Special Bd. of Aldermen — 11/26/2018 Page 3
We formed a Capital Campaign Committee which has been meeting regularly for a number of months. In
order to execute the Betsy McNamara plan, Deborah Novotny of the Enterprise Bank has agreed to be Chair of
the Committee. She is very active in the community, formally President of the Rotary Club and active in many
other ways in Nashua.
We are developing Articles of Incorporation and those are in draft but with everything else going on, they
haven't yet been finalized. So we have learned a lot about this through all of this investigation and all of this
work, we have learned a lot about what it will take to first construct and then operate a successful Performing
Arts Venue which will bring, we think at least 70,000 people a year to Main Street. The Palace brings 140,000
people to Manchester’s downtown every year; even if we achieve half of that, that is 70,000 people a year.
So there are two simple concepts that are incorporated in this resolution; let me step back a minute, we believe
and we are very optimistic that we can raise not $4 million but $6.5 million dollars consisting of New Market
Tax Credit and private donations. This is based upon the work of Betsy McNamara, the fund raising committee
and Neil Cannon the New Market Tax Credit Consultant. So we are looking at bringing in $6.5 million dollars.
But what we have learned is that if we want big donors and if we want to qualify for New Market Tax Credit, $4
million dollars, we need to have a designed project. So as the Resolution was passed the Resolution
authorized the purchase of the building of 201 Main Street but that was all before money was obtained. We
have now learned that in order to qualify for the New Market Tax Credit and really in order to get significant
donors to contribute, we need to have a design project.
As we have talked with the architects, we know that ultimately the design may be changed from the original
concept plan. For example, it may be that is much more advantageous to bring the center to the first floor and
have some retail along Pearl Street. It might even be advantageous to reverse the orientation of the
Performing Arts Center from one where the stage is on the east side or the Main Street side, switch the stage
down to the other side to the west side and then have the entrance come in from Main Street. As we ultimately
pick the architect, these are the kind of decisions that need to be made based upon what we have learned in
terms of operating a successful Performing Arts Center.
One idea that is incorporated in the Resolution is that it would allow us to spend the money to design the
project now, because it is a chicken and egg thing. We think we can get $6.5 million dollars, but to do that we
need to have a design project so that is number one.
Number two proposes that we still bring in at least $4 million dollars and | am saying our experts are telling us
that we can do a lot more than that. But that we create more flexibility as to how this money would be used, for
example — because we have the operator who is saying we can operate this as a profit it may make more
sense to devote money that we bring in to reducing the project cost. For example, the New Market Tax Credits
can be used to reduce the amount of the bond that we need to borrow. So maybe we would end up borrowing
not $15 million; $15.5 is authorized but maybe it would be $14.5 or maybe it would be $13.5. So the
Resolution as proposed still requires that we bring in at least $4 million dollars, but it allows us, later on, to
decide how we think that $4 or $5 and I’m saying $6.5 million dollars can best be allocated to the reduction of
the project cost or to the endowment or both.
So the two simple changes that are proposed here: 1) It would also us to design the Performing Arts Center
immediately and 2) it would authorize enough flexibility that down the road we could decide how we want to
use the $6.5 million dollars that our experts and consultants believe that we can obtain.
| don’t know if Tim Cummings, Economic Director has anything else to add.
Tim Cummings, Economic Development Director
No | believe you have covered everything Mr. Mayor.
