Vancouver | Arts Center Towers | 2- 11 story buildings | proposed

[CouvScott]

Downtown site eyed for arts center

Tuesday, November 20, 2007
BY BRETT OPPEGAARD for The Columbian

A nonprofit group's plans to build a performing arts center in Clark County are growing bolder, despite previous setbacks.

The Southwest Washington Center for the Arts recently released the results of a $30,000 feasibility study - conducted by Vancouver's E.D. Hovee Co. - which calls for a $100 million mixed-use arts, retail and housing development on a city-owned vacant block adjacent to downtown Vancouver's Esther Short Park.

The center would have two condominium towers standing 11 stories or so, and ground-floor retail space, plus a 1,500-seat auditorium, a 250-seat black box theater, an art gallery and the potential for an additional 300-seat rehearsal hall.

City officials aware of the proposal remain noncommittal because of the importance of the proposed location.

The block targeted by the Southwest Washington Center for the Arts - which is bounded by Washington and Columbia between Eighth and Ninth streets - is being saved to give downtown development its next big boost, said Eric Holmes, Vancouver's economic development director.

Vancouver is the largest city in the Northwest without a public arts center, and enthusiasts have been lobbying for decades to change that distinction. A partnership with Clark College to create a joint instructional and performance space dissolved in 2006 over a lack of state support.

Under the latest proposal, developers would help pay the tab.

Those involved with the project would donate profits from the commercial property to balance the financial costs of the artistic pursuits, which typically run in the red.

Val Ogden, chairwoman of Southwest Washington Center for the Arts, estimates that $10 million could be made on the condos, which then could be put into an endowment to subsidize annual operating expenses for the theaters and gallery.

A retired state legislator, Ogden said the group's research, indicates the major donors are here and willing to support this project.

"Until I have a site," she said, "I can't raise any money."



Prized city possession

The acre lot targeted, dubbed Block 10, is one of the most highly prized pieces of land owned by the city, Holmes said.

Although the property, which is worth about $1.5 million, is not being actively marketed and there are no serious suitors at this time, Holmes is not receptive to the feasibility study's suggestion to freeze development on the lot for two years while the Southwest Washington Center for the Arts organization raises money.

Holmes, who started his job with Vancouver about a month ago, said he still is learning the local landscape. He wants to refine the recently adopted City Center Vision Plan over the next six months to include more specific suggestions for siting public amenities like this.

"A performing arts center, if it's the right kind of facility that's managed in the right way, could be a real asset to the community," he said. "But that doesn't mean it should go on Block 10. We don't know that yet."

Jan Bader, the city's program and policy development manager, said donation of the land - or even a discount off market rate - is highly unlikely in any case.

She said while the city government is supportive of an arts center in principle, this backing does not come with any significant public money attached.

Ogden said her group has not asked for a land donation or even the development freeze of Block 10. At some point soon, though, a partnership will have to be forged to move forward on the idea.

To help navigate this next phase of negotiation and begin the major capital campaign, the Southwest Washington Center for the Arts has hired consultant Lucy Buchanan.

Buchanan, as development director, and her husband, John, as executive director, helped the Portland Art Museum raise $125 million for expansion. The couple moved to San Francisco last year, where John now serves as director of San Francisco's Fine Arts Museums.

Buchanan already has met with Vancouver Mayor Royce Pollard about the new proposal.

"After we have the site, then we need to look at the five to 10 investors who can really make it happen," Buchanan said. " Performing arts centers and museums have become the community living rooms, where people come together, and Vancouver definitely needs that."



Update

- Previously: The nonprofit Southwest Washington Center for the Arts spent two years developing a partnership with Clark College to build a major public arts center, only to have the project not make the cut in last year's state budget cycle. The group then began exploring other options.

- What's new: A second feasibility study, released this month, shows the best option now is to try to build a $100 million mixed-use development, with condominium towers, on a vacant block adjacent to Vancouver's Esther Short Park.

- What's next: The Southwest Washington Center for the Arts plans to restructure its board of directors to put the focus on raising the millions needed to make such a project happen. In the meantime, it also needs to secure the city's commitment to keep that block available.

Did you know?

- Clark County has more than 60 active arts organizations, and the top third of those groups combined generate more than $3 million per year for their operating budgets, according to E.D. Hovee Co.'s November 2007 feasibility study for the Southwest Washington Center for the Arts.

