I got a report. Of course, after years trying to get a community art center built, people are really excited about this opportunity!

However, as far as I heard from somebody who was there, neither Councilmember Kingsbury nor Artspace mentioned the basic facts about the costs to the City of doing a project like this through the Artspace organization, which certainly seems as if it ought to be part of an realistic introduction to Artspace and what's really involved in getting the city an arts center through this particular route...

According to the Council's previous discussion of this proposal, we paid the Artspace consultants $10,000 to come visit for these two days. They would want $30,000 - $42,00 to do a survey of artists and arts organizations in the city to help "determine market capacity" for a building. They would also want the City to pay for the land for one, and to provide about $700,000 for pre-development costs.

(Incidentally, as it happens, Stephen Buxbaum advised on and had an oversight role in the financing of both the Artspace projects in Seattle, as part of his work directing the state's housing programs.)

Best,
Thad