Special Bd. of Aldermen — 11/26/2018 Page 11
builders there is hazardous material. Also, no escalation cost, they figured starting date of March 2018. So
even those costs have question marks on them.
Now comes along the sole bidder, Spectacle Management who is going to operate this thing. What is it that
they say? Forget the 500 seating, 550 seating, forget the 500 tables, it is not a correct venue but Duncan
Webb estimated $1 million revenue a year. Spectacle Management says, read the proposal. You are going to
have 750 seat theatre to make sense in this region to attract the venues you want to get people to come in to a
theatre, 750 to provide revenue so you can pay that particular performance. 750 they said and $2 million
dollars a year. And if you do 750 theatre and $2 million dollars a year | will not need your $4 million dollars
from your charitable funding, you keep that, because you will make enough money and break even. All they
wanted is a $1.00 lease a year. But 750 theatre, and $2 million dollar revenue. And that by the way has been
backed up by some, several of the A&E vendors that made presentations. If you think of the Palace Theatre, |
forgot how big the city, but far greater than 750.
So where are you? Well if you have a 750 seat theatre you need a balcony in a foot print of the Alec Shoe
Store and the building behind it, you need a balcony. And therein lies the suggestions to place the
performance theatre from the ground up because think about it. You need to have very long stressors about
100 feet stressors, you have to have columns to support these stressors. And if you put them in the basement,
they won’t bother anybody. If you put these columns in the first floor, you take away a lot of so-called retail
space, it makes no sense. The only thing that makes sense is to build this thing from the ground, first floor up.
There are nooks and crannies and spaces that you build this up, very nice for retail, places where people can
meet before the performance, meet after the performance, have little performances, all that makes sense, but it
takes a design. So better to operate this, 750 seats and therein lies an issue about the cost. | don’t think the
cost is anywhere near what you need.
| think if you can get a resolution and it is acceptable to make changes to a bid voter’s voted on then make it a
$20 million resolution. Add the money that Fennessy proposed $16.5 million for construction, $11.5 and $6.5
is about $5 million, make this a $20 million resolution, then you build the system you want the theatre, you the
stages, make a theatre you can be proud of, not some rinky dink operation. Court Street is an example of a
failure. | was here in 1993 when we voted Court Street, and Court Street as a performance center has been a
failure. If you are going to go this way go the correct way. | am the guy known to not spend money, not spend
money foolishly. If you are going to a resolution make it $20 million.
One more thing, this $6.5 million dollar charitable money, | was here when the consultant made the
presentation. These New Market Tax Credits, she said and | am quoting her almost, are highly competitive and
they are nationwide not New Hampshire wide, nationwide. Highly competitive no guarantees, do not get
caught in that trap. | know, like I’ve said, I’ve spent a lot of time fund raising, it is very difficult. That’s my
recommendation and if you don’t do it, | can’t support the current resolution. Thank you.
Mayor Donchess
Would you mind if | respond to that because | largely agree with it. | think that except for the cost estimates,
first of all | agree we should do it right, it might take 750 seats, | think Tim can show the cost estimates, but in
reality, you have been to all the architectural interviews, you’ve seen how creative they are. And | am going to
speak for you and say you’ve been pretty impressed by the creativity and the thought that has gone into this
project but some of these very capable architects. In the end, we are unlikely to build exactly what Duncan
Webb proposed, it was a concept, he said the second floor, | think most likely it'll go to the first floor, which will
not require the raising of the roof as much. You heard the Icon Presentation, they put forward a very creative
way of bringing it to the first floor and reversing things. All of the architects have said that they could bring it in
on cost. They’ve all said that they thought they could do it. | think we should leave it at $15 million, but if we
are successful in the New Market Tax Credit application, which our expert is very confident we can get, if we
ever had to go above $15 million, we have $4 million dollars coming into the project. So if we had to go a little
over in order to accomplish the goals you have outlined, that would be an available source.