Art advocates in Asheville have long pushed for the city to build a new performing arts center – or to rebuild the existing civic center downtown, which has struggled with major structural issues over the last few decades.
This week, Asheville officials announced a budding public-private partnership with international developer and theater producer, ATG Entertainment. The city signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the international company, which operates more than 70 venues worldwide.
The agreement with ATG is non-binding and allows the city to work with the company to produce a study and financial model for moving the development forward, according to Chris Corl, the city’s director of community and regional entertainment facilities.
Asheville did not publish a request for bids or proposals ahead of signing the memorandum, Corl said, but if the city decides to move forward with the project, it would then provide an opportunity for contractors to bid on that project.
The city’s relationship with ATG began in 2018 with a cold call, he said.
“It's kind of built over time to get to where we are,” he explained. “Really just because we've had this need for a while and hopefully we're able to put something together with them that's financially sustainable for the long term, so that we can get a project like this built.”
The move would allow Asheville to host Broadway performances, something that Harrah’s Cherokee Center can’t do, explained Corl.
“The Harrah’s Center is built as like a sports-first facility, which is hard to put arts in,” he said. “We do concerts in here all the time, but it's not this. They're different.”
The city has committed $60,000, which would come from the Harrah’s Cherokee Center Enterprise Fund, for any costs that come with developing a proposal. ATG will equally split those costs with the city, Corl said. The next step is for ATG and the city to figure out a financial model, which would include grants and private capital.
Corl said the city is not considering using any of the $225 million in CDBD-GR funds that it received as part of Hurricane Helene relief money, nor will it use any money from FEMA’s Public Assistance or Hazard Mitigation programs.
“We're hoping to finance it through a more traditional model with partnership of ATG. And there is a new grant that's now available for us to apply for that we intend to apply for, the Economic Development Association, which is only available to us because of the disaster declaration, but it has some really specific parameters,” he said.
“So it's not like the project would be going up against housing or building back a park, for example, like these are job creation grant dollars.”