To learn more about this issue, including a selection of past stories, visit



columbian.com/links/centerforthearts

[PuyoPiyo]

Wow so exciting! I do really hope that this project will go successfully and will help the downtown Vancouver very much.

Really hope this project does not take so long like other projects around downtown Vancouver...

[Pavlov's Dog]

Good luck with this. It doesn't sound like the city's very supportive though. Damned shame IMHO.

[PuyoPiyo]

A Hole in the Heart


An empty lot in Vancouver’s downtown beckons development, draws controversy

By Adam Stewart
Block 10 is like a missing tooth in the middle of Vancouver’s vital downtown core.
 
In stark contrast to the condos, restaurants and banks that surround it, it’s an empty 40,000 square foot blot of land scattered with swirling debris, patches of moss, empty beer cans and bottles, cigarette packs and butts and discarded auto parts. It’s surrounded by a cyclone fence, with barbed wire on top and the north side pushed down. While the growing vibrancy of downtown Vancouver blossoms around it, Block 10 does only one thing: it waits.
 
Kitty corner to Esther Short Park and surrounded by shops, restaurants, banks and condominiums, it’s prime real estate. Something needs to come along and fill that space and help further the ongoing revitalization of downtown Vancouver. Something, for instance, like a 1500-seat performing arts center—just like the one the Southwest Washington Center for the Arts has been trying to find a home for.
 
Since its formation in 2003, the Southwest Washington Center for the Arts (SWCA) has been lobbying to build a performing arts center in Vancouver. They have considered several sites, including privately owned riverfront property and the campus of Washington State University Vancouver (WSUV).
 
Now Block 10 has caught SWCA’s attention.
 
“I think it’s a shame that we’re the only city in the Pacific Northwest [...] that doesn’t have its own cultural icon,” said Val Ogden, chair of the SWCA.
 
“Performing arts centers often are real catalysts for growth in the area,” said Arlene Johnson, Executive Director for the SWCA.
 
The proposed center would be a multi-purpose facility featuring a 1500-seat auditorium that would be open to everything from concerts to weddings, graduations to church functions, lectures to ballet recitals—in short, events for organizations that have been clamoring to reserve space in high school auditoriums and churches all over Vancouver until now.
 
In addition to the main theater, it would include a black box theater and an art gallery. There would also be two condominium towers for residents and businesses. The profits from rent would go straight into the maintenance of the performing arts center. Realvest Corp., a condominium manufacturer, would be responsible for the building of the facility, and it would donate its profit from the sales of the condominium to the performing arts center. Paul Christensen, owner of Realvest, is a member of SWCA.
 
Clearly SWCA has got the drive, the contractors, and an excellent shot at raising the money. It would appear as though all they require is the green light.
 
That might be the tricky part.
 
As of now, SWCA is working with city planners, trying to put the block on hold for two years. If they succeed, they will spend the time raising the $50 million to build the facility from private investors.
 
“I don’t think the city’s particularly supportive (of holding Block 10,)” said Jan Bader, program and policy development manager for Vancouver. “We don’t want to lock ourselves into holding that property if some other appropriate use for that space comes up.”
 
Bader also expressed some concerns about the feasibility of such a project. She said performance venues tend to run in the red and the revenue earned from condo sales cannot be relied upon, especially considering the currently shaky housing market.
 
In the past, Vancouver has made attempts to fill Block 10 with corporate headquarters for large businesses.
 
According to a recent preliminary draft of a feasibility report on the performing arts center, the estimated annual operating expenses are expected to be between $1.8 million and $1.9 million. The report stated that about 35 to 50 percent of the funding would be paid by an operation endowment, including the dedicated profit of condo sales. Rental of the facilities and outside donations would also help cover the costs.
 
“I would love to see (SWCA) be successful and carry this off,” said Bader. “I think there’s just a lot of doubt about the ability to pull this off.”
 
According to Ogden, such a facility downtown would be worth the effort. “If we want something that’s going to be active and add to the vitality of downtown, an office building doesn’t do it.”
 
One thing is for sure: there wouldn’t be a shortage of performing arts groups lined up to perform at such a facility. According to Connie Platt, community services coordinator for the Vancouver School District, Vancouver’s small venues are overflowing with arts groups.
 
“I know that we have many groups that we’re not able to take care of because we’re so overbooked in our three auditoriums,” said Platt.
 
