CADI Meeting Notes - May 18th 2005

Cultural Arts District Meeting - 5/18/05

Blair Library Board Room

In attendance: Steve Davis, Bob Ford, Amy Herzberg, Gail Leftwich, Kassie Misiewicz, Morgan Hicks, David Pickens, Cindy Arsaga, Jessica Whaley, Casey Hamaker, Betsy Gross, Christopher Bray, Sharon Hoover, Steve Gibson, Kathy Thompson, Daniel Hintz, Jill Anthes.

Jill Anthes announced that Dan Hintz has officially been hired as the Executive Director of Fayetteville Downtown Partners.

OLD BUSINESS

Dan Hintz gave a project timeline to get everyone at the meeting up to pace with the work that we’ve been doing so far.
This group began meeting 6 months ago.
Through a series of conversations FDP came up with 4 major objectives of which to use as a litmus test for developing projects.

• Increase opportunities for artists
• Strengthen the arts infrastructure
• Increase audiences for the arts
• Enhance young people’s access to the arts

Using this litmus test and exploring the needs of the creative community through several meetings, the CADI group identified over 190 specific projects.
FDP merged those into seven “Umbrella Categories” that could facilitate the success of the individual projects.
The CADI group then prioritized the seven “Umbrella Categories”.
They are listed below in the order of prioritization.

• Establish a Fayetteville Arts Commission
• Produce an expanded Fayetteville Arts Festival
• Define boundaries of the Fayetteville Arts and Cultural District
• Write and implement a Public Art Policy/ Develop and define a Museum Without Walls concept
• Develop and support a sustainable Downtown Gallery Arts Walk
• Facilitate certification of AIE/Rostered Artists at the state level

While FDP understands the importance of each of these items, the organization felt that it needed to focus on two for the next six months.
The expansion of the FAF and the formation of the Cultural Arts District were listed as an FDP priority due to its current scope of work.

NEW BUSINESS

In order to facilitate the creation of the Cultural Arts District, FDP has begun to merge their current process to create a Business Improvement District (BID) with that of the Cultural Arts District. Steve Gibson and Jessica Whaley of Urban Place Consulting were at the meeting to explain the workings of a BID and how it might be connected to the creation of a Cultural Arts District.

Gibson: These two areas of activity will work to support one another. They are separate in scope, but they are partners. One of the strengths of Fayetteville is the arts activity. This gives Fayetteville an edge over other communities. The BID is a financial mechanism that creates resources. Activities must be supported by a financial mechanism. Many of these initiatives that will be recommended will be linked to the funding created by the BID. Our role is to keep this a viable location for the art, and to craft these initiatives to support that.

Question: What exactly is a BID?

A BID is an assessment on the real property within a defined boundary. Two-thirds of the value of total real estate property owners must sign a petition to establish a BID – effectively asking that this additional assessment be applied to their area. The people who are responsible for paying these fees (with their taxes) are the property owners. A high majority of revitalized downtowns are using BIDs to create the core financial support. BIDs also can attract matching grants. If a business lies within a certain district, they
will be assessed and will help pay for the initiatives that are set out.

Jessica Whaley: An example of how a BID can work to help to sustain a cultural arts district is the Avenue of the Arts in Downtown Philadelphia. City money was being dedicated to support short-term projects. After the Kimmel Center was completed, however, the city needed to focus on the areas surrounding the Center to develop support structures (restaurants, galleries, live/work space, etc.) for the new creative centerpiece. The expanded area would become the “Avenue of the Arts”. Financial constraints began pull focus from the organization and it tried to maintain its base services and administration. The organization began to look at a BID to create financing for the Arts District. The BID became vital for this project to work.
These two ideas became very clear during this process:

• A dedicated source of revenue is vital.
• Identifying the boundaries is key because you don’t want to take too big of a bite – creating too big of a geography creates focus challenges and draws investment dollars away from a concentration of the arts.

Gibson: This is Urban Place’s third trip to Fayetteville. Fayetteville is an incredible surprise. We had no idea what it would be like. There is a very different vibe to Fayetteville than Rogers or other areas in NWA. We need to strengthen our creative offerings in order to keep Fayetteville unique. There is a good chance that the BID will be established, as there seems to be a good buy-in to the concept among property owners.

Right now, there still isn’t a dollar amount attached, so it is easier for people to agree. By the time the price tag is attached, there should already be a consensus that this is a necessary thing for the Downtown to thrive. In other areas it is easier to identify the essential issues such as maintenance, security, etc. Here, by pushing for the cultural arts, it may take a little bit more time to craft the real programs that need to be created to truly foster an arts district. He feels that there is a good chance for success here.

Question: The boundary of the Downtown Master Plan represents an area that is really high priced, so performance groups are going to priced out of the market. How does a BID help to create new performance arts venues?

Gibson: When dealing with the arts related issues, you have the geographically defined and the program defined. The question then becomes, “Do you only support arts within a certain district?” FDP has a very specific geographic scope of work and therefore, we are going to focus as much in the downtown area as possible because it generates buzz, etc. Some support for strengthening Fayetteville’s cultural arts identity must fall outside those FDP boundaries. We need to find ways to give incentives for developers to make it work.

For example: A non-profit arts group in Providence has pieced together a plan to create artist live/work space. They found tax incentive programs to help with the project development, such as Historic Preservation Monies and Low Cost Grants. They also recruited a restaurant as their flag tenant. The trick was finding a way to put together a package to allow artists to really function within these boundaries. You need to find out how other people approach this challenge and find ways that will work for you.

Question: Can BID money only be used within their boundaries?

