Gilroy
 – City volunteers have unveiled a $3-million endowment campaign
to support operations at the Gilroy Center for the Arts, scheduled
for construction off Seventh Street in downtown Gilroy within the
next four years.
Gilroy – City volunteers have unveiled a $3-million endowment campaign to support operations at the Gilroy Center for the Arts, scheduled for construction off Seventh Street in downtown Gilroy within the next four years.
The group has already secured pledges for nearly half the goal, according to Donna Pray, a task force member and executive director of the Gilroy Foundation.
A donation means a business or individual will get to see their name, or that of a friend or family member of their choosing, honored on a plaque outside a room in the center. They also gain access to a patrons’ lounge.
Naming rights to the main hall demand the highest bid, starting at $1.25 million. It includes a lifetime membership to the Friends of Gilroy Arts Center.
After the main hall, naming rights range from $5,000 for the costume area, which includes a one-year membership in the friends group, to $250,000 for the black box theater or courtyard and $500,000 for the lobby, which bestow five-year memberships.
“The donors that have already come forward have indicated their desire to make sure this facility starts out successful from the beginning,” Pray said. The names of those donors, she added, will remain secret until the new year.
The endowment will help finance a projected $132,000 budget shortfall in annual revenues, according to a business plan developed by the city’s consulting firm, The Pacific Group, of Millbrae.
The plan predicts the endowment would cover the difference by earning five percent interest on the $3 million, or $150,000, each year.
The remainder of the $503,000 annual operating costs will come from rental fees for special events, concession sales, advertising, and user fees. The largest portion, about $117,500, will come from rentals of space to private and nonprofit groups.
“Virtually all facilities like this run a deficit,” Pray said. “The way you test an arts center is if arts groups are thriving after it’s built.”
The business plan seeks to accomplish that goal by charging discounted rates to various nonprofit groups.
Arlene Silva – a member of the arts center task force, president of the Theater Angels Art League, and a board member of the South Valley Symphony – said that describing arts groups as “pretty excited is an understatement. We’ve been waiting a long time for this.”
“Right now, the space in Gilroy for arts to perform is extremely limited,” she added.
The theater group is currently looking for a home and the symphony struggles to squeeze four shows into a tight schedule at Gavilan College each year, according to Silva.
“We’re always looking for more space and we never know until the last minute where we’re going to be,” she said. “Once we have a space specifically designed so arts organizations can afford it, the groups will be able to build their own audiences.”
The list of potential users include Gilroy school bands and choirs and city organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and the Gilroy Visitor’s Bureau. Private users can also rent space for exhibitions, trade shows, weddings, and other functions. Planners designed the center to accommodate multiple events at the same time.
“We want this to be able to sustain itself by users and the endowment,” Pray said.
Organizers expect the fundraising campaign to last 18 to 24 months, and the land acquisition and construction to be complete by 2008.
City Council met with property owners behind closed doors Monday night to discuss the acquisition of the roughly two acres off Seventh and Monterey Streets needed for the center.
The city will construct the facility, the Gilroy Foundation will raise and oversee the endowment, and an independent group will operate the arts center. Officials estimate the project will cost more than $10 million. Financing will come from a $400,000 state bond and fees that developers pay for city services.
The business plan predicts the arts center will generate $25,000 in sales tax, $64,000 in hotel sales tax, and almost $1 million per year in jobs and revenues for local business.
“It’s going to do an awful lot for the whole of Gilroy,” Silva said, “not just the arts community.”
Purchase a name
$1,250,000 Main theater
$500,000 Lobby
$250,000 Blackbox stage or courtyard
$175,000 Colonnade/promenade
$125,000 Rehearsal room or classroom
$50,000 Box office
$35,000 Member’s lounge
$25,000 Kitchen or concession bar
$15,000 Star dressing room
$10,000 Women’s or men’s dressing room or fountain
$5,000 Costume, prop, piano storage room
