LCC, mayor’s off ice discuss a performing arts center
Lansing Community College is “strongly” considering building a regional performing arts center — long a goal of the arts community and mayors going back to David Hollister — on its downtown campus, its board chairwoman said Tuesday.
LCC and Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero’s office have discussed a partnership between the city and the school to build it, Chairwoman Robin Smith said in a telephone interview.
The performing arts center would likely be built on empty property bordered by Capitol Avenue and Genesee and Seymour streets behind the new University Center and the recently renovated Carnegie Library on Shiawassee Street.
The talk of the new center is tied to the city’s sale of its parking ramp on Capitol between Shiawassee and Ionia Street. In the midst of a heady conversation between LCC officials and the Lansing City Council about selling the college the parking ramp during its Committee of the Whole meeting last Thursday, Chris Strugar-Fritsch, LCC’s executive director of administrative services, started talking about the possibility of building a performing arts center.
Strugar-Fritch said a performing arts center on the land would be possible if the college were able to buy the ramp instead of building a new one on that land, which was the original plan. Council still has to approve the sale. Strugar-Fritsch said that while a performing arts center could go on the Shiawassee parcel, everything is still conceptual.
“It’s an idea. It’s just a big idea,” he said. “There’s no project plan right now. It’d be a great thing to do.” Allowing LCC to buy the N. Capitol ramp, Strugar-Fritsch said, would benefit downtown Lansing because it would keep the school's vacant land open for development.
Smith said nothing is on paper yet and the Board of Trustees hasn’t taken up the matter, but it’s being discussed. Smith couldn’t comment on whether the BoarsHead Theater would be part of the center, but she said it would make sense. The city recently purchased the downtown parcel that BoarsHead calls home, but the city wants to build a parking garage on that spot, and the theater will eventually have to leave.
Smith said the center would definitely be for the entire community. “I think we can clearly see in the com munity that there’s a strong need for a performing arts center,” Smith said. “It’s something we’re looking at, futuristically.”
Smith also said that if the college is allowed to buy the ramp, it could build a restaurant for its culinary school on the top floor, plus upgrade the ramp’s ground-level retail space. Some of the ground floor is used for city offices.
Bob Johnson, director of the city's Planning and Neighborhood Development Department, who has mediated the sale with Council, said that Strugar-Fritsch’s statement Thursday was not surprising.
In talking about whether the land could be used for a performing arts center, Johnson said, “You bet.” Meanwhile, the city and its Economic Development Corp. sent out a request for proposal July 28 for a needs assessment and business plan for a downtown per forming arts center. The RFP, mentions that LCC could be a financier for a per forming arts center because it has access to state funds. In the RFP, the city also specifies its Tax Increment Financing Authority (a special district that covers most of downtown that captures new property taxes for a special fund that can be used to stimulate growth) could han dle some of the burden. EDC President Bob Trezise has said that he wants to restructure the TIFA for cooler things — a large amount of the TIFA currently goes to pay off city debt from building parking ramps.
This isn’t the first time there has been talk of a downtown performing arts cen ter. Former Mayor Hollister wanted to build a center along Michigan Avenue where developer Pat Gillespie’s Stadium District is. And Cooley Law School had contemplated a performing arts center at the corner of Kalamazoo Street and Capitol downtown, where the Towne Center building is. A little over a year ago, LCC was con sidering the possibility of a performing arts center where the N. Capitol ramp is. Fourth Ward Councilman Tim Kaltenbach, who represents the down town area, said Thursday was the first time he’s heard talk of a performing arts center inside LCC’s mostly vacant block.
“I’m surprised,” Kaltenbach said. “But I’m very supportive of a performing arts center downtown.”
— Neal McNamara