Image Credit: City of Kamloops
April 16, 2015 - 6:29 PM
KAMLOOPS - If you have an opinion about the proposed $90-million performing arts centre, or perhaps don't yet have an opinion but want to know more, a public input session is being held with you in mind this weekend.
Serious discussion around a performing arts centre in Kamloops began again in 2013 when an open house was held to get an idea of what the community would want out of a centre. By October 2014 consultants were asked to complete a study to determine what a performing arts centre in Kamloops should look like.
The findings of the study were released in a preliminary report last week. The key issues coming out of the first public presentation on April 16 included the former Kamloops Daily News site being named as the desired location and the $90 million dollar price tag.
The Kamloops Daily News property, originally purchased about a year ago as a potential site for a future downtown parkade, performing arts centre or civic building, was considered the most feasible location.
The price includes a parkade, which comes in at just over $25 million, but with the centre itself costing $61 million, the grand total currently sits at more than $90 million, which would make it one of the most expensive city-owned building ever built in the Interior.
There are two potential streams of revenue to pay for the centre. The city presented a funding strategy that would build a capital reserve of $25.5 million by 2020. This strategy includes revenue from on-street parking, an annual allocation of the gaming and community works fund and a one per cent tax increase in each of the first two years of this five year plan. The city also expects about $10 million in grants and naming rights.
This would leave nearly $49 million of debt, which the city expects to service for the next 20 years.
The public input session will be held this Saturday, April 18, from 10 a.m. to noon at Parkside Lounge in the Interior Saving Centre. Input from the meeting will be taken back to city council, the performing arts committee and consultants to help fine-tune the proposal before another public session is held.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Dana Reynolds at dreynolds@infonews.ca or call 250-819-6089. To contact an editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
News from © iNFOnews, 2015