Flathead organizations team up on performing arts center

At least five major organizations in the Flathead think the time is right to build a regional-scale
performing arts center here.

By Nancy Kimball
The Daily Inter Lake

Glacier Orchestra and Chorale, the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce, City of Kalispell, Flathead
Valley Community College and the Flathead Business and Industry Association agreed to sign
articles of incorporation to set up a nonprofit organization to support such a venture.

Chamber Executive Vice President Joe Unterreiner said the county commissioners also have
been invited to join the coalition.

A Bozeman arts consultant estimates the proposed 1,500- to 1,700-seat facility, tentatively called
the Glacier Center for the Performing Arts, could cost between $7 million and $15 million, plus the
price of land.

The consultant, ArtsMarket, said an in-kind gift of land is often the lead gift for such centers, with
the remainder of the cost funded 60 percent privately and 40 percent publicly.

A business plan has been filed with the 501(c)3 status application, outlining an approach for
research, evaluation, fund-raising and construction of the project.

"In the next few months," Unterreiner said, "we’ll begin looking at what requirements a site like
this has."

A consultant will research details such as square footage of the building, size of the lot to
accommodate it, parking spaces needed and the cost.

A request for proposals should go out by the end of April, Unterreiner said.

In a study summary, ArtsMarket recommends that the center be located downtown, since "as
much as 75 percent of the economic impact of performing arts is off-site in spending related to the
event."

Few places in Kalispell’s downtown district could accommodate such a project, but speculation
has turned to Kalispell Center Mall as a potential site.

Asked whether the mall is a candidate, Unterreiner said it’s too early to target a location. But he
admitted the mall’s parent corporation, WestCoast Hospitality Corp. in Spokane, has been in on
discussions.

Land offers from elsewhere have not really come in yet, Unterreiner said.

"We don’t really have anything to deliver yet," he said. "When it gets to that point there will be
plenty of Realtors."

FVCC needs a production theater on its campus, the study notes, but "the positive economic
impact of ‘downtown’ performing arts centers is so well-proven that a downtown complex …
remains the top recommendation."

Ownership and which organizations would take up primary residency in such a hall are not
decided. Glacier Orchestra and Chorale, however, has been looking for a permanent home for
more than a decade and is an enthusiastic backer of the performing arts center.

"Their need provides an opportunity for a major tenant, and (a future center) advances their
program," Unterreiner said. "We would have others, possibly the Northwest Ballet and
WestCoast’s entertainment division."

He said WestCoast Entertainment already sponsors a successful Broadway series at the
Spokane Opera House, and likely could book regional touring acts into a performing arts center in
the Flathead.

Unterreiner emphasized that the steering committee is looking beyond Kalispell for valleywide
cooperation.

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