STEVENS POINT – After being vacant for more than 30 years, the Fox Theatre is one step away from reopening its doors to the community.
After receiving approval from the city’s finance committee on Monday night and the Reprogression Authority on Tuesday afternoon, staff are preparing a progression agreement with Wildcard Corp. to create an area for interiors and events, adding a green area and a café with a small stage.
The Stevens Point Joint Council will take a final resolution on the adoption of the progression agreement at its meeting on 17 August.
The plan-making commission and the joint board would then meet to discuss the sale of the assets to the developer. If all is approved at the upcoming meetings, WildCard may own it until the end of September, said Ryan Kernosky, the city’s director of network development.
According to his proposal, WildCard needs to maintain the historical configuration of the opera by incorporating original elements such as balcony, level and armchairs. The plans come with a giant raised terrace to enlarge the back of the existing structure, in the same position as the original seats on the theater balcony. A level will be held at the location of the original scene.
The dominance of the theater would become a closed and fenced domain with a cobbled courtyard and green domains called Andrae’s Biergarten, according to G.F. Andrae, the asset owner and design manager of the original opera in 1893. Guests can gather to socialize, eat, drink and enjoy live entertainment such as music or outdoor games.
The plans come with patio radiators, so visitors can use the area in spring, summer and fall. Garlands and bright spots will be provided in the outdoor area, adding sound force and lighting for live entertainment.
The domain can be rented for public or personal events, but in the absence of scheduled events, it will be open to the public between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. Sunday to Thursday and from 10 a.m. to Friday and Saturday. Visitors will be invited to spend time on games of chance on the lawn, such as throwing bags of beans, giant tic-tac-toe, giant chess and Connect Four. The region will have loose Wi-Fi.
Inside, the area has two points. The declining point will be designed with an open area concept that can be used for public and personal occasions, such as presentations, network council meetings, art exhibitions, receptions, music and weddings. A catering kitchen will be held in the northeast corner to accommodate food and drinks for personal occasions. Wi-Fi will also be presented to consumers indoors.
WildCard’s initial plans come with the start of repair and landscaping of the buildings this fall and the renovation of the interior early next year. According to an initial schedule, the paintings are expected to be completed in the spring of 2021. Plans also come with a fee of approximately $525,000 for renovations.
The progression agreement indicates that WildCard would acquire the city’s assets for $1 until December 31, 2020 and would have the final occupation of the site until July 1, 2022. The Reprogression Authority owns the green area of the building. and would also sell the area to WildCard for $1. This area was originally a component of the theater and was removed in 1985 to make way for a grocery mall.
The progression agreement will take effect on the date of your signature and expire five years after WildCard has started the site. Under the agreement, the city can claim assets if the developer does not meet the needs of the agreement.
WildCard will pay to remove and rebuild the access road, and the city will pay to move the existing garden area of the Fox Theatre to a green area of Guu’s in Main, next to Strongs Avenue. The City would also agree to provide a grant from the facade program if WildCard meets all needs and obtains all mandatory approvals for this grant.
In his proposal, WildCard indicated that he would seek public budget for an improvement of the facade. It plans to apply for the condition for the improvement of the facade in order to repair the brick, windows, declining front and complex main points of the facade. WildCard’s plans will repair the opera’s original facade.
From WildCard to keep the history of the original building, the Fox Theatre marquee will be removed, but some teams in the network are working with the ancient society to move it, Kernosky said.
According to city documents, the resolution to continue the proposal came after the city issued a request for proposals in March. The city won two proposals, which were reviewed through Mayor Mike Wiza; Tori Jennings, city councillor; Kernosky; Sara Brish, Executive Director of the Stevens Point Area Convention – Visitors Office; and Todd Kuckkahn, Executive Director of the Portage County Business Council. The variety organization took note of each proposal on a topic described in the application, and the organization interviewed any of the organizations.
The variety organization considered WildCard’s proposal to be a smart selection because many teams in the network knew they wanted a time-based area in the city center, which would help combine the network and align the plan with the donation agreement between Sanders’ family circle and the Portage County Arts Alliance.
After the theater closed in 1986, Andrae’s great-granddaughter, Ada Sanders, and his circle of relatives thought they were demands for the site’s long-term, but eventually rejected each and every one of them because they wanted it to reopen as a theater. In 2011, Sanders and his brothers announced that they were looking to repair the elegance of the theatre and use it for shows, a place to eat and an installation for weddings and events. They began working with the Arts Alliance, now known as CREATE Portage County, and sanders’ circle of relatives donated the name to the organization with the agreement that the area would focus on the arts and cover a network need. Fox on Main was created to manage assets and asset plans.
The agreement, signed in October 2012, establishes the permitted and prohibited uses of the property. They can be used for “civic, governmental, cultural or educational purposes, including, but not limited to: cinema, level for theatrical performances, art gallery, music studio, music salon, dance studio, school, restaurant, specialty food store, gastronomy arts and general or similar activities to support the arts, entertainment and culture.”
In 2013, Fox on Main began executing designs, a business plan and feasibility studies for space. The effects showed that operating the Fox Theatre as a return theater would not be imaginable without a spouse, and efforts to locate that spouse failed. Research has also shown that theatre would not succeed alone.
CREATE Portage County has noticed a lack of entrepreneurship and innovation in the region. As a result, the organization introduced an IDEA Center in 2016 as a pilot program to meet those needs, with plans to move to the Fox Theatre site. In April 2019, CREATE announced its goal of maintaining the theatre’s facade, demolishing a maximum of two-thirds of the rear of the construction, and moving its IDEA center to its new home.
Plans found a challenge when inspections of the city showed that the structure was uncertain and that the roof had leaks, causing damage to the structure. The city issued a 90-day shaving order in July 2019, saying the structure was so damaged and in ruins that it posed a risk to the public’s health and safety. Efforts to increase the budget to solve rapidly structure challenges failed and Fox on Main told the city that it would no longer combat the shaving order and would no longer be the site as a location for the IDEA Center.
Fox on Main board members agreed to sell the assets to the city for $1 in November, and the city completed the acquisition at the end of the year. When the city acquired the Fox on Main theater, the 2012 deal remained in place. The city demolished two-thirds of the back of the construction in winter to maintain the front and facade before its call for proposals on the site.
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Contact Caitlin on [email protected] or her on Twitter @CaitlinShuda.