Just days before Morgan Hill opens its new marquis community
center and playhouse, Gilroy’s City Council will get its first
official look at how things are shaping up for the Garlic Capital’s
own planned arts and cultural center at a meeting tonight.
Council members could OK preliminary steps tonight to build at downtown site
GILROY – Just days before Morgan Hill opens its new marquis community center and playhouse, Gilroy’s City Council will get its first official look at how things are shaping up for the Garlic Capital’s own planned arts and cultural center at a meeting tonight.
And if councilmembers like what they see, they could authorize city staff to begin formal inquiries on a community task force’s preferred site: a roughly 2.3-acre group of parcels around the Salvation Army thrift store, just north of Seventh Street between Monterey and Eigleberry streets.
Twelve members of the city’s Cultural Facilities Task Force voted unanimously last week to choose the Eigleberry site as their preferred location after reviewing and comparing how a previously conceived building design would fit there and at a second proposed site, the old Gilroy Cannery near Monterey and Lewis streets.
Task force members liked the Eigleberry site’s degree of access to parking at a city lot and the Caltrain station across the street, said task force member Donna Pray. The Eigleberry site also sits within the next block slated for improvements through the city’s downtown streetscape program.
“It was felt this would probably be the best overall site for our downtown,” Pray said Monday. “It’s centrally located for the entire community and the transportation (access) would be very good to the site.”
City Manager Jay Baksa said the Council will get a chance to look at the proposed building footprint and site layout for the Eigleberry site at tonight’s meeting. If they agree, they have the option of authorizing city staff to make formal inquiries with property owners in the area.
The general area of the Eigleberry site toward the south side of the downtown core possibly incorporates several different parcels.
Although it’s unclear how many of the structures or properties would be included, a local Realtor has said that one family owns nearly half of the land desired for the center and is motivated to sell.
Meanwhile, a portion of the old Gilroy Cannery building site at 111 Lewis St. is still considered a second, fallback option.
Businessman A.J. Patel runs a packaging business on a portion of the 12-acre cannery site – which was also ravaged by fire several years ago – but has said San Jose builder Barry Swenson is interested in buying the property for offices and high-density residential development.
The two sites had bested 21 different properties around town that city consultant John Sergio Fisher analyzed against criteria already established by the group, such as ease of access, a minimum area of roughly 2.2 acres and a cost that would not force the city to exceed funds it has set aside for the site.
Besides sufficient area and reasonable pricing, task force members generally favored the two sites because of their proximity to the downtown core provided for walkability and potential synergy with restaurants and other businesses in the area.
The task force has chosen a design that features a multipurpose theater with approximately 500 movable seats for the 28,000 square-foot center, which is estimated to cost between $8 million and $9 million to build. Under the city’s current capital improvement budget, construction would not start until the latter part of the decade, although roughly $1.2 million is budgeted to be available almost immediately for site purchase.
The meeting comes just days after a group led by a local Lutheran pastor announced its intention to open an events and arts center at the old Strand Theatre building at Lewis and Monterey streets, a stone’s throw away from the old cannery site.
The old theater – most recently the home of the Palermo Antiques store – was also among the task force’s highest-ranking choices for the city’s new center as well. However, members rejected it because they said the project would require a renovation – not a new building. And members said a fairly limited backstage area would require purchase of an adjacent vacant lot as well.
The study session on the arts center begins at 6 p.m. in the Council Chambers at Gilroy City Hall, 7351 Rosanna St. A formal action to approve the site and design option could follow during the regular meeting, which begins at 7 p.m.
