Fix the St. Lawrence Centre for $42M or just start over?
Agency that runs theatre for the city is proposing a $200M cultural mecca
Is it better to spend $42 million repairing two rundown city theatres, or $200 million turning them into a state-of-the-art facility?
That is one of the questions being brought to city hall next week as councillors debate how to divvy up the 2020 budget.
Built as Toronto’s official 1967 Centennial project, the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts on Front Street East, opposite Berczy Park, requires an estimated $42 million in repairs, just to bring it up to current municipal code, including making the building accessible to people with disabilities.
The board of TO Live, the agency that runs the city’s publicly owned theatre venues, is pitching instead to tear down the centre and build a new civic and cultural mecca to serve the performing arts community, residents and tourists.
The proposal includes using the $42 million from the city that would otherwise have been spent on repairs, along with $100 million in as-yet-unsecured city, provincial and federal money, and $38 million to $58 million that would be raised by TO Live’s recently created fundraising arm.
“We want to be a world-class city, and to be a world-class city, we need world-class venues,” said TO Live’s vice-chair, Coun. Gary Crawford. “Arts and culture is an incredibly important part of every city — any international city — for tourism, for jobs. It’s an important part of the ecology of a successful city and I think that’s why moving forward with the redevelopment will be a very positive step forward for the city.”
Although slight on detail, the proposal for redevelopment envisions:
› A state-of-the-art performance hall, with flexible configurations allowing for 750 seated guests or a standing audience of up to 5,000.
› A second 300- to 500-seat theatre space.
› A welcoming public space, including a better lobby and better food and beverages.
› Outdoor spaces, including a connection to Berczy Park.
› Three rehearsal spaces.
› Administrative and support facilities.
“I think there’s an opportunity here to make a mark,” said Clyde Wagner, president and CEO of TO Live and the former executive producer of the Luminato Festival. “Not just for the local community, but also, if we do it right, to make a mark internationally, to say, this is how you create a sense of community with a partnership of the arts and culture and really redefine the downtown core in the city of Toronto.”