Platt said Vancouver schools host about 4,000 annual contracts for after-hours use of the buildings. She said the use of school auditoriums is restricted by school hours, and that outside instructional use can be problematic for classrooms. Also, any outside performances would take secondary priority behind school events.
 
Some groups that would seem on the surface to be a good fit for such a facility include the Washington State Ballet, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, New Blue Parrot Theater, Tears of Joy Puppet Theater and the Christian Youth Center, which at one time performed a production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” for over 1,000 spectators.
 
Janet Bradley, managing director and co-founder of the Tears of Joy, said that she would love for her organization to become resident performers if a performing arts center is built in Vancouver, and also that her preference would be for the facility to be located downtown.
 
“If there’s a space that groups can rent and do performances in,” she said, “they can expand their audiences and there will be an explosion of art in Vancouver.”
 
Functioning mostly in Portland, Tears of Joy once had about a third of their resident performances in Vancouver, mostly at the Columbia Arts Center, which has been closed for nearly ten years. Now only about five percent of their performances are here in town.
 
But while Bradley would love to bring performances back to Vancouver, she’s unsure of the proposed performing arts center’s capability to fill the 1500-seat theater on a regular basis. Tears of Joy has its eye on the black box theater, but whether it would suit their specific needs will only be clear once the plans for the building have been finalized.

“I would love to be in Vancouver,” said Bradley, “but if my option is a 100-seat black box [...] it just depends.”
Should Block 10 become unavailable, the next most likely candidate for a new performing arts center will be the Washington State University campus in Salmon Creek. The center would be in partnership with the college, which would pay for its upkeep.
 
“We’re in a wait-and-see mode,” said Bruce Romanish, vice chancellor of academic affairs at WSUV. “[We’ll] explore our level of interest and responsiveness.”
 
The effort is now in fresh hands. In the next couple of months, much of the original SWCA board will have been replaced. Certain members, including Val Ogden, have nonetheless stayed on to help guide the possible future of the performing arts center.
 
For now, the fate of Block 10 is still unclear. Some area theatre groups have expressed frustration at the possibility of millions being spent on a new facility at a time when many are struggling to remain profitable. Nonetheless, some sort of major investment in area arts is obviously long overdue. In the meantime, Block 10 remains unutilized, and its barren asphalt and gravel expanse calls out to be put to use.

[urbanlife]

it sounds like it would be a good move for vancouver

[360Rich]

I'm surprised this is gaining traction. I don't see the fund raising succeeding in Vancouver (especially if the economy continues to decline), but it would be great if it did!

Vancouver to mull site for arts center
Thursday, March 13, 2008
By BRETT OPPEGAARD, for The Columbian

After decades of talk, advocates for a Clark County performing arts center are close to securing a downtown Vancouver site that will enable them to make a serious run at raising the $58 million necessary to build the first phase of the project.

On Monday, the Vancouver City Council will consider freezing development on a block of downtown property, adjacent to Esther Short Park, to give the nonprofit Southwest Washington Center for the Arts two years to amass a majority of the cost.

Plans for the arts facility include a 1,500-seat auditorium, a 250-seat black box theater, an art gallery and the potential for an additional 300-seat rehearsal hall.

The performing arts center will be part of a grander mixed-use development that will feature two towers of condominiums, 11 stories tall or so, and ground-floor retail space that will add another $50 million to the overall bill.

“Now that we have a site, now that it’s something real, we will be in a position to ask people to become part of the team, to make a huge difference in our whole quality of life here,” said Southwest Washington Center for the Arts Chairwoman Val Ogden. “Now we really have to put up, and see if we can do this or not.”

Paul Christensen, who is the arts group’s treasurer and the founder of the development firm Realvest Corp., is offering to manage the project, build the commercial portions of it and donate proceeds from the sale of the condominiums to create an endowment that subsidizes operational costs for the arts organization.

If the city agrees to halt development on the site for two years, the arts group will need to raise 75 percent, or $43.5 million, of the initial development cost to maintain an exclusive option to buy the property.

At this point, the arts group in addition is expecting to pay market rate, or about $1.5 million, for the land. No public money from Vancouver is expected to be used, but Ogden said she plans to apply for assistance from a state program that typically funds such capital improvements.

