2019 arts center feasibility study summary - johns …...ser i es e johns creek art center 18,260...

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Johns Creek Cultural Arts Center Feasibility Study Summary

January 17, 2019

Presentation to City Council

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Webb Management Services Inc.

✲Needs assessment

✲Physical planning

✲Business planning

✲Fundraising feasibility

✲The assessment is based on four issues:

✲Is the market big and strong enough?

✲Are there sufficient users?

✲What’s wrong with the facilities we have?

✲How does this move us forward as a community?

The case for new art facilities in Johns Creek

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Market characteristics

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Regional indoor performance facilities

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

100 600 1,100 1,600 2,100

Johns Creek Regional Performance Facilities InventoryRat ing vs. Capacity

Regional

Local

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✲The Market: High levels of educational attainment and household income in Johns Creek and its 15-mile radius indicate strong propensity to support the arts.

✲User Demand: A performing arts facility in Johns Creek could be activated by a mix of music, dance, theatre, and presented programs.

✲Facilities: The facility inventories suggest that there are several gaps in the market that a new performing arts facility could fill.

✲Benefits + Impacts: A performance facility project in Johns Creek is in line with a number of community goals and could help propel other initiatives related to economic development, health and wellness, corporate recruitment, and workforce retention.

Conclusions

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Recommendations

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Physical planning

Preliminary physical planning, done by Robert Long of TCC, focuses on the size, cost and location of recommended facilities.✲Site evaluation✲Space program✲Preliminary cost projections

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Possible sites

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Site Scores

Site # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8Acres 5.7 6.3 22.3 9.1 24.1 77 44.5 6Availability &Cost 8 8 6 5 5 5 4 5PublicAccessibility 8 9 7 5 6 8 6 5Proximity toAmenities 8 6 7 8 5 6 6 7Topography 8 8 4 8 8 8 8 8Visibility 6 7 8 6 6 8 4 8Parking 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9Mixed-useDevelopmentPotential 9 8 8 5 6 8 5 6

56 55 49 46 45 52 42 48

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Cost Projection

PRELIMINARYCOSTPROJECTIONNet Net-to- Gross

Sq. Feet GrossFactor Sq. Feet

SeriesA SHAREDPUBLICLOBBY 11,520 1.4 16,128SeriesB 700-SEATPROSCENIUM THEATRE 20,070 1.6 32,112SeriesC REHEARSALROOMS 4,800 1.5 7,200SeriesD KITCHENFACILITIES 3,000 1.3 3,900SeriesE JOHNSCREEKARTCENTER 18,260 1.3 23,738

TOTAL- net square feet 57,650TOTAL- grosssquare feet 83,078

$ / GSF+30%Soft Costs $350 / GSF $650 / GSF TOTAL

SeriesA SHAREDPUBLICLOBBY 7,338,240SeriesB 700-SEATPROSCENIUM THEATRE 27,134,640SeriesC REHEARSALROOMS 3,276,000SeriesD KITCHENFACILITIES 1,774,500SeriesE JOHNSCREEKARTCENTER 10,800,790

TOTALPROJECTCOST 23,189,530$ 27,134,640$ 50,324,170$

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Business planThe preliminary business plan addresses how recommended facilities should be programmed, operated and financially sustained, with the following elements:✲Operating goals & activity profile✲Comparable projects✲Governance and operating recommendations✲Staffing and leadership✲Pro-forma operating budgets✲Economic impacts✲Critical path plan

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Observations from the Charrette

JohnsCreek TheatersCalendar Totalsby userPerformance WarehouseEd HarrisArtist Mgmt.Artson the CreekNorth Atlanta Dance TheatreFleetwood Dance TheatreJohnsCreek Symphony Orch.Catherine Ketser Forsyth County SchoolsJohnsCreek ChoraleGeorgia Ensemble Theatre

Totalsby Discipline

TheatreAmplified Music/Ent.DanceUnamplified MusicVarious

Perf. (Y) Prep. (O) Total Perf. (Y) Prep. (O) Total12 13 25 7 5 123 3 6 0

0 6 67 13 20 08 5 13 2 1 35 6 11 1 1 24 5 9 07 6 13 1 1 2

0 20 6 2646 51 97 37 14 51

Perf. (Y) Prep. (O) Total Perf. (Y) Prep. (O) Total12 13 25 27 11 383 3 6 015 18 33 2 1 312 12 24 2 2 44 5 9 6 646 51 97 37 14 51

600 to 800 seats 250 seats

250 seats600 to 800 seats

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Operating goals

✲Attract and support touring arts and entertainment to the Johns Creek region

✲Provide affordable access to well-equipped performance, rehearsal, and support spaces to local and regional artists and arts organizations

✲Offer excellent meeting and event capabilities to serve business and community groups

✲Contribute to the economic vitality of Johns Creek and the wider region with active facilities that drive economic and community development

✲Utilize a sustainable business model primarily driven by earned income

Each of these goals is reasonable and achievable. The challenge is pursuing them together and maintaining a balance in the pursuit of different objectives.

