New Art Space Funding

[Edrick]

We're in the planning stages to secure a building and funding to create a Center for the Arts. I was wondering if you guys had any specifics you could recommend for looking into Federal, State, or Private Grants for Historic Buildings and the Arts.

Basically the idea for the space is to renovate an old Armory in town which is a 40,000 square foot space. The front of the building which is the historic section is 2 stories I believe plus a basement level. We'd like to renovate that space back to its prime and use the first floor as a historic museum along with office space for the center. The second floor would be used for classrooms where we'd like to teach things like Vocal Lessons, Acting, Sculpting, Painting, etc...

The rear part of the building which is the largest section is not registered as a historic part as such we're looking to remove it and build in a performance venue. A few hundred seats, maybe 500 at the most.

If any of you have suggestions it'd be greatly appreciated. So to start off with questions.

What is usually the best method of formation?
a) Your own Non-Profit organization.
b) A non-profit associated with a larger Art Organization in the sate.
c) For Profit
d) Other suggestion or mix of the two.

What would be some good locations to research for funding?

What order of operation should we do, should we create up an idea for the space and figure out an approximate construction budget, or look for the budgeting first.

As of right now the building we're looking for is privately owned, and the city has deemed it a public nuisense (spelling) and wants action taken.

The issue right now is we're kind of dead in the water on which action to take first. Secure funding, Secure a Location, Secure a Design.

So any help would be appreciated.

 

[museav]

Before any real design and probably before any funding you may have to do a feasibility study. Be it a bank loan or private or public grant or whatever, they may want to see something that shows how the venue will be a viable entity. Part of that may be looking at estimated costs but other aspects may include assessing potential audiences, possible competing venues, potential indirect benefit to the area and community and proposed income and funding sources. You'll probably also have to look at things like zoning, what may be necessary to bring the site up to code (for example, is there sufficient parking for the planned occupancy) and so on. You may have trouble getting funding, zoning approval, permits, etc. without a viable business plan even if it is a non-profit.

Historic buildings can get you some funding and/or some variances as well, but that can also come with many restrictions and lots of red tape. And being old does not make a building historic, factors such as being on the National Register of Historic Places or recognized by a State Historic Preservation Office may make it historic in terms of grants or funding. However, that does not mean that local Historic Preservation committees or groups may not have a great deal of say regarding any plans.

Having been involved in some adaptive reuse of historic buildings into arts centers, the new uses are so different and codes related to some of them so comprehensive that it often becomes a matter of virtually gutting many portions of the building. That's especially true if you run into lead, asbestos, etc. At least your theatre space would be new, so that should help.

Apparently Somerville, MA has an Armory that has been converted into an arts center (Home). I don't know if they'd be a possible resource to provide some guidance or instead see you as potential competition for funding and business.

Would this happen to be the Woburn Armory? From what I can find about that, it seems like that would be taking on a major project. The press reports say not only does the existing main building have major problems after sitting empty for 14 years, but apparently the current owners have to have a plan presented for the property in less than 3 weeks. And apparently several previous proposed plans have been turned down for various reasons.

 

[Edrick]

We've been in contact with the Alderman who is actively involved in this. Along with the Historic Commissioner and Historic Society. As far as city folk go we're pretty well connected and have the ear of many people. But the issue now is with where to actually start the process.

The building is registered historic and only the front part is required to be kept. The rear of the building is not. The big issue is parking which is why previous plans have been canned.

The issue is we don't want to focus all our starting efforts on that building. The building is only a proposed space. We'd happily take what we can get. Which is where the confusion sets in is where to specifically start.

 

[Footer]

It sounds like you got the first part done, that being having support in local goverment. Having an Alderman on board is huge. Right now is the time to put together a committee of prominent people in the area or spouses of prominent people. Preferably spouses of prominent people that have nothing to do..... or what we like to call doctors/lawyers wives. Having a commitee is really the first big step. After that, they can get the papers drawn up to be a proper non-profit and get the ball rolling on studies and all the kind of stuff. They will hopefully kick in some of their money to hire a grant writer who can start applying for grants. Don't worry about the building now or what everything will be like in the end. What you need now is to get everyone in one room, get a mission together, get some starter cash, and then go from there. Odds are a local lawyer will donate some time to get papers drawn up. Maybe an local architect will help draw up prelim plans and help with usage studies. But for now... get people talking together.

 

[museav]

As far as I can tell just from what I can find online, any modifications to or work on the Woburn Armory has to be coordinated with the State and local historic preservation groups but I cannot find that is is in the National Register of Historic Places, so someone getting the ball rolling on applying for that status might be one avenue to pursue. That might also impact what the City can do, since it seems that some public officials do want to tear the building down.

