"That's still the biggest boondoggle I ever saw."
Louise Slaughter raised the concern over a year ago: how will Renaissance Square pay for itself? Now those concerns are popping up again as Monroe County leaders discovered that the $18 million they thought the state had set aside for Ren. Square was actually doled out to individual performing arts uses around Rochester. This also at a time that the community grows more skeptical that the performing arts center and bus terminal will be able to support themselves without annual government subsidies. Slaughter saw this coming over a year ago:
"They're not going to have enough money to operate the thing, and they're going to have to go begging from the city and county governments, and I hate to see it coming. There was so much they could've done. They could've redone Sibley's old department store there into a bus station. And they could've had restrooms and places to come in off the street and to stage people off of Main Street, not piling everybody there like they're going to. It wouldn't have cost much of anything. But they wouldn't hear it. And the reason is that the contractors run the place."
I have always been a supporter of the project, but lately I am growing more skeptical that the thing will ever be built - at least the way it was originally envisioned. There just seem to be so many factors that have held up progress. Since the federal government agreed to pay for part of the project, it must approve the plans. They are in the process of doing that right now. Until the County gets that approval, it cannot start private fundraising. With the recent announcement of Midtown Plaza's demolition, the city may decide it wants to keep its Mortimer St. parking garage - that decision will be made pending the outcome of a parking study that is either already underway or will be shortly. If the city decides not to tear it down, as originally planned, the layout for the bus terminal and performing arts center will have to be modified - costing more time and money.
But even the concept of a performing arts center is up in the air. The original concept called for three to four separate venues of various sizes to serve different types of local performing groups. Then it seemed that it would probably be more like three - a large Broadway show sized auditorium primarily to serve the Rochester Broadway Theater League (RBTL), a medium sized auditorium, and a third smaller space. But later the plan was reduced to concentrate more on the 2 larger venues, scrapping the smallest all together. At one point there were reports that seemed to indicate Maggie Brooks was considering dropping the performing arts center concept completely - an idea that didn't sit well with Rochester Mayor Bob Duffy, who threatened that the city would not support a plan that didn't include the performing arts center. That brings us to the latest possibility (but not a final plan) of only having the large 2,800 seat Broadway-type theater.
Its as if every month there is another change to the story. County Executive Maggie Brooks is determined not to spend more than $230 million on the project. But as time is eaten up while waiting for approval of federal funding, deadlines for demolition pass. first it was last spring, then the end of last summer, now the end of this spring or sometime this summer. And that is just demolition - let alone actual construction. By the time the old buildings come down, the cost of construction will have increased to more than the projected cost for the original proposal during the original time frame. There are so many questions left unanswered, and the community that seemed hostel to the concept in the first place is demanding answers. The website, which is in the process of being updated itself (and has been for a good 6 months) provides no new information as to where we stand now.
I think this, along with the changes at Midtown, and so many other projects set for downtown, serves as an incredible opportunity. While I respectfully disagree with Ms. Slaughter on whether it should be built in the first place, I am starting to share the concerns that have turned her against it from the start. I look forward to what I hope is good news for the project sometime this winter or early spring. I'll pass along any developments. (Sources used: Rochester City Newspaper, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, Pictures: Monroe County)
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