Nearly three years after promising to raise at least $30 million to match voter approval of $60 million in bonds to renovate Boettcher Concert Hall, the Colorado Symphony Orchestra has yet to begin a fundraising drive and now wishes to use some bond money for general maintenance.
After voters approved the project, symphony officials began dreaming they could do much more if they could raise more money. Under one scenario, they hoped to raise $100 million for an entirely new concert hall at a new site.
Then the economic downturn dealt a blow to their fundraising hopes. Now they are pushing for a middle-of-the- road approach that would require them to raise about $50 million to renovate and expand the existing facility.
And they still find themselves to a certain extent at square one, not sure how much private donors will be willing to give.
More time is needed to determine that answer, and another feasibility study is needed, said James Palermo, the symphony president, in a recent briefing with the City Council. It’s a crucial question because the symphony can’t tap $40 million of the bonds until it raises at least $30 million privately. Palermo added that it likely will take three to five years to raise the money the symphony needs.
Meanwhile, the symphony is using buckets to catch rain leaking through a 1970s-era roof. The elevator system is dripping hydraulic fluid. Carpeting has become so faded it’s hard to detect the original pattern.
Symphony officials plan to spend $1.5 million of the bond money this year to make stopgap repairs while they determine whether they can raise money privately for robust rebuild plans. They say the fixes won’t just be temporary and will still remain a part of the overall rebuild plan.
“We really have no choice,” Jack Finlaw, the city’s director of theatres and arenas, told the council. “The leaks in the roof are dramatic, and some of the problems with the building are pretty grave.”
He added that making the emergency repairs now will give the symphony time to gauge just how much it can raise privately, something he termed “crucial for the project’s ultimate success.”
The delay in fundraising partly stems from the need to hire new leadership at the symphony after Doug Adams, the past president, left to take a job with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Finlaw said.
Before voters in the fall of 2007 approved the Boettcher renovation plan as part of a $550 million citywide bond renovation package, the symphony had about $22 million in private commitments.
But these days the symphony is finding it hard to raise money even for operating expenses, which also depend on ticket revenue and sales-tax revenues raised in the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District. Since the economic downturn, the earlier pledges for the renovation have dropped to about $18.3 million.
“We know from all the research that is being done, and the projects that are coming to fruition now, that fundraising obviously is taking a lot longer for capital projects than it used to,” Palermo told the council.
Last year, the symphony slashed operating expenses from $12.5 million to $10.5 million to close a budget gap. The musicians took a 12.5 percent pay cut and a 10.5 percent cut in benefits.
Palermo declined in an interview to reveal how the operating budget is faring this year. He said he still has a month to raise funds privately to meet this year’s budget, which comes to an end on June 30. Typically, he said, the symphony sees a surge in donations at the end of the budget cycle.
Palermo, who was hired to take the helm of the symphony 14 months ago, said he also has a new senior management team in place.
While the symphony struggles to determine how much it can raise, other cultural institutions have moved forward on their bond improvement programs. Construction is well underway at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. The Denver Botanic Gardens already completed its renovations.
Councilman Michael Hancock, who chairs the council committee overseeing the bond improvement program, said the council will give the symphony some time.
“I don’t think there is an imminent decision that has to be made,” Hancock said. “But the council is going to have to advance the discussion at some point. It could be five years from now, but that conversation is going to have to happen.”
Mayor John Hickenlooper was unavailable for comment, but Finlaw said the mayor won’t issue the $40 million portion in bonds that require a $30 million private match unless the private money is secured.
“He wants to reiterate to the voters that he hasn’t forgotten that there was supposed to be a match,” Finlaw said.
Christopher N. Osher: 303-954-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com