It looks like the feasible approaches may be somewhat driven by the situation. The way I read it is that the property is currently privately owned after being purchased from the State some years ago. The City, which as you note apparently rejected several earlier proposed plans, has apparently given the current Owners until 1/5/11 to come up with a plan for the property. It also seems the property is currently in very poor condition and considered a potential health and fire risk. Because of all that, I would think the City would be looking for someone who can not only present a good plan for the possible long term use, but who would also be able to have or have a plan for the short term funding necessary to address the purchase of the property and mitigatory efforts to make it safe and prevent further deterioration. And with the 1/5/11 deadline short term may mean very quickly.

Because of that, I'm not sure that starting to put together a group now is viable even if it is a popular idea. You may have to quickly find someone with deep pockets who can commit, either directly or through a group you form, to fronting the initial costs necessary to acquire and stabilize the property. Then you could have time to work on the funding and design related to the actual restoration, adaptation and construction. That is essentially what one group here did for an abandoned theatre, they got initial funding to purchase and patch up the building and then took several years to develop the final plans and gain the funding for the related restoration and renovation.

Another possible option if you have enough support in the City Council would be to get them to fund the project. I worked on a project where the City purchased two adjacent properties, one a closed old bank and the other a closed cinema, and turned them into an arts center. The justification for the City doing this was not only giving a home for numerous local arts groups and artists but also drawing business into the downtown area after normal business hours, thus generating both direct and indirect financial benefits for the City. Maybe you could work on putting together a similar proposal to show why the city should invest in such an idea here.

 

[Edrick]

That's correct the city has demanded action (more specifically the alderman brought it up to the city and demanded action). The alderman however has given them until April before he pushes for a demolishment of the building. At which point we've been assured by the Historic Commissioner that they will move in to delay the process up to a year under their power. The Commissioner in this case is the government entity for the city. Where as our Historic Society would be the one we would go to, to help raise capital and would help with the actual development idea as they're just a private group of people in the city.

The biggest risk right now I would say as far as the building goes is that the owners devise a plan to turn the building into something private or not really beneficial to the community. Such as their idea to turn it into apartments. As far as entering into a relationship with the city to purchase the building the idea isn't off the table but I've been told it is highly un likely we can enter into a "Private / Public" relationship because of the funding in the city. Basically right now the Library is trying to gain funds for a 25 million dollar addition. Only 5 million of which the city is willing to spend. So the idea isn't necessarily out the door. But it's not a highly probability. I've sent over a letter to a local person here who ran / was part of the Woburn Community Theater Group to see if he might be interested on joining in on the project.

Keep the ideas coming and I'll keep you guys updated. One way or another we plan to make this happen even if it takes a long time.

 

[museav]

I'm going by published reports and records, but according to this, Woburn Armory declared 'public nuisance' - Woburn, MA - Woburn Advocate, in the 10/5/10 meeting the City Council declared the property a public musicance but decided to give the current owners 90 days to come up with a plan. The November 16, 2010 City Council Meeting minutes (http://ma-woburn.civicplus.com/archives/30/Extended%20Agenda%20November%2016,%202010.pdf) includes a communication from the City Solicitor that seems to confirm the 90 day delay in determining what action will be taken.

That same communication appears to discuss two options for the City; demolition and assumption of the property by Eminent Domain. The opinion voiced seems to be that the Historic Commission could not necessarily prevent or delay demolition of the structures deemed a nuisance or risk. It also seems to indicate that using Eminent Domain would require both the City paying fair market value for the property and designating it for public use.

I'm sure the City would be thrilled to see another viable option, but currently it sort of looks like the current Owner has until 1/3/2010, less than twenty days from now, to present an acceptable plan or the City will likely either take the property by Eminent Domain and designate it for public use or resolve to demolish the building, with the Historic issues not seen as being a roadblock to the latter. Your only chance to introduce another option or get a further delay would seem to be at the 12/21/2010 or possibly the 1/3/2010 council meetings. That is not much time to put together and present a good plan or to get much funding commitment.

 

[Edrick]

Hey,

Thanks for the links I'll review them and contact the people to see. But from what the Alderman said (he's the one that pushed for this date, he's giving them until April before he actually takes action). But I'll defiantly contact him again for further clarification. I'm meeting with my friend / partner sometime this weekend to get together more details and see what we can come up with for a plan.