In anticipation of having an opportunity to secure the downtown block, which is bounded by Washington and Columbia as well as Eighth and Ninth streets, the Southwest Washington Center for the Arts changed its leadership structure a few months ago. It added to its board an attorney,

Steve Horenstein of Vancouver’s Miller Nash law firm, who specializes in land-use planning and permitting as well as property development and financing, and Leslie Durst, one of this area’s most generous arts supporters. Durst donated $1 million in the early 1990s to the Vancouver School of Arts and Academics, which named its theater after her father, Royal Durst. She also gave $100,000 to a nonprofit Vancouver company to help establish the Leslie B. Durst Columbia Dance Center and has been involved in many other artistic endeavors locally and regionally, including The Confluence Project, which features work by Maya Lin commemorating the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Vancouver is the largest city in the Northwest without a public arts center, and enthusiasts have been lobbying for years to change that distinction.

The Southwest Washington Center for the Arts originally tried to create a facility in partnership with Clark College, but when that didn’t pan out, the mixed-use development idea for downtown Vancouver arose.

The group’s executive director, Arlene Johnson, said this concept is innovative enough to not have any easily comparable projects on the West Coast.

“It’s unique,” she said, “to mix all three (office, retail and arts spaces).”

Though such a project hasn’t been tried before, city manager Pat McDonnell saw enough potential in the proposal to recommend that the Vancouver City Council consider holding the highly prized property next to Esther Short Park for two years.

Eric Holmes, Vancouver’s economic development director, said he thinks the idea is robust and developed enough at this point to warrant the decision to lock up the acre lot, dubbed Block 10. Holmes said the lingering questions he and others have relate back to money.

“That’s not only about how it will be built initially, but also how it will be maintained in a financially sustainable manner,” he said. “It would add to the richness of the downtown, and it can be a venue that the overall community can be proud of, but the facility has to be financially viable for that to happen.”

Vancouver Mayor Royce Pollard could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Ogden said she and her group are excited about the challenge, an opportunity to set a new benchmark for Clark County philanthropy. She’s also delighted with the idea that the group’s full pitch, if approved Monday, will include the vision, the detailed plan and the specific site. As a result, potential donors can imagine where their money will land and how it will sprout.

“I have butterflies,” she said. “We’ve talked to a lot of people who say that the money is here. The question is, will the individuals who control that be interested (in our project)? Will it be their passion? … But there’s only one way to find out. We need to go out and ask.”

http://www.columbian.com/news/localN...rts-center.cfm

[PuyoPiyo]

City ‘holding’ block for an arts center

Update

• Previously: Southwest Washington Center for the Arts released the results of a $30,000 study last year. It called for building a performing arts center as part of a mixed-use project on a city-owned vacant block cater-corner from Esther Short Park.
• What’s new: The city council gave tentative approval Monday to a two-year development hold, during which the city will neither sell nor sign a long-term lease for the property, to give the arts group time to meet a series of benchmarks.
• What’s next: City officials will return with a formal agreement for council approval in the next month or so, after which the two-year clock will begin ticking for the arts group to raise money and develop operating plans.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008
By JEFFREY MIZE, Columbian staff writer Supporters of a performing arts center in Vancouver will get a chance to achieve their dream.
Vancouver will give them two years to make good on a string of commitments, including raising an estimated $43.5 million to build an ambitious mixed-used project on a city-owned block cater-corner from Esther Short Park.
The city council agreed Monday night to place a two-year “development hold” on the block, immediately north of Vancouvercenter, during which time the city will neither sell the property nor sign a long-term lease with other parties.
The council’s 6-1 vote gave only preliminary approval to the development hold. City officials will draft a formal agreement with Southwest Washington Center for the Arts and return for final council approval in the next month or so.
The group’s plans include a 1,500-seat auditorium, a 250-seat black box theater, an art gallery and the potential for a 300-seat rehearsal hall.
No city money would be used to build or operate the project.
Councilwoman Jeanne Harris said Vancouver is continuing to mature and needs a performing arts center.
“It has absolutely nothing to do with Portland and it has everything to do with Vancouver,” she said.
Councilman Pat Campbell, who cast the only “no” vote, said he thought the city had been reserving the vacant block in hopes of attracting a Fortune 500 company.
“I feel a little whiplashed on this,” Campbell said.
The final agreement with Southwest Washington Center for the Arts is expected to include some tough conditions.
The city will require the project to be at last 10 stories tall, cover the entire block and include condominiums or apartments, offices and ground-floor retail space on at least three sides, fronting Eighth, Columbia and Washington streets.
The project will need to have a parking garage because the city-owned underground garage in Vancouvercenter does not have the capacity to handle a performing arts center’s parking needs.
Vancouver will also require the group to meet a series of benchmarks during the next two years, including:

•  Secure 75 percent of the estimated $58 million cost to build the performing arts center, or $43.5 million. The entire project, including the housing, parking and other features, is expected to cost $100 million.
• Obtain 75 percent of the funds for an operating endowment whose revenue would cover at least 40 percent of the center’s annual operating costs, which are estimated at $1.8 million.
•   Create a business plan for year-round use and demonstrate the ability to manage the performing arts center.
• Substantially complete architectural plans for the project and work with the city to ensure those plans meet parking and other considerations to support downtown redevelopment.

