There is no confirmed private financial backer committed to funding a new building for and relocation of the Arkansas Arts Center, its foundation board chairman said Friday.
"That's a false perception," Chairman Bobby Tucker said. "There's nothing tied down with private money."
The Arkansas Arts Center Foundation announced Thursday that it is seeking proposals for a new building because of its current structure at 501 E. Ninth St. in MacArthur Park in Little Rock needing significant repairs and upgrades.
The building is owned by the city of Little Rock, and the city appoints members to the center's board of trustees, which is a public entity. The foundation is separate. The nonprofit fundraising arm of the center, the foundation, owns the art collection and has its own board.
Speculation arose last month about plans for the Arts Center to relocate to riverfront property in North Little Rock after a telephone survey asked North Little Rock residents if they would support a 1 percent sales tax, of which half would go to fund a public-private project that would include an arts center or museum.
But Tucker said in an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Friday that private contributions aren't necessarily in play when it comes to a new Arts Center building.
"Right now, we are looking at public money," he said. "It's possible there is some private money out there, but it's not in any way firmed up. Whoever that private money might be, we don't want to scare them off by saying 'OK, they're in,' when that's just not true."
The Arkansas Times blog has reported that the potential private-public project in North Little Rock would be partly funded by the Stephens family. In response to that, Tucker said Friday he doesn't speak for the Stephens family, but "that's incorrect."
"I've read where they said someone is going to offer up a large sum of money, but I have not heard that in any of the meetings I've been in," he said.
Tucker is a managing director at Stephens Inc., a financial services firm of which Warren Stephens is the president and chief executive officer. Earlier this month, Stephens issued a statement to the Democrat-Gazette that said he is "not the person or entity behind the large donation that has been discussed."
Stephens also used to be the chairman of the Arkansas Arts Center Foundation board.
Tucker confirmed Thursday that the foundation commissioned and paid for the North Little Rock polling. He said Friday that the poor condition of the Arts Center building is what sparked the poll.
"That's the catalyst for this whole new building," he said. "There are a lot of things that need to be done. The estimates we've had on what the expenses would be is a large number. So we thought, 'Do we patch it up again, or do we look at a new building?'"
Tucker wouldn't elaborate on where the idea for the North Little Rock poll came from or how relocating across the river became an option.
"I don't know. Somebody said, 'Well, I wonder if North Little Rock might have an interest?' But we're hoping Little Rock has an interest, too," Tucker said. "We just want what is best for the Arts Center."
According to a letter that Arts Center Director Todd Herman wrote to the Little Rock Board of Directors in December, the center has numerous maintenance needs.
Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola told city officials at the time that the city is responsible for maintenance and upkeep of the building.
The board voted to increase its yearly funding to the center by $150,000 in 2015, ultimately sending $550,000 to the center. The Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau gave another $50,000. North Little Rock provided the Arts Center $40,000 this year.
"The [Arts Center] is at risk of losing accreditation with several of the deficiencies in our building which have resulted from lack of sufficient funding for maintenance," Herman wrote in the December letter.
There are "concerns with climate control, roofing, inadequate and lack of art storage space, art receiving areas not up to museum standards, parking areas and numerous other concerns that are a direct result of deferred maintenance," he said, adding that two consultants confirmed the needs in 2012 and 2014.
Herman said the center would need $10 million-plus to accomplish all of what is needed. There are "urgent" needs for a backup generator, gallery lighting upgrades and additional storage.
One outstanding request is for the city to repave and reline the parking lot, which is estimated to cost $60,000, the letter said. The center had paid a "significant injury claim" due to a student falling on uneven pavement.
Little Rock created the Arts Center museum in 1960. Stodola has said the city will bid to keep its asset.
"Little Rock intends to participate," Stodola said Thursday. "We will see what their space needs are and see how we can respond to that.
"It may mean they want a new location. I've come up with suggestions to them on other locations that will create immediate access to 300,000 people that go to the Statehouse Convention Center and the extra 300,000 that go to the Clinton library. I hope that would be attractive to them. The whole financial piece would have to be looked at. I don't have any specifics on that."
Tucker said Friday that the foundation is open to offers from Little Rock and North Little Rock. There isn't a time frame on when a decision will be made, he said.
"In my words, where we are, we'd have to do a total overhaul. A new building is the most desirable. We are taking it one step at a time," Tucker said.
Metro on 02/21/2015