On a sweltering August day, around 300 community members gathered inside the arena of Harrah’s Cherokee Center in Asheville to discuss the future of its sister venue, the 83-year old Thomas Wolfe Auditorium.
Due to a malfunctioning HVAC, it was just as hot inside as it was outdoors.
“That was strategic,” joked Chris Corl, the city’s director of community & regional entertainment facilities, who was one of the six public leaders at the ArtsAvl Town Hall on August 21. “So you really feel the importance of an HVAC.”
In addition to Corl, the town hall panel included Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer, Asheville Symphony Director Daniel Crupi, Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority President Vic Isley, conceptual theater consultant Robert Long, and Asheville’s Planning & Urban Design Director Stephanie Monson Dahl.
As it stands, the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, home to The Asheville Symphony and many other community programs, will be closed through November as the city works to repair the HVAC system, which saw all three of its units fail over the course of three months.
Basic repairs will cost $190,000. The proposal involves abandoning the main HVAC unit, which is housed in a 1930s attic that contractors are no longer willing to work on without a catwalk system, according to Corl.
Once the venue reopens, it will host only non-ticketed events as public officials work to sort out the deeper, more convoluted work of figuring out how to move forward with a building that’s plagued with “peeling paint, roof leaks, torturous seats, poor acoustics, and inadequate backstage space,” according to an op-ed from the Asheville Watchdog.
“A lot of the contractors we’ve talked to, including the ones doing the work, have told us this is like changing a belt on a car that has 200,000 miles. Now you have this one nice, new part, but other things could fail,” Corl said. “Do we really want to put $1 million into what’s effectively going to be band-aid?”
Asheville’s Mayor, and the rest of the panel members at the town hall, affirmed this perspective. “We’re really at a point where great things were built here and now they need to be rebuilt,” Manheimer said.
How did we get here?
Since at least May, Thomas Wolfe’s HVAC system was failing. The main unit began to malfunction first, and as a temporary fix, the venue called upon the other two, smaller units to provide heating and cooling for the building as part of a “risk mitigation plan.”
In June, those units began to show “significant signs of strain,” according to Corl. “We had a couple starting to make really loud noises, others started leaking. But we continued hosting events with our risk mitigation plan in place.”
The HVAC dysfunction culminated in a sold-out concert featuring rock band The Smile, when the air conditioning failed in all three units, leaving the venue handing out free fans and bottled waters to overheated concert goers.
The episode came about a week after The Asheville Symphony announced it will take its 2023-2024 season on the road, bouncing between the First Baptist Church of Asheville, Salvage Station, the ExploreAsheville.com arena, and Brevard Music Center.
The auditorium is now officially closed for repairs on its HVAC system.
The venue’s problems are more than an inconvenience for music fans. It also has real economic consequences for the city, BCTDA President Isley said.
“These self-inflicted wounds are really painful and ultimately impact the revenue the county and city use to run government and services for residents.”
According to data from the city, the auditorium will experience a $1.2 million loss in gross operating revenue (a 22% reduction from the previous year). The city also estimates a $25 million loss in total economic impact (a 27% decrease from the prior year).
City says five possible paths forward
The city is evaluating five different options, which range in price from an ambitious $160 million makeover to a no-frills $38 million infrastructure and code update. Each proposal is based on studies and conceptual designs that have been considered and passed over by the city since 2012.
The estimated costs range widely based on when the project starts construction, as studies from the city show a significant increase in price if the city were to wait five years before starting the process.
Broadway Plan: Major Renovations & Expansions
- 2023 cost: $140-160 million
- 2028 cost: $183-198 million
Acoustic-Driven Plan: Significant Renovations
- 2023 cost: $100-120 million
- 2028 cost: $130-150 million
Improved Raked Floor Plan
- 2023 cost: $80-100 million
- 2028 cost: $105-125 million
Multi-Purpose Flat Floor Plan
- 2023 cost: $68-88 million
- 2028 cost: $90-110 million
Infrastructure & Code Update
- 2023 cost: $33-38 million
- 2028 cost: $42-52 million
How does the funding look?
Funding, as well as community input, will determine the future course of the venue, according to Corl.
The city has about $2 million in the Harrah’s Cherokee Center - Asheville capital fund, which is enough to make HVAC repairs, but far short of the funds required to make the significant renovations proposed.
The project requires funding partners, Manheimer said.
“The TDA is an obvious one, but their ability to give maxes out at 50% of the cost of the project.”
She added that she hopes to see Buncombe County, supporters of the Asheville Symphony, and other private partners support the redevelopment.
Naming rights for the auditorium or other parts of the complex could be an additional source of income for the project, though Corl said that idea has not been mapped out yet by city officials. The Mayor also proposed bond funds as a possible boon.
Manheimer compared the current scenario with the auditorium to the infrastructure problems at McCormick Field, which the city dealt with earlier this year. Ultimately, the stadium managed to secure funding for the $55.6 million project from a mix of partners, including the City of Asheville, Buncombe County, BCTDA, and the Asheville Tourists baseball team that uses the stadium.
“What happened with McCormick Field, no pun intended, set the stage for what we’re doing here,” Manheimer said.
Next steps
The short-term HVAC repairs have already begun at Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, using funds from the Harrah’s Cherokee Center - Asheville capital fund. The repairs will involve abandoning the main unit and “‘octopusing’ the ductwork” from the other two units to create one functioning system, Corl explained.
Once the venue reopens, there will be no ticketed events for the foreseeable future, with as many ticketed events as possible moving to the ExploreAsheville.com Arena. Formal renovation plans are expected to be presented to Asheville City Council in early 2024.
