City going back to drawing board for creative hub plans

KITCHENER — The city’s plans to set up a “creative hub” for arts faltered after both proposals submitted failed to meet the city’s financial criteria.

The city had put out a request for proposals for a centre that would support artists by providing such things as rehearsal and performance space as well as entrepreneurial and promotional support.

The city had planned to get initial expressions of interest, and then narrow those down to a short list of five proposals, but only got responses from two groups, JM Drama, which runs the Registry Theatre, and ArtsBuild Ontario, a Kitchenerbased nonprofit that helps artists find and use space.

But there were three important financial problems with the city’s request for proposals, say the two groups that submitted proposals:

First, the city required the successful bidder to pay about $8,400 a month to cover common area maintenance fees and property taxes on 44 Gaukel St., the city-owned building where it wants to set up the hub. That amounts to about $100,000 a year, not including any staffing or other costs.

That isn’t realistic, said Lindsay Golds, executive director of ArtsBuild Ontario.

“The people that we are serving have just graduated or are living with their parents, so we have to be realistic about what we can charge.”

The request for proposals didn’t provide for a firm five- or 10-year lease, something that provincial and federal funders want to see. “Before they invest grant monies, they want to know those capital funds are being invested in something that is going to be around for a while,” said Sam Varteniuk, general manager at JM Drama.

Third, the city had said that half the proceeds it gets from the sale of another city-owned building at 48 Ontario St. N. will go to the creative hub. But since that sale isn’t yet finalized, proponents didn’t know how much money they could expect, and it wasn’t clear what the money could be used for.

If the money could be used to renovate the Gaukel Street building, or as a cushion to help with operating costs over the first couple of years, that would help, Golds said.

But there was some suggestion the money would go toward things like a new boiler, Golds said.

Both proponents said the building would require significant upgrades to convert to a usable theatre or arts space.

“We’re trying to support users that can maybe afford to rent a classroom for $10 an hour … The (city’s) parameters were just completely unaligned with the purpose of the project,” Golds said.

Instead of a competitive bidding process, it might make

more sense to sit down with interested partners and come up with a collaborative approach that could use the different skills that groups such as ArtsBuild Ontario and JM Drama offer, said Emily Robson, the city’s co-ordinator of arts and creative industries.

City arts staff are suggesting they come back to council by year’s end with another plan for starting the hub.

Both groups said they were willing to work with the city, but Golds warned that the city will have to put some money into the endeavour. “We are very familiar with creative hub projects” elsewhere, she said. “Municipalities absolutely have a financial investment in any hub. That’s absolutely necessary, and that’s missing.”