Greater Sudbury will have to set aside $5 million over three years for its portion of the Place des Arts project, one of the big projects city council voted to support last November.
The $30-million Place des Arts is an arts and cultural space that would be built downtown at the corner of Larch and Elgin Street.
“It aims to be a gathering place that provides professional space for various arts and community purposes,” says a staff report on the project headed to city council Tuesday.
In addition to the Place des arts, councillors voted in November to support plans for a new art gallery/main library, arena and events centre and the Synergy centre. The staff report warns that providing city funding for all of them may not be possible.
“These four projects represent millions of dollars in funding contribution requested of the municipality, over and above the city’s own capital and infrastructure investments required over the next several years,” the report says. “A contribution of $5 million to the Place des arts project may prompt the deferral of the other three large capital projects, or limit the extent of other investments towards these projects by the municipality.”
The five-storey building would total 60,000 square feet, divided into a 300-seat performance hall, workshops, galleries, studios, rehearsal spaces, a bistro and a boutique, along with both permanent and temporary administrative offices for the seven founding member organizations and other tenants, respectively.
“As part of its feasibility study, Place des arts has selected as its preferred site a municipally owned parking lot, which is estimated to be worth $600,000,” the report says. “This site runs along the west side of Elgin Street from Medina Lane to Larch Street. The organization has requested that the city make the land available for the centre’s development in time for construction to begin in spring 2018.”
In addition to the land and the $5 million, the city is also being asked to provide $200,000 a year for operating costs, as well as forgoing $55,000 in annual revenue the parking lot currently brings in.
The project is dependent on getting funds from higher levels of government, and the report recommends making the city's contribution conditional on the project getting funding from other governments.
Once complete, however, the report said a business case prepared for the project concluded the facility will have a strong support.
“The occupancy analysis … projects an average of 250 days of occupancy per year for the various venues,” the report says. “This forecast is based on current and historic levels of programming activity for each of the constituent members. Additional one-off rentals would generate further revenue for the facility.
“The projections indicate that in Year 1 of operations, earned revenues will account for 65 per cent of the budget, increasing to 70 per cent by Year 5, with assumption made that the remainder would be subsidized by public funding of $200,000 per year from the municipality, together with provincial and federal funding. Its revenue model hinges on the organization’s ability to fill the rental calendar as much as possible, which means partnering with outside users.”