Gibson: Yes, BID money can only directly be used within its boundaries. If you create a Cultural Arts District, they could focus on outlying areas, but there is the challenge of creating a long-term funding plan. Arts council could be funded by the BID, even though they could do some work outside the BID district – if the boundaries do not overlay one another.

Hintz: FDP can drive some of these conversations, but this organization can only do so much.

Gibson: We need to establish boundaries for the BID and the CADI. Now is the time to define the needs of those that are within that geography. You can learn through projects within the district and then take those models beyond those boundaries. You can also expand the boundaries at a later time to encompass a larger area.

Question: Should the boundaries start with the downtown or should they be expanded at this point?

Gibson: Maybe now is the time to set priorities about what you want to accomplish – then the boundaries will come more naturally. Decide what services you want to provide.

Ford: Once you set your boundaries, you lock people out. There aren’t many spaces downtown…unless the developers can be convinced to incorporate areas for these initiatives.

Anthes: I am hearing very strongly that, by spreading the boundaries, we could be dispersing these resources.

Gibson: You should make sure there is a real need to draw boundaries where you are drawing. For us, with the BID, it is much more important to understand what projects you feel are priorities.

Anthes: We could spend some time opening the floor to let people talk about some of their vision of what the Cultural Arts District should be, what services should be offered, and so on.

Hintz: We would like to get feedback from this group to make sure that there is a group consensus about how to proceed. FDP would like the mandate from this group to move forward with the process of determining what services and programs that are desires and then allow the boundaries to come more organically sometime down the line.

(No one at this meeting expressed concern or dissent.)

Ford: I can definitely see the BID funding the Fayetteville Arts Festival. The festival could become an incubator for all kinds of programming. It could expand into a few weeks, or ongoing throughout the year, thus creating a year-long menu of events. This will require venues, core staffing, year-long coordination and coordinated marketing.

Hamaker: I am interested in expanding arts audiences. One of the goals of the Iris Gallery is to show exclusively local artists. There is an amazing wealth of local artists, and it is easy to get scheduled out a few years in advance. Right now, it is easy to identify the artists, but it is harder to identify the patrons. There is some concern about sustaining the galleries. How do we get more people aware of and to appreciate the venues? 250-300 people come out for Art Walks a few times a year. If this could happen monthly, there would be more exposure. We have to work to cultivate the buyers.

Hintz: FDP would like to more active in helping to support these events.

Hamaker: We don’t want to have to rely on other organizations to be the visual arts venues. We are for-profit and we want to stay in the game. At $400, people begin to balk. The people that are buying at the $500 are serious buyers who usually go out of state to buy.

Gibson: FDP could have a group devoted to cultivation of arts patrons.

Hamaker: In the 90s, there were 10-15 galleries that had an art walk, and now all of those are gone.

Ford: I sometimes panic, feeling that Fayetteville has almost waited too long to develop our creative economy. The area brochures do not speak about an urban or cool feel. We need to throw ourselves on these developers and plea with them to not lose this identity.

Gibson: The surveys we conducted show an interest in having BID money go to creative development. Simply put, the downtown developer will not be able to sustain this market if downtown is going to turn into just another high-end restaurant district. We have to put together an attractive package for them. They understand each project is banking on the special qualities of the downtown. It is just a little harder to educate how to maintain and cultivate it. You have this connector (Block) that is currently not being fully realized. Possibly there could be greater density. Preserving ground-floors for spaces for artists.

Anthes: The downtown master plan creates opportunities for mixed use zoning and for mixed income housing. There are not incentives built into the plan. The Planning Commission and the Housing Authority met earlier this week, and it’s clear that everyone knows that there is an issue–but there aren’t many answers at this point.

Gibson: A BID cannot pay for these projects, but it can pay for staffing to facilitate and advocate for all of these issues. Arkansas BIDs are very broad – and bonds can actually be leveraged with a BID. Arkansas BIDs can even have imminent domain. The boundaries of the BID will be set within the next few months.

Question: What does the Cultural Arts District Group need to do next?

Gibson: Go back to your individual project list. Prioritize.

Ford: Is there an advocate for this opinion that Fayetteville must be the cultural arts center of NWA? There seems to be urgency for us to become a part of the decision-making bodies.

Gibson: The BID steering committee will be guiding this process Part of this group needs to be attending the BID steering committee meetings. This interest group must be represented around that table.

Anthes: The FDP Board of Directors and the BID Steering Committee discussed changing the name of the BID from a “business” improvement district to something broader that reflects the overall goals.

Arsaga: We will have to come up with the clearly defined name sometime soon.

Hintz: We don’t want these names to be arbitrary or to feel like there are competitive interests as opposed to an arm of FDP. FDP will work hard as an advocate for the arts.

Anthes: And we do have a group of people that have been meeting for 6 months. These are the people who will work hard to make the Cultural Arts District happen.

Gibson: Concerns are being generated and they need to migrate to the Steering Committee because they will be working as the guiding force of the BID. The feasibility study contains a lot of these concerns – specifically this idea of gentrification vs. the sustaining of a creative class. No one disagrees that these are major concerns. The devil is in the details. You have to be represented as these ideas are being hammered out. If you don’t share your voice, it will be assumed for you, and they may not represent your real priorities.

Hintz: The next step seems to be for this committee group to continue meeting to determine priorities, and then to carry these concerns to the Steering Committee to have our concerns heard at Steering Committee meetings.

Anthes: So that we don’t lose cohesiveness, we will continue to have monthly meetings. The next meeting will be on a Tuesday 6-7pm (not on a city council night). You will be contacted about the exact date. You will also be contacted about the BID Steering Committee Meeting.