Special Bd. of Aldermen — 03/26/2019 Page 5
Alderman O’Brien
Thank you. Mr. Cummings could you bring up the VIP one there and OK now that lounge is going to be on the
second floor level. Most of the VIP is it going to be VIP seating, it is going to be hand-in-hand where the people are
going to be if you know what | mean.
Mr. Cummings
So | was waiting actually for this to come up I’m surprised it hasn’t come up before. It’s actually and maybe we can
come up with a better marketing term for it. It is a way of just designating a certain area of the Performing Arts
Center for function space, for if say someone wants to sponsor one of the productions that are going on or if they
want to do some sort of entertainment with clients. If you think about it, a lot of the venues you go to these days
have that luxury box type feel to it. As we this summer toured a lot of Performing Arts Center, they had this type of
space set aside, everyone told us that this was valuable space and that if you could program for it, you should. The
group here those sentiments and have wanted to maintain this amenity to the program. So far it has made its way
through. Everyone we have talked to is very excited about it, all the operators and the private sector folks who are
looking at this in a very exciting way.
Alderman Dowd
Just a question, we have that one area set aside for the shell, it is my understanding the symphony is not going to
play here so who is going to use the shell and who is going to pay for the shell because they are not cheap.
Mr. Cummings
So this, if | may, so this again is just shell storage space that was originally talked about. We are looking to
possibly tweak that and eliminate the shell storage space. As you can see, we’ve actually started, you are going to
see that this starts to get eliminated as you go through the plans higher. So we have had conversations with the
symphony and we believe that this will be unnecessary because as you point out, the symphony has a shell already
and they have offered it up to us as necessary. As | said, this isn’t 100% finalized, but it is a good iteration as to
where we are right now.
Alderwoman Kelly
Sure just a point of clarification I’m on the Board of the Symphony and they probably will do small pieces but the
whole symphony will not fit on that stage.
Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja
Yes Alderman O’Brien do not feel limited by the size of that VIP lounge. The other thing we discussed is that that
larger gallery area on the lower level is also something that if someone wanted to use that for a larger before or
after event VIP sort of setting, that would be available to them also. Mr. Lawley our operator in talking about
concessions has said he will have mobile beer and wine available. So if you were to desire one or both of those,
your needs will be met; he will have the ability. But there really are two areas that could be used for a more
enclosed private VIP experience.
Alderman O’Brien
Madam President if | may, absolutely. | was more going on it thinking of the concept corporate. Somebody may
sponsor and then have the rights to the VIP lounge for that particular show and the moving and grouping of that
group you know which | think is something or another to increase funding.
