On Tuesday, the Greensboro City Council voted to amend its agreement with the long-gestating Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts.
The decision means the city will take on more debt to fund the venue's completion, and it restructures the way it gives back to local arts organizations.
WFDD's Sean Bueter talked to Greensboro News and Record reporter Joe Killian about the amendments.
Killian says because of cost overruns, the project's budget came up more than ten million dollars short. So Tanger – and the city – had to make changes.
Interview Highlights
On what the council agreed to during Tuesday's vote:
“They came to them with the plan that the city would kick in some more bond debt – about $9.6 million more – and they would pay that off with VIP parking that they'll charge for at the center, and also new ticket fees. It was going to be a $3.00 fee on top of tickets. Now it's going to be a $4.00 fee on top of that.”
On raising ticket fees and reappropriating the portion of those fees that would have supported local arts groups. Some projections showed giving a portion of the fees to those groups would be more profitable to the arts community than the new plan:
“To sort of assuage the arts groups that were planning on getting a dollar per ticket sold at the Tanger Center, they're now going to give them $120,000 annually from the Tanger Center's actual budget, which they're planning to pay for through sponsorships and other things that haven't been appropriated yet.”
On when the city can finally cut the ribbon on the Tanger Center:
“If everything goes to plan, they're saying it's going to be 2018. This planning process has been longer than anticipated. It's also included a lot more people. They've drawn in a really large group of community people and fundraisers and people who have given money to do this, and it's made the process slow and a little more laborious. But at the same time, they think they're going to get a better project.”