Performing Arts Center Granted More Time on Land Reservation

By Emily Darrell, 11-20-07

At a Missoula City Council meeting Monday night Mayor John Engen provided a piece of news, and cast a tie-breaking vote, which may have changed the fate of the Missoula Community Performing Arts Center (MCPAC).

Engen’s eleventh hour revelation—that he’d spoken with a private developer that morning who expressed interest in investing in the arts center—came as a shock to some council members.

“I have absolutely nothing formal to give you today,” Engen said to the council. However, Engen urged council members to “leave a door open” for the MCPAC.

“Postponement is a relatively simple piece of business,” Engen said.

Two hours of council debate and public comment later, the council voted to postpone until March 1, 2008 the decision on whether to extend a land reservation on a 60,000 square foot of Missoula’s Riverfront Triangle development site to the MCPAC for another 18 months.

MCPAC has had a reservation on the piece of land at Orange and Front Streets for four years—long enough, many council members felt, for the MCPAC board to have found the $20 million dollars in private donations that it needs to get the project off the ground.

Last Wednesday, after a long presentation by MCPAC board member Jim Valeo, the City Council’s Administration and Finance Committee rejected, 9-3, a motion to extend the land reservation. Since all 12 council members were present at Wednesday’s vote, it seemed likely that the vote would go the same way Monday night.

However, some council members were clearly conflicted after hearing Engen’s request, and when councilman Dave Strohmeier made a substitute motion for postponing the decision, many seemed uncertain on how to proceed.

Councilwoman Stacy Rye remained convinced that the Council should deny the land reservation.“We’ve been working on this for four years,” Rye said. “I think we should deal with this tonight.”

Rye said that even without the reservation the MCPAC could still come up with the funds it needs and follow through with the project. While Engen said that it would be possible, he emphasized that “a vote ‘no’ tonight does not help their [the MCPAC] position.”

Without the land reservation, which signifies the city’s support for the endeavor, the MCPAC believes it would be much more difficult to convince a private donor to invest in center.

Councilman Dick Haines said he wants the land to be appraised and sold as soon as possible, so that the city can use the money for other needed projects, such as a new police station. “The city needs to convert that piece of property to cash,” Haines said.

The total price tag on the performing arts center is estimated at $60 million dollars—$40 million to come from private donations and $20 million from Missoula County taxpayers in the form of a bond.

Even the council members who voted to postpone their decision, remained skeptical that enough private donations can be found and also that the county will approve a $20 million bond.

However, after public comment by many members of the Missoula arts community—many of whom urged the council to “dream big” and to “have vision”—the decision was made to keep the hope alive, if only for a few more months.

Councilwoman Marilyn Marler, who voted to postpone the reservation decision, said: “I do think the whole [project] is really quite a long shot, but I think it’s too important for us to rush our decision.”