Photo courtesy of Jeffrey Williams
Alabama Symphony Orchestra
Carlos Izcaray leads the Alabama Symphony Orchestra in a rehearsal.
Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato on Wednesday night during a budget hearing recommended the Hoover City Council move forward with hiring an architectural firm to design a performing arts center and entertain proposals for the best location.
The mayor said he would like to hire the Live Design Group for $3 million to design a 1,000-seat arts center and anticipates the total cost of the facility to be roughly $40 million, including design, land acquisition and construction.
Two years ago, city officials said they were deep in negotiations to put a performing arts center in the Patton Creek shopping center, but that deal fell through.
Early this year, developer William Kadish of Broad Metro announced his proposal to have the city put its performing arts center in a proposed second phase of Stadium Trace Village by Trace Crossings. Kadish was seeking an incentive package for his development when talks between him and the city became divisive and the project stalled.
Brocato on Wednesday night said “that location, although it’s still on the table, it has strings attached to it, and it just became apparent to me that if we’re going to get this built, we going to have to go out and identify our lot where we want it and build our performing arts center with no strings attached. It’ll be just up to us, just like any private company going out and building a new building.”
Brocato said he now proposes to go ahead and get an arts center designed and concurrently seek proposals from individuals or developers who have property they believe would be suitable for a performing arts center.
His belief is that the best location would be somewhere that’s walkable and close to restaurants, but he would like to put a committee together to evaluate proposals and determine the best location.
Design likely will take 12 to 15 months, and construction likely would take 15 to 18 months, he said.
Mayor Frank Brocato
“It’s a long process,” the mayor said. “We still have a long way to go, but this gets us on the road, and it puts us in control of our destiny, not somebody else controlling the land.”
Actual construction is estimated to cost $30 million to $32 million, he said. The Hoover City Council in March of last year allocated $17 million for a performing arts center out of $93 million the council decided to borrow for three big projects: the arts center, a new interchange on Interstate 459 and $20 million worth of improvements to Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
Brocato on Wednesday said the plan at that time was to have the owner of the Patton Creek shopping center build the shell for the performing arts center and the city of Hoover would use $17 million of its borrowed money and another $3 million out of the city’s capital fund to complete the center.
While the Patton Creek site didn’t work out, the $17 million of borrowed money is still available for a performing arts center, and the money for design could come out of that, Brocato said. City officials still have to determine how to pay for the rest of the project, he said. They will have to borrow more money, but they may not have to borrow all of it, he said. Some money may be available out of city tax revenues, or companies or individuals may want to donate money, perhaps for naming rights, he said.
But he’s ready to get started, he said.
“Every day we wait, it’s 12 to 15 months before you can start building it,” he said. “ There’s an obvious desire on the council to build this performing arts center. There’s a desire in the community. This is the next step. It’s just the logical thing to do. We have not been in control of our own destiny, and I believe that this will put us in control of our destiny, and I think that the council will feel a lot better about that.”
City officials also will bring in the Hoover Arts Council as things progress, Brocato said. “They are energetic and excited about trying to build a performing arts center. That’s really No. 1 on their mind,” he said.
Members of the Arts Council were excited about the Stadium Trace Village site, and “it may still work out for Stadium Trace,” he said. “But we want to make sure that’s when we’re ready to do this, we own the land and we can move forward and not have any strings attached.”
Hoover Councilman Steve McClinton said he believes most of the council members are in favor of the performing arts center and he knows design is a step that must be taken, but he would like to know more about proposed locations before approving the design money. The mayor earlier this year indicated several other locations were under consideration but he was not ready to reveal them at that time. McClinton said he'd like to know what those locations were and what happened to them.
McClinton said both the Patton Creek shopping center and Stadium Trace Village Phase 2 would make good locations.
Editor's note: This story was updated at 12:10 a.m. on Sept. 5 with comments from Hoover Councilman Steve McClinton.
