EVERETT — A controversy pitting a proposed children’s theater against a new parking garage in downtown Everett took a new twist Wednesday.
As the city tries to get a children’s theater built in an empty bank building, downtown developer Arthur Skotdal presented the City Council with a plan to build a new building for the theater, and a new parking garage, without costing taxpayers a cent.
“We could build this without using anyone’s tax dollars,” said Skotdal, who suggested that the city finance the project with reserves from an existing city garage and low-interest municipal bonds.
At Wednesday’s council meeting, Skotdal said leasing spaces would produce plenty of revenue for the city to retire debt for the garage.
City planners figure downtown will need a new parking garage in the next three to five years in order to keep pace with increasing demand and to make up for spaces lost to development.
Council members thanked Skotdal for his suggestion, then voted 4-1 to continue with existing plans for the site, which includes spending more than $4 million to fix up the former Key Bank building, which it owns, at Wetmore and California avenues, and to construct an adjacent plaza.
Councilman Ron Gipson was the lone dissenter and wanted the council to consider Skotdal’s proposal. With the economy lagging, the city should watch its spending and look for ways to partner with private business to pay for things it wants, he said.
Late last year, Mayor Ray Stephanson signed a memorandum of understanding with Village Theatre to move its year-round Kidstage program into the old bank building.
Since 1998, Village Theatre has managed the 518-seat city-owned Everett Performing Arts Center, which shares a block with the proposed plaza and children’s theater.
When the arts center was designed nearly two decades ago, it was oriented on the site to face what city officials hoped would one day become an outdoor plaza.
The Issaquah-based theater company said it would lease the old bank building for $48,000 a year if the city would agree to do seismic retrofitting, install a new sprinkler system and make the building handicapped accessible.
For its part, Village Theatre would spend about $1 million building a 170-seat children’s theater, classrooms, rehearsal space and a coffee bar connecting to the outdoor public plaza.
Moving the Kidstage program would free up leasable space at the performing arts center.
Councilwoman Brenda Stonecipher, a staunch advocate for the children’s theater idea, said Skotdal’s proposal comes too late.
“I believe this train has left the station and nobody got onboard,” she said.
Stonecipher, an accountant, founded Pied Piper Productions, which merged with Village Theatre in 2001.
She held a nonpaying position on Village Theatre’s board of directors for four years until shortly before the city unveiled plans for the children’s theatre, and she acknowledges lobbying for the group at City Hall.
Councilman Mark Olson, who has voted in favor of the deal with Village Theatre, also volunteered on the nonprofit theater’s board until shortly before the children’s theater idea was voted on.
Councilman Paul Roberts also voted for the proposal. His wife, a choreographer, was paid at least $1,500 from Village Theatre for work on productions since his term began in 2002, according to documents filed with the state Public Disclosure Commission.
Stonecipher said the city was faced with the prospect of demolishing the old bank building if it couldn’t find a suitable tenant.
The Kidstage program in Everett serves about 1,000 students a year. Theater officials say they expect the number would grow to 1,500 students if it can move to a new building.
If the city decided not to refurbish the Key Bank building, demolition and redesigning the plaza would still cost the city close to $1 million, she said.
“It’s almost a wash,” she said.
Skotdal, whose company owns two office buildings next to the site, collected dozens of signatures from downtown business owners this spring for a petition asking the city to reconsider its plans.
Those who signed the petition include several volunteers with the struggling Historic Everett Theatre, which owns a 107-year-old iconic theater building on Colby Avenue. The community theater group has offered Village Theater rehearsal and classroom space for its Kidstage program.
Skotdal Real Estate for years has suggested to the city that the site, in the heart of downtown close to shopping and Comcast Arena, is ideal for an underground parking garage.
Olson said pulling the rug out from the plaza and children’s theater plan would be a mistake. The city has already committed more than $400,000 for design work on the plaza and theater and Village Theatre says it has committed nearly $140,000 for the project.
The theater also has applied for state arts funding for the program and has been told that its prospects for funding are good.
Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.
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