BURLINGTON — City officials are reviewing a proposal by concert promoter Higher Ground to operate Memorial Auditorium on a long-term basis once it has been renovated.
Higher Ground said it plans to develop “a multi-purpose events space that focuses on community gatherings that range from music to culinary events to civic debates and town meetings.” Under the proposal, the building would be active 365 days a year.
The Community Economic Development Office is working through the details of the bid, said director Luke McGowan. He said it was the only qualified bid the city had received in response to a request for proposal (RFP) to operate the auditorium, which closed because of safety concerns in late 2016 and has sat empty since then.
The RFP was opened last fall for eight weeks. In a memo CEDO sent to the Parks, Arts and Culture Committee about the process in January, the office said it solicited bids from both local and national operators. Higher Ground was one of three potential bidders that took part in a mandatory walk-through of the site last October. The other two were not named.
While details of the bid have not been made public, McGowan said his staff has “scored the proposal and graded the interview and are analyzing the results.” The goal is to bring in an operator who can deliver on the priorities that Burlington residents communicated during a feedback process that the mayor’s office and CEDO conducted in 2018, he said.
“The city would invest money to bring Memorial back to being a safe space and active space and then we would lease it to an operator who would commit to meeting some of these public benefits that were identified in this engagement process,” he said.
McGowan said the three main benefits identified by the public were shows and entertainment, which would be provided by the operator, along with using the auditorium as a place for civic engagement and the winter farmers market.
Higher Ground representatives did not respond to requests for comment.
Jesse Freedman, a projects and policy specialist with CEDO, told the city council’s Parks, Arts and Culture Committee Jan. 23 that if Higher Ground were chosen as the operator, it would have some impact on the work that needs to be done on the site.
The RFP called for the city to provide $15 miilion to $20 million from TIF and general obligation bonds to bring the building up to code, with an additional $1.5 million to be provided by the operator. Freedman said at the meeting that the building had been surveyed and that the estimated costs should be accurate.
At the meeting, Councilor Karen Paul raised the question of whether Higher Ground might be overextending itself in light of other ventures the promoter has been involved in — including a possible Burton concert venue in the South End. However, this space would not be owned by Higher Ground but only operated by the firm, a distinct that McGowan and Freedman said should alleviate any such concerns.
McGowan said the bid review process allowed the city to gauge interest among potential operators for the site.
“What was important about the RFP process was it was a test of the market to see if an operator was actually interested in this type of structure,” he said. “The test proved that there is interest but there isn’t overwhelming interest.”
McGowan said one benefit of Higher Ground as a potential operator is the business already has name recognition in the area.
However, he said that if the Higher Ground bid does not work out — either because CEDO decides not to accept it, the City Council rejects it or the voters reject it in November — the city would have to go back to the drawing board.
The plan is to have an item about refurbishing Memorial Auditorium on the ballot for voters in November, McGowan said.
