Kamloops’ new performing-arts centre would boast a 1,200-seat theatre, a 350-seat black-box theatre, 350 parking stalls and an $90-million price tag.
But, Mayor Peter Milobar and city staff told the public last night at Interior Savings Centre, building the new facility on the former site of the Kamloops Daily News would require only a one per cent tax hike in 2016 and another one per cent increase in 2017.
Should it pass in a referendum later this year, construction would begin in 2018, with an opening date in 2020.
Milobar said he does expect some sticker shock — as Coun. Donovan Cavers put it to media earlier this week — from the public, but doesn’t think the overall price is insurmountable.
READ THE REPORT:
“When they see that it’s only one per cent a year for two years and you not only achieve the theatre, you also achieve 350 parking stalls for daytime usage in downtown Kamloops, I think that a lot of people will see that it’s not necessarily a wild and crazy concept,” he said.
While the city considered Thompson Rivers University and the soon-to-be-vacant Lake City Casino space at Hotel 540 on Victoria Street as potential sites, Milobar said the city preferred to keep the centre downtown, which ruled out TRU early on.
Of the two remaining options, Hotel 540 was slightly larger. But, Milobar said, the L-shape of the vacant property on the hotel site made it difficult to lay out the various components the centre would require.
“You’d have two lobbies. The way the black box would have to wrap around the building, it just doesn’t have the efficiency of flow,” he said. “And then you’d have to have 14,000 square feet of the old casino space be theatre space — and now you’re engrained in an older building.”
It also would have cost more.
Early estimates put the price tag at Hotel 540 over $102 million and Milobar said it was unlikely the hotel would have brought money to the table for the project.
“I think as they started to move through it, they realized they didn’t necessarily want to be a theatre operator either,” he said.
“So, by the end of it, it was down to what would it cost us to purchase your land?”
The city does not yet have full renderings of the gallery in the Daily News space — council made its decision to move ahead with the site just two weeks ago — instead focusing on rough square footages for various spaces within the 97,600 square-foot building.
Included in the plans are an 80-foot fly tower and orchestra pit for the main stage theatre, retractable seats in the studio theatre, archival space for the Kamloops Arts Gallery, meeting rooms and three streetfront artists’ studios.
The building would also include 3,300 square feet of rehearsal space and a commercial space for a coffee shop or restaurant.
Parking would be provided on two levels underground. Of the individual components, it’s the most expensive, adding about $25 million on to the total cost.
To pay for the centre, the city would create a reserve fund of new property taxes (which would bring in $950,000 the first year and $1.9 million each year thereafter), federal and provincial gambling and gas-tax money and revenue from its downtown parking kiosks.
Milobar said by the end of construction in 2020, when the city will have to begin servicing its debt for the project, the city would have about $25.5 million in reserves.
It’s also hoping to secure another $10 million through federal and provincial grants and a naming-rights deal.
Once the building opens, Milobar said its $900,000 operating cost and annual debt payments of $2.7 million would be covered using about $2 million a year in gambling and gas tax funds, $1.9 million in property-tax revenue, as well as cash from both the arts-centre parkade and on-street parking downtown.
While the project relies on substantial federal and provincial infrastructure dollars, Milobar said the city still has enough money to cover the capital upgrades on the books.
“All the work we’ve been planning in doing over the next five years will not be undermined,” he said.
While city council has discussed the report, it has yet to have a full debate on the funding strategy, which Milobar said could be changed if councillors want to be more aggressive in how dollars are allocated.
The city could also end up with more gambling funds to put to the project if the new Cascades Casino, which opens this summer in Versatile, brings in the increased revenues expected.
The full report on the arts centre is online now. The city will take questions and feedback on the plan at an April 18 meeting at ISC, from 10 a.m. to noon.
Milobar said there is still much work to be done.
“It’s not like we’re going to a referendum on Tuesday,” he said.
“This is the first stage of really engaging that public commentary around is this something people are comfortable seeing.”
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