead of having a kneejerk rejection of it. The City and WAC need to look at ways to make this plan work or come up with a smiliar plan of their own. Whether it is changing the timing of the park development or looking at different revenue sources a plan that includes the 3 pieces of the plan is more likely to gain voters support for it.
The park itself could be located farther north, nearer the Boys and Girls club, or the sewer treatment plant. Plenty of space and infastructure already there. Cost efficient, central location,more bang for your buck.
Why is the proposed Southpass park system being sited away from the Boys&Girls Club and all the schools that would use it and all the hotels where visitors would stay ? Sprawl should be avoided, right?
And just why was that site chosen in the first place? Who were the developers and Banks involved?
thank you
There is some good background information about it at this link. I’m not sure how many of the embedded links work. http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.php/topic/17800-south-pass-development/
The location was chosen nearly 10 years ago. Below is a link to a PDF of the brief history of the regional park.
» Park history PDF
Alot has happened since ten years ago, there is the old adage,” you can’t fight city hall” But from logistical and financial viewpoints you would have to say there are better locations. It reminds me of a quote by Carl Sagan-
In science it often happens that scientists say, “You know that’s a really good argument; my position is mistaken,” and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn’t happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
12% sales tax is excessive! wait for it come July. The Fayetteville Town Center is something we REALLY needed, I’ve been there zero times. Went to the AMP once, I’d rather have a Science Museum!
Hey, I’m not saying the Town Center is an awesome venue. I’m saying it doesn’t lose money. And we were required to have it to collect the tax at all. I’m also no a big AMP fan. They’re booking for a different crowd than me, for sure. There are a ton of brilliant ideas that could be funded by A&P. Which is why I’m skeptical of this one. I guess we’ll see what the skinny is when more details come out…..