City council to consider funding community cultural hub

Plans for a long-awaited mid-sized performance space in Brantford could soon be moving forward.

Representatives from Wilfrid Laurier University plan to make a formal funding request to the city in September. They will ask city councilors to consider contributing half of the estimated $12.7 million cost of creating a community cultural hub in former movie theaters at One Market.

Closed for many years, the three theaters are located in what was once Eaton Market Square, a former downtown shopping mall.

Laurier purchased the 300,000-square-foot building from the city in 2014 and has since invested millions of dollars into its renovation. The work is being done in phases and One Market now includes classrooms, services for students and offices for university staff.

A year ago, Laurier staff unveiled architectural drawings — $150,000 was provided by the City of Brantford for the work – for the proposed cultural hub, which would turn the former upper-floor cinema spaces into a gallery, art house movie theater and mid-sized performance space with 250 to 300 seats.

A report presented to city councilors at a planning and administration meeting on Tuesday said the performing arts community has, since the 1970s, been talking about the need for a mid-sized performance space in Brantford that could host productions too small for the Sanderson Centre.

“The plan is to consolidate two of the three theaters into a performing arts space that would have uses from dance to small speaker series,” said Sara Munroe, the city’s director of economic development, tourism and cultural initiatives. “And one of the former theater spaces would be redeveloped in partnership with Princess Cinemas to be an actual theater so people could attend movies.”

Munroe said there would also be spaces for concessions and dressing rooms.

“It’s meant to be a launching off space for smaller performance arts organizations to build their audiences in order to eventually be able to have the capacity to move into larger spaces like the Sanderson Centre,” said Munroe.

If city council decides to provide half the funding – about $6.35 million – it would come from casino revenue and be paid over 10 years.

Rental rates for the space have yet to be determined.

A task force was struck in 2015 to look into the feasibility of constructing a mid-sized performance art centre. The cost of building a stand-alone centre, said Mayor Kevin Davis, was about $45 million, with operating costs of up to $700,000.

“It wouldn’t be feasible for the city to do that,” said Davis. “Laurier stepped forward to offer this proposal. I think this provides us with a great opportunity to have in place a small to mid-sized performing arts center that will assist with the rejuvenation of the downtown and also assists various arts and cultural groups.”

Davis said council supporting the plan in principle gives city staff authority to move forward and negotiate terms with Laurier.