 

[museav]

There certainly could be other factors involved, for example there may be required public response period before they can vote on an action, to which the 90 days would then be added, or a period between voting for demolition and any actual demolition occurring during which they may entertain other options (although once a contract for demolition is signed they would be at risk for that).

Two aspects of this situation that might differ from many others are that even with an April date you seem to have a limited time to put something together and there are probably going to be some larger investments required upfront in order to address the concerns of the condition of the property. Since it has already been declared a public nuisance and people are on record as to the potential risks, just changing ownership or having a general plan for the property will not change those aspects. The City Council will probably want to see a plan that will address the public safety issues immediately, including how the associated funding would be obtained. So that's likely one area on which to focus.

You might also want to consider that prior attempts for the property included a 25 unit apartment complex that was apparently rejected due to parking and other concerns from neighboring residents. This likely means that you may have to be sure to address those same issues for your planned use that includes a 500 seat performance space. Think along the lines of things like identifying where 250+ cars might park without negatively impacting the nearby properties. And even better, how this might potentially benefit the City, County or other businesses. The theatre restoration I mentioned earlier benefited from having a County owned parking deck right across the street, which meant they could present the potential of additional income for the County via the parking deck that was normally almost empty after normal business hours.

 

[museav]

Have you had any luck getting better definition of the situation and how you may proceed? I'm interested to see how this turns out, projects like this can be very challenging but also lots of fun and very rewarding.

 

[Edrick]

As it stands right now we still have the same information as to it's purpose. Right now were in the process of forming our "mission statement" and general information to create the structure and work on getting some more connected people to form the board I'm looking foward to a good amount of progress being made this up coming month and will continue to keep you guys updated.

 

[Edrick]

Still at a stand still, been getting advice from people and have a growing list of influential people to contact or that love the idea. However at this point it's a matter of us (Me and my partner that are working on this) getting everything created into a package of sorts, with our mission statement, what we need, how we're planning on doing it. I did get a chance to actually look at the exterior of the space which is giving me some ideas for what we could do.

The biggest problem is my partner has asked that I don't contact the property owners yet as she'd like to do that. Only problem with that is she hasn't done it almost three weeks later. Let me tell you as I'm sure many of you know when you work on major projects. It is absolutely critical that you have someone there to share in the long hours, endless piles of work, and insane loops you have to go through. But at certain points you want to knock them over the head. So here's to hoping for some progress I'm going to be pushing more this week to get things done.

If anyone has suggestions though for Grants, or Organizations I should be in contact with for the arts that'd be great.

 

[derekleffew]

Try looking in the History area on other similar venue's websites.

From North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie - History :

The facility was conceived in the mid 1980’s when Dorothy Litwin (former Executive Director of Centre East) applied to the State of Illinois for funding under the “Build Illinois Program”. The Village of Skokie supported the project as an economic stimulus to the area and as a cultural asset to the community. The Centre East Metropolitan, Exposition, Auditorium and Office Building Authority was then created by the State of Illinois as the owner of the new performing arts center. The Village of Skokie appoints six of the nine members of the Authority aboard and Niles Township appoints three members. Professional Facilities Management (PFM) has managed the NSCPAS since its opening.

The NSCPAS was constructed at a cost of $18 million. The State of Illinois contributed $13.2 million and the Village of Skokie $3.4 million. The remaining construction funds were contributed by the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Foundation and other private donors. Northlight Theatre raised additional dollars for the build-out of its namesake theatre.

PlayhouseSquare :: History :

The planners formed a group known as the “Playhouse Square Association,” which gained formal non-profit status in 1970. Led by a dynamic visionary named Raymond K. Shepardson, the association launched a vigorous grass-roots campaign to save the theaters.

The Levoy Theatre Restoration Financing Package Explained.
(In light of recent developments, this particular project is either going to need A LOT more money, or will have a large surplus if the project doesn't continue.)

 

[Edrick]

Thanks I'll give that a shot, one of my concerns is we'd like to do some research around the area. Talk to other community theater programs or play groups, but my biggest concern is that they'll think we're trying to compete with them. As others who do run or are involved in the daily operation of a venue what is your feeling if someone was to ask you how you started, and how things are working, if the person asking those questions is also working to create a center for the arts.

Do you view it as for the good of the arts and helping spread the word, or them being a potential to take away the few volunteers that they have?

 

[museav]

Still at a stand still, been getting advice from people and have a growing list of influential people to contact or that love the idea.

This reminded me of an experience I had with an influential person and all I'll say is to keep in mind that some people may say and do whatever they feel best serves them at that time. Getting people to publicly back the idea or to make a firm commitment to it may be more difficult but also much more valuable.

