FAIR: Ambitious Wheeler Chooses Historic ‘Expansion’ Over Endowment

October 1st, 2008 at 06:40am Post Staff 43

[Editor's Note: This news coverage has been underwritten by Factual Aspen Investigative Reporting (FAIR). FAIR has been formed and organized in Aspen, Colorado, as a nonprofit corporation to conduct investigative journalism in the public interest, and to provide accurate, meaningful, and non-biased news coverage based on correct factual information.]

ASPEN, COLORADO (Post Time News)—The Wheeler Opera House, owned by the City of Aspen, has ambitious plans to expand in a way that not only could threaten chances for a long-term endowment, according to the City’s former Finance Director, but also calls into question whether the historic Opera House has the right to expand based on the language used to create the Real Estate Transfer Tax (RETT) that provides a revenue stream.

Former Finance Director Paul Menter, now Finance Director of the nonprofit Aspen Community Foundation, told Post Time News the Wheeler can’t spend the money to expand and still be able to meet an endowment goal of $70 million by 2018, a figure set by Aspen City Council in a budget proceeding to make the Opera House self-sufficient.

“If they are taking all this money to expand,” Menter said. “There will be no way that they can get rid of the RETT [in 2018] and set up an endowment to run the Wheeler Opera House. I just don’t see how they can do it.”

Wheeler Executive Director Gram Slaton told Post Time News he disagrees with Menter and feels the Opera House can expand and still meet its endowment goal. At least four members of the Wheeler Board of Directors—Ron Erickson, Pam Cunningham, Jane Battaglia, and Matthew Loden—all enthusiastically support Slaton’s plans for expansion. “The community for over 33 years has been calling for the Wheeler Opera House to be expanded,” Slaton said. “We want a second stage, rehearsal space, office space expanded and a purposedriven box office. Once again there has been a call from the community to build a substantial building.”

Slaton said he was surprised by Menter's reaction because "I've sat down with him and gone over the numbers and previously agree with me that we could meet out goals."

Menter told Post Time News no such meeting or agreement had taken place.

But Slaton also said the endowment is taking a backseat at the Wheeler because of the focus on the expansion.

“Right now I am not concerned with the endowment,” Slaton told Post Time News.

“Maybe City Council changed the goal,” Menter said in response, “or there’s a misrepresentation of the facts. The truth is the endowment needs to be higher than the $70 million. Slaton’s action begs the question: does he take Council authority seriously?”

Other questions remain for the Wheeler’s Executive Director, including how much the expansion to the west of the existing structure will cost. Despite his insistence the $70 million goal would be met within the 2018 timeframe, Slaton also said he had no clear idea what the expansion would ultimately cost, with proposals ranging anywhere from $1.5 million to $7 million to $30 million.

The Wheeler has $17 million in the kitty and the City of Aspen has promised to pay back the $8 million it borrowed from the Wheeler to buy land for affordable housing—for a total of $25 million in available funds. But RETT revenues are falling in the face of a local real estate downturn that left revenues down 37 percent through June 2008 (Post Time News: August 5, 2005)

The Wheeler Opera House opened in April of 1889 and suffered a setback in 1912 when two fires damaged the building. In the 1960s and 1970s the Wheeler Opera House was used as a movie theatre. In 1979, voters approved a Real Estate Transfer Tax (RETT) and a $4.5 million renovation was completed in 1984.

“We are just in the beginning stages of this project,” said Ron Erickson, the head of the Wheeler Board of Directors. “I think it is a great idea to expand the Opera House and believe we will have the funds to do it and still be able to build the endowment.”

Another issue is whether the extension of Aspen City Council Ordinance No. 67 from 1994 allows for the proposed expansion. The ordinance refers repeatedly to “renovation and reconstruction” of the existing Opera House without any specific mention of “expansion” per se. The original wording is “to provide sufficient funds to make such renovation and reconstruction; to provide for the maintenance of the Wheeler Opera House; and subordinate, thereto, to provide for the support of the visual and performing arts….”

A subsequent mention in Ordinance No. 67 under “Application of funds” reads: “The fund shall be subject to appropriations by the City Council of the City of Aspen only for the purpose of renovation, reconstruction, and maintenance of the Wheeler Opera House or for the payment of principal and interest on bonds issued for such purposes and for the purpose of supporting the visual and performing arts.”

“There’s nothing particularly wrong with changing the wording of an ordinance to fit a project,” said City Attorney John Worcester. “The Council has the right to change their mind about these things and they’re non-binding.”

“The question you should ask,” Paul Menter said, “is whether the wording allows for the Opera House to be expanded.”

Entry Filed under: Aspen, Post Time News, Aspen City Council