A consultant studying the potential impact of a new theater on Parcel 5 was in town yesterday, giving a brief update and taking questions from City Council members. And it was clear from his discussion that many of the city’s arts organizations are still very concerned about the proposed new venue for the Rochester Broadway Theater League: its financial viability and its effect on them.
In response to arts leaders’ concerns, earlier this year the city hired Connecticut-based AMS Planning and Research to study the issue. Part of its charge was to analyze the impact of new performing arts centers in comparable-sized cities.
It was also asked to talk with leaders of the Rochester arts community, and at a meeting of City Council’s Arts and Culture Committee yesterday, Ray Cullom, an AMS sub-contractor, talked about what he had learned so far.
AMS consultants have talked with officials at Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Rochester City Ballet, Blackfriars Theatre, Downstairs Cabaret Theatre, the Rochester Museum and Science Center, GEVA, and the Strong National Museum of Play, among others, Cullom said. Virtually all of them said there is a need for smaller venues downtown. Space for smaller venues is not included in the RBTL proposal, however.
Finding new sources of financial support in a competitive market are huge concerns for them, Cullom told Council members. The new theater will be expensive, and the arts leaders are concerned about where that money will come from, he said. They’re also concerned about losing patrons and donations to support the RBTL venue once it’s built, he said.
Cullom said it’s not unusual for cities like Rochester to see a “bump” in development and improvements in arts and cultural centers after a large venue is built. A new theater can attract business from around the area and doesn’t have to drain smaller venues, he said. There’s an opportunity to increase attendance and grow the audience for arts and culture, he said.
While it’s been called a downtown performing arts center for months, the new RBTL venue would actually be a new auditorium, not an arts center, Cullom said. And while there has also been some talk of having an IMAX movie theater incorporated in the building to provide extra financial support for the project, movie theaters will not work in the space, Cullom said. Movie theaters need completely different building and sound technology requirements than auditoriums built for Broadway shows, he said.
Some of the officials at the city’s smaller venues complained that the planning process to build the performing arts center on Parcel 5 has been “opaque,” Cullom said. But Mayor Lovely Warren’s chief of staff Alex Yudelson, who was also at the meeting, said the project is still in the initial planning phase and at least of some of the ideas – such a movie theater or a rooftop green space – are just ideas. Fundraisers like Sandy Parker, the former CEO of the Rochester Chamber of Commerce, need a concept to work with, Yudelson said. Parker is the theater’s chief fundraiser.
“Not a lot has been solidified,” Yudelson said. “It’s hard to raise money on a hypothetical.”
This article appears in May 23-29, 2018.
“Cullom said its not unusual for cities like Rochester to see a bump in development and improvements in arts and cultural centers after a large venue is built.”
Planners said almost exactly this before the million dollar upgrade to Silver Stadium, and before the creation of Frontier Field and Sahlen Stadium.
There is no ‘bump.’ These stand alone, money-sucking entertainment venues only benefit themselves. And, frankly, they don’t even do that, requiring constant subsidies. Until RBTL can actually prove that it can financially sustain a new theater, then let’s just take it off the table. We don’t need it.
It doesn’t require a Ouija board, tarot cards or tea leaves to guess the future of the latest addition to Rochester’s long and sorry string of ill-conceived civic “improvement” projects. First, the new theater will be hyped to death by our elected officials and the local media, even though no viable business case will be found. Then, it will be built (going over budget in the process) amid claims of all the Big Broadway productions it will bring to town. Next it will open to great fanfare. And then after a year or so, after a small handful of actual shows are put on, usage of the theater will drop to maybe 30 or 40 days a year, while maintenance costs greatly exceed what its backers claimed they would be. Then finally, after the taxpayers have taken another massive hit, a committee will be appointed to find a new use for the underutilized facility. How about we save time and just throw about $20,000,000 into the river now?
There were fully fleshed out proposals with funding accounted for in regards to Parcel 5. Instead they were dumped last minute for this PAC proposal which according to their own administration now “is still in the initial planning phase and at least of some of the ideas such a movie theater or a rooftop green space are just ideas. Fundraisers like Sandy Parker, the former CEO of the Rochester Chamber of Commerce, need a concept to work with, Yudelson said.”
Warren wanted a flashy press conference for her campaign to announce something that would get everyone excited. The problem is that it was all flash and no substance, as we have clearly seen. Outside of Golisano’s money, there is no funding. This does nothing to help the arts community as a whole, and without any secondary uses, will be empty more often than it’s used.
Oh and there is the whole Morgan piece not mentioned here. Kind of an issue when one of the main financial pieces of the project is under federal investigation. No big deal though right? We’re fine. Nothing to see here.
The AMS consultant visit should only confirm what was clear in my mind about Parcel 5 already – this has the potential of doing great damage to smaller established venues, and create issues for other artistic companies needing spaces to thrive in what is definitely a great city for the arts.
And yet the current administration wants to push another Auditorium-like theater down the city’s collective throat, with little or no money raised (save for Tom Golisano’s contribution) and with the whole planning process being more than just “opaque” – it is practically being done with little to no knowledge to give to the public, with no need for public discourse since any public disagreement with the project will likely be swept under the proverbial rug.
The consultant can state Rochester would see a “bump” in business with the new theater, but that bump will just be a metaphorical bump in the road – small when it hits you, and ultimately means nothing.
I applaud the RPO, RCB, Blackfriars, Downstairs Cabaret, the RMSC, Geva and the Strong Museum for expressing their need in helping other artists establish themselves, because if Rochester is going to be a true city of the arts and for the arts, those artists should have the support they need. But they will not find it from the current administration and those who support the RBTL project – they are way too invested in the one-stop shop that is the new theater, and it will be a loss for the entire Rochester arts community if it goes up.