Louisville, Lafayette, get behind Arts Village

The developers of the Arts Village Colorado project are starting the year with a fresh vision and a mandate from the communities of Louisville, Lafayette and Broomfield to move forward.

Originally known as East County Arts Alive, the project recently changed its name to reflect the broader scope of its planned impact on communities in Boulder and Broomfield counties.

Last March, the nonprofit organization completed a $50,000 professional feasibility study that was prepared by Carter & Burgess Inc. and Leland Consulting Group, which analyzed the local performing arts market and financial feasibility, and Webb Management Services from New York, which specializes in professional theater management. The study determined there is a resounding interest for a performing arts and cultural center in this area.

?I think there are a lot of groups that have been frustrated by the fact that there are no real community theaters around here,? said Erik Hartonft of Hartronft Fauri Architects, who sits on the project’s board of directors. ?As more people got involved in understanding some of the issues and realizing that there is a void for any venues, it became a question of how we go about providing these kinds of facilities for the arts.?

While similar venues, such as the Arvada Center, are heavily subsidized by the communities where they are located, it quickly became apparent to the developers that a single community could not support a venture of this size.

?People don’t want to feel compelled to support the arts through a significant tax bite. Those same people, though, will agree that the arts are a good thing, and that they contribute to a vibrant quality of life,? said Tom Hogue, a member of the Lafayette city council. ?I think what we’re learning now is that the arts are one of the engines to economic growth.?

With support from Lafayette, Louisville, Broomfield and the University of Colorado, the board has proceeded with the idea of a combination of public and private support between the cities, educational institutions and corporate sponsors.

?It has to be more of a private venture than a public venture,? Hartronft said. ?It’s going to need some public support but certainly nobody went into this thinking that one of these communities was going to build it and run it.?

This year will be significant. The organization will proceed with a number of steps including drafting an intergovernmental agreement between cities, selecting a site, beginning a public relations campaign and starting the fund-raising process. The organization is currently trying to raise $300,000 to get through the pre-planning stage.

Initial concepts for the estimated 10- to 20-acre Arts Village include a $30 million, 84,000-square-foot performing arts center located at the heart of the $100 million development, with an operating budget around $700,000 annually. The remaining area would be devoted to complementary retail, office and industrial space housing such facilities as recording studios, set-building shops or studios.

The location of the arts village is one of the primary factors in determining what the design of the arts village will look like.

?It would certainly have advantages and disadvantages for whatever community hosts this development,? Hartronft said. ?Louisville and Lafayette have very different attitudes toward growth and development, and also different opportunities. You need to be tied in with transportation, and the infrastructure needs to be there to support it.? The latest city to join the project was Broomfield, which also is under consideration.

?I think it’s a work in progress,? said Broomfield Mayor Karen Stuart. ?I suspect that the design will be specified by wherever the land is and the configuration of acreage and access. I imagine, though, that it will have quite a bit of flexibility just from the concept.?

Hogue believes the Arts Village Colorado project will be a model for many future developments.

?I think if we can pull this off — and I think we can — it’s how a lot of civic projects will take place in the future,? Hogue said. ?It’s going to become the standard that you mix projects together, whether it’s an arts center or a senior center or some other civic use. That’s going to be the new way that these types of projects get paid for and how development goes forward.?

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