Councilman Larry Smith said he expects the arts group to comply with each condition before the city sells the downtown block at market rates.
“I look at these numbers and I look at them as absolutes,” Smith said. “I trust the community, and I’m willing to trust the two-year process.”
Arlene Johnson, the group’s executive director, said she believe the requirements can be met.
“We’ve very carefully researched the project, the site,” she said before Monday’s council meeting. “We believe there is enough interest for the community to get behind this project.”
Johnson said her group will be looking to tap federal and state funding, foundations and individual donors during the next two years.
“We have not even begun to try to do that because we did not have the site secured,” she said.
Paul Christensen, the arts group’s treasurer and the founder of the development firm Realvest Corp., is offering to manage the project, build the commercial portions of it and donate proceeds from the sale of condos to the operations endowment fund.
Such a fund is considered essential because the performing arts center isn’t expected to generate enough revenue to cover its expenses.

[PuyoPiyo]

You can find some new renderings while reading some of SWCA's documents from its official website.

http://www.center4thearts.com/documents/

[360Rich]

Backers seek new site for arts center

Tuesday, September 16 | 7:52 p.m.
By MARY ANN ALBRIGHT, COLUMBIAN STAFF WRITER

Supporters of a proposed Clark County performing arts center have dropped plans to build on a downtown Vancouver site near Esther Short Park, citing mounting costs and a shaky economy that could hinder fundraising.

Instead the Southwest Washington Center for the Arts, the nonprofit group backing the project, is looking at sites on the Vancouver National Historic Reserve and on the former Boise Cascade industrial property that fronts the Columbia River.

“It just didn’t work out. It’s better to find out early, before we’re actually going out and raising money,” said Val Ogden of Vancouver, chairwoman of the board for Southwest Washington Center for the Arts.

The site the group had been working to secure is bordered by Washington, Columbia, Eighth and Ninth streets and overlooks Esther Short Park. Plans for a $60 million arts facility on that site included an auditorium, a black box theater, an art gallery and possibly an additional rehearsal hall. It was to be part of a larger mixed-use development that would have included condominiums and shops.

Southwest Washington Center for the Arts decided, however, that it could not afford the parking structure the city required. The city also mandated that at least three sides of the building have retail space, and center officials felt its budget would only allow for two.

Other parts of the deal also became questionable.

Realvest Corp., the development firm interested in building the commercial portions of the project, had offered to donate the profits from condominium sales to an endowment to help run the performing arts center. Those funds would be necessary to cover the arts center’s operating costs, but there was a risk the condominiums wouldn’t sell in today’s housing market, Ogden said.

The two alternative sites now under consideration won’t likely carry as high of a price tag.

The group is in preliminary discussions with the city about taking over the Vancouver Police Department headquarters site on the western edge of the Vancouver National Historic Reserve.

The site could eventually be available as operations at Vancouver Police Department headquarters are shifted to the west precinct on Fourth Plain Boulevard and Stapleton Road.

It was one of the sites the city manager encouraged Southwest Washington Center for the Arts to consider, said Jan Bader, Vancouver program and policy development director.

It’s a possibility the Vancouver National Historic Reserve Trust is interested in exploring as well. The reserve is in the process of developing an arts and entertainment complex in a vacant building near police headquarters, so “it would be a nice complement to have the two buildings next to each other,” said Elson Strahan, who is chief executive officer and president of the trust.

Southwest Washington Center for the Arts also is exploring potential options with Gramor Development, the Tualatin, Ore., commercial real estate developer behind a proposed riverfront revitalization effort.

Southwest Washington Center for the Arts invested a year and a half on plans for the downtown Vancouver site, spending $35,000 on a feasibility study and devoting many hours of volunteer work to the project.

“Much of it is information we can use on the new site. It’s not lost,” Ogden said.

http://www.columbian.com/article/200...WS02/809169905