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Governance options

There are a several possible options:✲A new nonprofit/existing created for this purpose✲An educational institution ✲A professional facility management organization

We considered the pros and cons or each option and recommended the creation of a new organization to become the manager of recommended facilities given the importance of private sector fundraising and the value of having a transparent, community-based organization behind the project. The Cultural Arts Alliance of Johns Creek could certainly play that role.

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Activity profile

These buildings come to life with a combination of:✲Nonprofit rentals✲Commercial rentals✲Educational programs✲Other produced programs✲Presenting

Managing and balancing these different uses and users is a critical part of the facility manager’s job

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Staffing plan

Board of Directors

Executive Director

Technical Director

Technical Staff Custodian

Marketing and Programming

DirectorBookkeeper Operations

Manager

Front of House Manager

Front of House Staff

Event Cleaning

Development Director

Grant-writer

Ticketing/IT Manager

Ticketing Staff

=full-time staff =event staff=part-time staff

Legend:

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Pro-forma operating budget

✲A live, Excel-based model that starts with activity estimates.✲Operating activities start the year before the facility opens,

extending through the first five years of operations.✲Rental rates have been set to compete with other regional

facilities. ✲We assume fully-developed staff and infrastructure at the

outset of operations.✲We charge the Johns Creek Arts Center $5/sf based on their

gross square feet.

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Pro-forma operating budget

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Economic impacts

✲The new cultural center will drive a series of community benefits, including economic impacts.

✲Economic impacts are the increases in economic activity caused by the expanded operating organization and audiences coming to events at the theatre.

✲Those impacts are calculated for Fulton County using multipliers purchased from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

✲Organizational impacts are calculated in the third year of operations.✲Audience impacts are based on those coming to the Center from

outside the County as well as those from within the County who, rather than going to an event in Cobb County, are now staying in Fulton County to attend an event.

✲Per capita audience expenditures are based on the new Arts and Economic Prosperity Study from Americans for the Arts.

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Economic impacts

Summary of Economic Impactson Fulton County, GAOngoingAnnual Impacts Input (Year 3 Spending) $887,500Operations Output (Sales) $1,220,210

Earnings 163,833JobsCreated (annual) 3.9

AudienceSpending Input (Year 3 Activity) $615,576Output (Sales) $887,227Earnings $104,785JobsCreated (annual) 3.8

Total Annual Operating Impacts Output (Sales) $2,107,437(Operations+AudienceSpending) Earnings $268,618

JobsCreated (annual) 7.7

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✲To establish if a campaign is feasible, and for how much

✲Ten interviews with community leaders

✲Case statement: “The Johns Creek Cultural Center is a project worthy of support. It will be a place that brings people together and expresses the diverse culture of the community. It will showcase the work of local, regional and national artists for the benefit of all who live in and the visit the area. It will provide much-needed facilities for the local arts community and will drive the continuing development of Johns Creek as a vibrant and attractive community in which to live and work. And it will be sustained with an appropriate and achievable mix of earned and contributed income.”

Private sector fundraising feasibility

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✲A $25 million campaign is possible, given the following conditions:

✲That the City is viewed as a partner in the project

✲That campaign leadership includes representatives of the Asian and South Asian communities

✲That there is a strong corporate component to the campaign that targets local companies

✲That the Johns Creek Arts Center is included in the project as a successful and growing arts education organization

Funder interviews

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✲Great potential as a mixed-use development

✲Development partner still possible

✲Naming rights exploration

✲Fulton County possibilities

✲What role the City might play in advancing the project?

The balance of funding

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Critical Path Plan

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✲Arts facilities are an economic development tool

✲They enhance quality of life to maintain property values

✲Support the recruitment of businesses and workers

✲Drive cultural tourism

✲Keep youth here

✲Engage our diverse community

✲Preserve the community’s cultural assets

✲Create new educational opportunities

✲The ROI from developing cultural facilities is at least as good as investing in parks and recreation facilities.

Why develop a new cultural center?

2019 arts center feasibility study summary - johns …...ser i es e johns creek art center 18,260...

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