The construction of a performing arts center that supporters would like to build at Stanley Park will cost an estimated $25 million. To proceed, 70%—or $17 million—needs to be raised.
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The problem is that the area being considered for the facility is currently used for overflow parking for large events such as the Rooftop Rodeo and the Longs Peak Scottish-Irish Highland Festival.
Also, there is skepticism based on previous failed attempts to build a performing arts center in Estes Park.
Tim Phillips, president of the Fine Arts Guild of the Rockies board, says there is plenty of public support for a performing arts center in that location, according to public outreach conducted by Design Concepts, a consultant completing a new Stanley Park Master Plan.
A plan completed in 2019 also recommended including a performing arts center at this site.
“I guess one of my concerns would be whether there’s been sufficient studies of the demand for this, particularly in light of the film center” planned at the Stanley
Hotel, said Trustee Bill Brown on Feb. 25.
At that same meeting, Trustee Cindy Younglund said this type of agreement “seems like a win-win” since the performing arts center project has been put off for quite a while, and the Town would not be on the hook for construction expenses.
“I’m really concerned about encumbering the town’s facilities and the use of Stanley
Park,” said Trustee Mark Igel on Feb. 25, when he also recognized building a home for
the arts has been in the works as long as he’s lived in Estes Park.
A second study session was needed to explain the entire project, so Phillips presented
again on March 11. Encore! could provide the parking for the Fairground’s summer events, and theater-goers could be shuttled in from the Estes Park High School lot, since school would be out for the season, he said, and a walking path from the Estes Park Museum grounds would encourage people to access the facility on foot.
According to Town Administrator Travis Machalek, the land could be reserved while developing the new Stanley Park Master Plan.
Trustees Frank Lancaster and Kirby Hazelton asked for more information about the projected revenues the center would realize. Mayor Pro Tem Marie Cenac wondered if the center would take up space that many new events currently use.
“I’m not comfortable gambling with that asset of land for this project,” said Igel at the March 11 meeting, adding that past fundraising history is not an indication of the fundraising group’s success or failure but rather “a measure of the sentiment of this community.”
Three previous attempts by nonprofits, established solely to raise funds for a performing arts center, have failed. In 1998, Friends of Stanley Hall was formed to renovate the historic building on the Stanley Hotel campus. The group envisioned the hall hosting performances by various nonprofit performing groups in Estes Park, which at that time numbered about 18.
The Stanley Concert Hall was built in 1909 by F. O. Stanley as a gift to his wife, Flora. There, she would give private concerts on her Steinway grand piano. Today, the hall is used for concerts, special events, and weddings. The Friends’ fundraising efforts stalled, and the money raised for this effort, approximately $475,000 from 265 individual donors, was transferred to the Town to be held in trust until another performing arts center could be established.
In 2009, the Supporters of the Performing Arts set out to raise funds for a performing arts center on Town land, which would be run by Town staff. This effort fizzled quickly. In 2011, the group merged with Estes Park Performance, Inc., and by 2014, the new organization, EPIC, had raised nearly $2 million.
In 2016, EPIC was granted the money held in trust by the Town to support efforts to construct a performing arts center on the Slab, the original location of the Park Theatre Mall, which was destroyed by fire in 2009.
EPIC planned to build a boutique hotel as part of the facility to help with operating costs. The Barrel, a local beer, wine, and spirits garden, was invited to operate on The Slab to support fundraising efforts by hosting events. EPIC withdrew from the plan to acquire the property the following year, citing high construction costs and a desire to work with the town on the project instead.
That’s when plans to develop the Rocky Mountain Performing Arts Center at Stanley Park started in earnest and were included in the 2019 Stanley Park Master Plan. In May 2018, EPIC and the Town of Estes Park signed a memorandum of understanding requiring EPIC to raise $11 million by March 1 of the following year for the Town to commit the land at Stanley Park. But soon after, EPIC fired its executive director and disbanded, and the president of their board, Stan Black, said that he hoped other arts organizations would take up the cause.
That’s when the Fine Arts Guild of the Rockies stepped in.
“The first hurdle is actually securing that agreement between the town of Estes Park and Fine Arts Guild to be able to have a lease on that land to give us time to raise the money to build Encore!,” said Phillips who believes that with a five to seven-year hold on the land, the funds can be raised.
But there’s not much left of the previous fundraising efforts. EPIC spent a lot of its funds on creating and maintaining an office and hiring an executive director, said Phillips, and they “spent some of it on their architectural designs. They also bought a grand piano, which is somewhere in the Estes Valley. I’ve heard rumors it’s in somebody’s house who is storing it until the performing arts center gets built.”
Architectural designs for Encore! have not yet been created since an agreement with the Town has not yet been reached, but Philips has some basic drawings by local architect Joe Calvin showing two theaters, a lobby, a rehearsal space, offices, and an art gallery on the first floor. The second floor is dedicated to an immersive art space, similar to Meow Wolf, that is being called The Inner Sanctum.
“It will be our creation, using our local artists and regional artists to create it,” said Phillips, who says an immersive art experience is critical to keep Encore! viable even in the off-season when no performances are scheduled for the space. “It is the immersive art experiences, anywhere you look at in the country, that are highly lucrative,” he said.
“I think it would be very unfair to make a decision based on past performance,” Younglund said on March 11. “I hope that we come to some agreement to at least have them, try to raise the money in a way in which we would feel comfortable.
“We didn’t realize the ski-joring would work there until we tried it,” she said. “We could be sitting here 10 years from now, saying, ‘this is such a great revenue maker, it’s almost year-round, and we almost didn’t do it!’ So, I really would hope that we could try to keep open minds. I know land’s very valuable, and there’s not much left, but I don’t want us to forget the possibility of the good things that this could bring to our community.”
Phillips’s next chance to make his case to the board is Tuesday, May 13. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. and be held at Town Hall.
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