As far as talking to other local groups and venues, I think that could certianly help strengthen your presentation and planning in terms of supporting how what you plan supports potential users and relates to other providers. One of the first steps of any good business plan s to identify the market and its needs. Identifying specific potential users such as existing performance troupes or private instructional providers that have no home or place to perform would help support the need for such a venue.

The next step is often identifying existing entities serving those identified or related markets. How any other venues or arts groups perceive your contact may depend greatly on how directly they view your potentially competing with them in terms of funding, product and audience, especially if they are already fighting for their own pieces of those. That's where part of your effort may be assessing how much you want to directly compete with or work around existing facilities and groups. You're probably going to get more suppf you have a way fo working with them but y find it difficult to justfy the project without competing with some of them.

You may already be doing this, but keep in mind that while much of the cost may be greatly related to the actual physical construction and operation, much of the justification for some of the funding may depend more on what it has to offer to the community. So while some funding, especially commercial or bank funding, may be based solely on the impact on the potential property value and the physical facility, other sources of funding will likely be much more dependent upon what it will do and offer.

Here are sites for two of the projects I previously mentioned, Averitt Center for the Arts - Home and The Strand Theatre. The first one was an effort by the city and you may note that they actually serve as the disburser for some state arts grant funds.

 

[Edrick]

This reminded me of an experience I had with an influential person and all I'll say is to keep in mind that some people may say and do whatever they feel best serves them at that time. Getting people to publicly back the idea or to make a firm commitment to it may be more difficult but also much more valuable.

One thing I've learned over the past few months is this is defiantly true. As some of you may know I had attempted to help the students at my past high school and have been fighting with the school administration to get the needs of the teachers and students heard. At this point it basically has turned into the Theater program just hiring me to work directly under them to help the students without support from the administration. As such I was speaking with the Woodshop instructor, who said you're on your own if your sink ships you're taking your self down with it. I will not support you, I will not help you if anything happens I want nothing to do with it.

It was interesting to hear him say this since I was there to help the students and could care less and I'm not there to fight anything or create some agenda. Due to a previous student that had burned their bridges issues have arisen. So one thing I've learned is people defiantly are looking out for them and their butts. They'll only support you when it benefits them.


One of my plans is to go around to the different people in the community and shoot a video, wether it's business owners of the local area or just regular people who would be audience members and get their feedback and input. I'd also like to shoot some video of what the building currently looks like and hire a CG artist to create a representation of what we invision the building looking like. So I'd like to create a say 15 minute video that can be shown that includes our then formed board of directors and who they are, along with what the purpose of the building is, then the opinions of the local citizens.

 

[Edrick]

Just got some design comps in from my graphics guy. Let me know which one you guys like or if you have any suggestions.

http://edricksmith.com/WoburnCFTPA_Logo_Explorations01.pdf

Once we decide on a typeface he'll work on colors and such. I like the two to the left so he's going to work on refining them some more.

Updated logo compositions
http://edricksmith.com/WoburnCFTPA_Logo_05.pdf

 

[museav]

One of my plans is to go around to the different people in the community and shoot a video, wether it's business owners of the local area or just regular people who would be audience members and get their feedback and input. I'd also like to shoot some video of what the building currently looks like and hire a CG artist to create a representation of what we invision the building looking like. So I'd like to create a say 15 minute video that can be shown that includes our then formed board of directors and who they are, along with what the purpose of the building is, then the opinions of the local citizens.

If the idea is to show this to the public or potential investors then 15 minutes may be too long. You may want to consider having a 5 minute or shorter version as well, maybe something that could also be accessed on the website.

You might also want to see if you can get any local celebrities tied in, especially those in the arts. The Strand Theatre I linked benefited greatly from the active participation and support of Joanne Woodward, who lived in the area for part of her childhood.

 

[Edrick]

We've actually got a list of people from Woburn that we'll be contacting. One of them is Nick Paliogas a Director and another is an actor from one of those crime shows. If you guys have any feedback about the logo that'd be a great help too.

Here's a PDF copy of the Assessors Database listing for the property.

http://edricksmith.com/Armory.pdf

The front historic part of the building measures 94 W x 40 L with three floors (Basement, First, Second)
The back end addition is 82 W x 121 L with two floors (Basement and First)
Then a small back nub that's 50 W x unknown L with two floors (Basement and First)

 

[Edrick]

Latest logo batch

http://edricksmith.com/WoburnCFTPA_Logo_06.pdf

Photos: