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By JEREMY HAY
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
In an effort to wring more return from the Spreckels Performing Arts Center, Rohnert Park will consider turning over the operations of its cultural landmark to an East Bay theatrical management company.
Lafayette-based VenueTech, which also runs public theaters in Campbell, Eureka and Vacaville, will present its proposal to the City Council Tuesday.
“We’re pretty optimistic about this idea and it really is classic public private partnership,” said interim city manager Dan Schwarz.
The goal of the arrangement is to “operate the theatre through a business plan based on a careful balance between the creative and community service goals with the relistic financial expectations established by our client,” VenueTech said in its proposal.
The Rohnert Park council, struggling with a deficit projected to be $6 million next year, in February voted to turn the Spreckels Center into a rental-only facility. It also cut the amount it gives the center each year, from about $180,000 to $60,000.
Lowering that subsidy even more is the eventual goal, Schwarz said, but in the meantime, “What they’re proposing is that they can do a lot more for the same amount of money.”
Under the prospective arrangement, VenueTech would manage and staff the performing arts center, create a business plan for it, and also establish a nonprofit foundation to raise funds for the ongoing operations of the center.
“That’s something we’ve never been able to do successfully in Rohnert Park,” said Schwarz. “There was always the intention to form a nonprofit but it never got up and running.”
He said, “They’ll be able to bring us more bang for the buck because they’ll leverage our money to bring in more money for the theater.”
The center has an endowment of nearly $1 million, but more than half of that is restricted to maintaining the 41,000-square-foot facility. The center puts on about 90 seasonal events a year and is rented out for about as many community events, performances and meetings annually.
In Campbell, under a similar arrangement, VenueTech has managed the city’s Heritage Theater since it opened in 2004.
“Its going really well, we’re very happy with their services,” said Linda Klemczak, the East Bay city’s director of parks and recreation.
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