Warren County residents will get a chance Tuesday night to see first-hand the plans and progress being made on the renovation of Park Theatre through the cooperative efforts of McMinnville city government and a citizens organization called the Park Theatre Group.
There will be a meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Board of Mayor and Aldermen room located on the second floor of McMinnville City Hall.
There will be a display of the relevant documents and plans, and artist’s representations of what the Park Theatre will look like once the renovations are done.
City administrator David Rutherford said this will give everyone a chance to meet with members of the Park Theatre Group and city government to discuss this project.
“What we hope to do is allow the citizens to see what the Park Theatre Group has been working on for the last year or so in trying to get renovation plans ready,” Rutherford said. “So that the public will have a chance to make some comments and express their excitement about it. They can share that excitement with the mayor and board as they try to make decisions on how to go about funding it.”
Those interested can attend the city meeting to discuss the project.
“They can come a little bit early if they want to,” Rutherford said. “The formal presentation will be at 6 p.m., but there will be some opportunity to review plans from about 5 p.m. on. There will be some sketches of what the inside will look like when renovation is complete, if it moves ahead the way it’s been proposed by the Park Theatre Group.”
Obtaining the funding has been an ongoing effort, with the Park Theatre Group raising approximately $200,000 through private donations. According to documents provided by the PTG, the preliminary cost range for the project has been estimated to be between $1.2 to $2 million.
In September, city officials voted to begin the process of obtaining 20-year bonds to finance the project and Park Theatre Group members agreed to hire an architect to generate bid documents, which would run around $80,000. The PTG agreed to sign a lease and make the annual payments out of fees and proceeds from the facility. Once the loan was repaid, the PTG would then be allowed to purchase the property for $1.
All of this had to be approved by the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury, and at one point it appeared that was going to happen as the comptroller’s office approved the initial plan. However once the actual lease was submitted to the comptroller’s office there was a snag — the section that allowed the PTG to buy the property for $1 once the loan was paid off.
City attorney Tim Pirtle initially felt this was similar to some lease-purchase agreements signed with new industrial concerns, but it turned out that these type of agreements can only be used to recruit new industry, and not other types of businesses.
This could leave funding in limbo until this issue is resolved, according to Rutherford.
“That’s one of the issues that we’re still working on with the comptroller’s office,” said Rutherford. “It appears the city wants to go ahead and move forward and help with the renovation, but there’s been no actual vote taken.
“The stumbling block has been how do we actually do that with the Park Theatre Group. We had originally thought the Park Theatre Group would do the debt service payments and cover operations, so the taxpayers wouldn’t be out any money,” Rutherford continued. “And the decision was if they’re going to do that, then maybe they should own the building at the end of the debt service. The comptroller says you can’t do that.
“So now what we’re trying to do is structure some type of lease or management agreement where they’re able to go in and actually manage the facility. The other thing we’ve got to work on is how are we going to be able to generate the money to pay for the debt service. There are still a lot of issues to work out on debt service and who’s going to service that.”
Both Pirtle and PTG member David Marttala have been working with the comptroller, actually paying a visit to the office recently, but no final decision has been made. Marttala says the PTG is willing to rework the lease agreement, and that is one of the things that will be discussed Tuesday.