Backers trying again for Estes Park performing-arts center

ESTES PARK — Yet another audition for a plan to build a performing arts center in Estes Park got mixed reviews from critics on the Estes Park Board of Trustees Tuesday night.

Tim Phillips, who heads the 67-year-old Fine Arts Guild of the Rockies, gave trustees an energetic presentation about the potential cultural and economic benefits of what he called the Encore! Center for the Creative Arts, which would be built along U.S. Highway 36 on the east edge of Estes Park. The site in Stanley Park would be located just southwest of the new roundabout at U.S. 36 and Community Drive, just west of the highway’s crossing of Lake Estes.

Phillips said the facility would include a 300-seat main auditorium, a 100-seat cabaret theater, gallery space and an “Inner Sanctum,” what he described as an “immersive art experience.”

“We’re one of the few communities that doesn’t have a dedicated space for the performing arts,” Phillips said.

Trustee Bill Brown noted the Stanley Hotel’s plan to construct a film center that could lure the Sundance Film Festival and asked, “Do we need two major facilities like this? Would there be sufficient demand?” Phillips responded that the facility at the Stanley would be “more focused on music and film, not live theater.”

His proposal marks advocates’ third try in less than a decade to get a performing arts center off the ground in the tourism-dependent village at the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park.

• In 2016, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit called Estes Performance Inc. (EPIC) proposed to build a 768-seat theater, a 20-room boutique hotel, a restaurant and rooftop bar and a glass atrium extending across Fall River on a downtown site that had been the site of the Park Center Mall before it burned to the ground in 2009. However, Robert Hinkle, the town’s fairgrounds and events director, reminded trustees Tuesday night that “EPIC decided that wasn’t the best spot.” 
• Last March, as the town weighed options for a nearly 2-acre parcel it owns along Moraine Avenue at Elm Road near the entrance to the national park, Phillips floated the idea of locating a performing arts center there.

The current plan for Encore would utilize 4-5 acres, which is 10% to 12% of the property available at the Stanley Park Events Complex.

Since a Stanley Park Master Plan was crafted in 2019, “the business has evolved in different directions,” Phillips noted. “Larger events such as Frozen Dead Guy Days, Skijoring and national and regional specialty dog shows use more of the property, and “parking has become a problem because of the growing horse shows and larger trailers.”

Phillips pointed out that even though Frozen Dead Guy Days and Skijor have been added to boost the town’s economy during the off-season, “most of our other entertainment venues are outdoors and shut down in bad weather. We’re proposing a daily experience year-round that people can come in and enjoy.”

As for parking, he added, “when is that parking lot used? June to August. That same window is when the school district is out of session.” So the Stanley Park lots would be largely free for Encore Center patrons the rest of the year, and during the busy summer season, the nearby Estes Park High School parking lot could be used, with shuttles carrying visitors to the performing arts center.

That high school lot has been used during Frozen Dead Guy Days’ first two seasons, with students using parking fees as a fundraiser for school activities.

A community survey was conducted from Sept. 17 to Oct. 4 by Design Concepts and had 376 respondents. Results were made available in November 2024. A plurality of respondents cited a performing arts center as something that was missing in Estes Park that could be provided at the Stanley Park complex. Those opposed to the plan cited the financial risk to the town, the previous failed attempts and the impact on other activities at the complex, with one detractor noting that “cowboys and fine art don’t mix.”

Phillips challenged that assumption, citing the paintings and illustrations of Frederic Remington and other artists who depicted scenes from the Old West.

Invoking facilities such as Meow Wolf in Denver, Phillips said the “immersive” nature of the center’s proposed “Inner Sanctum” would cater to changing trends in how art is consumed and the rise in “cultural travel.”

“Experiential art encourages the visitor to take selfies {and} to interject themselves into the art they are viewing,” Phillips’ presentation said. “They are able to not only be a part of their own experience but are able to simultaneously share their experiences with friends, family and, for what it’s worth, the rest of the world in real time.”

He said the global market for immersive experiences is growing rapidly, reaching an estimated value of $180 billion by 2026, and cited surveys that said 24% of American travelers are planning an immersive art experience on vacation this year, including 52% of those aged 18 to 24.

Noting that his proposal has received letters of support from other arts organizations and the Estes Chamber of Commerce, Phillips said revenue from a 5% fee added to ticket prices at Encore “could be put back into building horse barns and other infrastructure needs” at the events complex.

He said the Fine Arts Guild isn’t asking for money from the town, but only use of the space, and “we’d like to see a 100-year lease.”

Phillips estimated that the center’s backers would need to raise $20 million to $25 million over five years to build the facility, a figure that could rise because “we’re losing a lot of our labor force being sent out of the country” through President Donald Trump’s proposed mass deportation of undocumented immigrants.

Although supportive of the concept, Mayor Gary Hall asked Phillips, “How long would the town have to hold that space? How much would you have to raise in that time to know you’re going to get over the top and build this thing?”

To raise that much money, Phillips said he’s been told, “If you don’t get it in five years, you’re not going to get it. But we should be able to break ground once we get 70% to 75% of the money we need. A lot of investors and donors want to ‘wait and see,’” he added, and if they can be shown construction under way, “that’s when the last 25% comes in.”

Trustees Brown and Mark Igel have yet to be won over, however. Brown asked the board, “Are we willing to commit to five years or whatever we come up with? How certain are we that we’re not going to have to come in and subsidize this?” And Igel, who had been a fierce and vocal critic of the now-completed Downtown Estes Loop, added, “I’m concerned about encumbering the town’s facilities” and “don’t feel comfortable subsidizing it with the town’s space.”

Town staff will draft an ordinance to be considered at a future Board of Trustees regular meeting.

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