City of Alexandria, Virginia
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MEMORANDUM
DATE: DECEMBER 7, 2021
TO: THE HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL
FROM: MARK B. JINKS, CITY MANAGER /s/
DOCKET TITLE:
TITLE
Consideration of Scenarios for the Revitalization of the Torpedo Factory Art Center.
BODY
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ISSUE: Outlining three illustrative scenarios for the Torpedo Factory Art Center for City Council review and consideration.
RECOMMENDATION: That City Council receive a presentation and discuss the three illustrative scenarios for the Torpedo Factory Art Center and provide general direction on a preferred scenario to staff on how to proceed with revitalization for the Art Center.
SUMMARY: During the June 22, 2021 Legislative Meeting, City Council tasked City staff to present potential strategies for the implementation of the Action Plan and the revitalization of the Art Center for Council consideration in December 2021.
Staff has been working with a consultant team from Smithgroup on developing the space plan strategies, and a consultant team from JLL worked to analyze the financial feasibility of potential implementation strategies. Additionally, the City, led by the General Services Department has undertaken a structural assessment of the rooftop and waterfront access, along with a full building condition assessment (as part of the planned five-year review cycle) to better understand the opportunities and constraints of the building as well as needed maintenance and system improvements.
BACKGROUND: In 1974, a portion of the four Torpedo Factory buildings, which had been a munitions factory, and then a federal records and storage center, was reopened as a unique art center. The Torpedo Factory Art Center (the “Art Center”), which now comprises 74,000 square feet of space, became a showcase for the nation’s largest number of publicly accessible artists’ studios under a single roof. It was a unique model at the time of its establishment.
Today the Art Center welcomes national and international visitors each year giving them the opportunity to meet and interact with more than 130 resident artists in 82 studios and seven galleries. The Art Center is also home to The Art League school and gallery and the City’s Archaeology Museum, part of the Office of Historic Alexandria.
From 1974 when the Art Center was founded, through 1998 the Art Center was managed by the City of Alexandria through various departments including General Services and the Office of Historic Alexandria. In 1998, the Art Center management was turned over to the Torpedo Factory Artists Association.
In 2010, based on the findings and suggestions in the MAI Study to improve the vibrancy of the Art Center and to make the overall arts experience more contemporary after years of artist-led management, the City created a non-profit organization, the Torpedo Factory Art Center Board (the “TFACB”) who operated the Art Center until 2016. Since 2016, the Art Center was managed by the City’s Office of the Arts temporarily until City Council voted to make the operations permanent in 2018.
While the City has had rights to, or owned the facility since 1972, during this period of arts use, leases for use of the building covered most of its operating costs, and until the TFACB era, Art Center amortized capital costs were recovered in the lease rates for minimal upkeep and renovations. City-incurred capital costs were no longer amortized and covered by the lease rates when the TFACB took over responsibility, in order to keep the studio leases more affordable to the artists.
Since 2012, over a dozen reports, studies, and surveys have been conducted by various groups including the City, the Artists Association, and the TFACB, to provide insight on the operations of the Art Center, the role the arts play in Alexandria, and the City’s investment in the arts on behalf of the community.
While these studies have different goals and recommendations, they all share common threads such as ensuring the building benefit the community through the arts, that a substantial facility investment is necessary, and that single leadership is necessary towards creating and sustaining a vision and mission.
In 2019 the City contracted with Smithgroup and Chora, two well-known consulting groups that work with industry leading art institutions, to develop an Action Plan to move the Art Center forward and achieve the Council directed objected of creating a Vibrancy and Sustainability Plan.
On February 20, 2021, City Council received the Action Plan for Vibrancy and Sustainability at Torpedo Factory Art Center which includes three interconnected Core Strategic Directions (CSDs) to guide the Art Center:
• Re-establish the Art Center’s Identity for a 21st Century Audience.
• Curate the Building, with a Focus on the First Floor, for Improved Visitor Experience and Artist/Studio Program.
• Establish Policies and Procedures that Identify the Art Center as a High Performing Organization and Rebuild the Art Center’s Role as a Leader in the Country.
While the management of the Art Center by the City since 2018 has brought stability and renewed public excitement for the Art Center, the City also needs to rebuild the relationship with the Alexandria community and the broader artist community throughout the region to ensure the Art Center’s success.
DISCUSSION: Staff will present three illustrative implementation scenarios that include differing levels of private involvement:
1. Incremental/Minimal Revitalization: Assumes mostly modest improvements and changes as outlined in the Action Plan in the near term - including reinvesting in the building to perform substantial deferred maintenance.
2. Custom Program: City itself would manage a tailored mixed-used program with CIP funds. The City, private property manager, or an alternative delivery partner would manage the facility once redeveloped, and handle lease arrangements to enable a mix of subsidized art uses and market rate revenue generating use options that would help pay for a portion of the rehabilitation.
3. Ground Lease: Private entity would do all rehabilitation for mixed use - but retain public active space attraction/destination. The developer would develop, operate, maintain, and lease the facility for a 40-year term.
Illustrative scenarios “Incremental Revitalization” and “Ground Lease” are meant to represent bookends of a spectrum of possible implementation strategies from limited/no private involvement in implementation/financing to the private sector leading the implementation/financing. While the “Incremental Revitalization” scenario more closely represents the current implementation strategy, the Custom Program is scalable in both directions. If the general guidance provided by Council indicates a willingness to consider an alternative to this current implementation strategy, staff will further refine and develop the Custom Program with further analysis and stakeholder participation.
FISCAL IMPACT: Under the City’s current implementation strategy, it is contemplated that the Art Center would continue to operate as a special revenue fund within the City, and that the Art Center would be self-sustaining on an operating basis and continue to offer below market rents to the artists. Capital investment would come from the City CIP and could range from $10 million to $16 million over the next 10-years. If the Custom Program, or a similar option is proposed, staff would propose CIP funding in the near term (FY 2023 and FY 2024) for a community engagement and planning process to refine and develop such an alternative scenario. Greater fiscal impact would be likely with an alternative scenario which would depend on the parameters of the details of the alternative scenario and would be subject to future CIP funding.
ATTACHMENT: Presentation
STAFF:
Emily A. Baker, Deputy City Manager
Debra Collins, Deputy City Manager
Julian Gonsalves, Assistant City Manager for Public Private Partnership
James Spengler, Director, Recreation Parks & Cultural Activities
Diane Ruggiero, Deputy Director, Recreation, Parks & Cultural Activities
Brett John Johnson, Regional Program Director, Recreation, Parks & Cultural Activities