With the final vote over the fate of the Overture Center for the Arts quickly approaching, members of Madison’s City Council are unlikely to approve the current focus model as it stands today.
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, a member of the city’s Overture Center Ad Hoc committee, said he thinks members of the City Council most likely will not approve the current model.
“There aren’t even close to enough votes on the council to approve it,” Verveer said. “The model as proposed by [Mayor Dave Cieslewicz] and Overture officials barely has five to six votes.”
Verveer also said the committee will vote on their final recommendations to the council this Friday and the council will take up the ordinance in November, following Cieslewicz’s plan to find an appropriate new financial model for Overture to prevent it from further financial woes.
Several members of the committee and the City Council went on a tour of Overture Monday guided by Overture CEO Tom Carto to see the major maintenance costs the city could assume under the current plan.
Throughout the ad hoc process, many members of the committee have said costs for physical maintenance the city would assume under a new financial model could pose problems for the city if the council approves the current proposed focus model.
Carto told the group of alders and committee members Overture’s efficiency for major internal systems including heating and cooling has increased greatly throughout the last several years.
“We’ve learned a lot,” Carto said. “The HVAC efficiency has increased immensely…it’s saved us over $200,000.”
Carto said ticket revenues for Overture subscriptions have increased substantially throughout the past several years and added next season’s Broadway schedule will likely include a higher-profile schedule than this seasons’ schedule.
Carto added with the technology and size on both the Overture Hall and Capitol Theater stages, Overture is capable of hosting any size production. He also said Overture is attempting to appeal to a younger demographic by booking mainstream rock acts at the Capitol Theater.
Under the current model, the city would pay for Overture’s physical operating costs while a non-profit board would pay for the facility’s business-related ventures.
Ald. Bridget Maniaci, District 2, said the scale of the maintenance behind Overture, which includes the large HVAC system, three large boilers, flooring and other major considerations, made her realize the potential financial implications of purchasing Overture.
“You have to see it in order to understand it from a budgeting perspective,” Maniaci said. “I think it’s important for us making the decisions to understand the size and the mass of the building.”
The other major costs the city would assume include a 90-foot glass wall characteristic of Cesar Pelli designs. Carto said the wall, which faces Henry Street, is the northernmost wall of its kind in the world, which requires a sometimes expensive heating system to avoid condensation.
Additionally, Carto said the Travertine stone floors which lay at the entry to Overture Hall, the facility’s largest theater, are now treated with a special coating that has lowered maintenance costs on the floors, which previously were problematic for their more delicate properties.
