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Salt Lake City's dream of firing up the klieg lights inside a Broadway-class theater on Main Street faces critics galore from Utah's performing-arts community.
But that's nothing compared with the Salt Lake County politicians who hold the purse strings for the $100-million venue. To hear the county tell it, it may be curtains for the Utah Performing Arts Center on Main.
County Council Republicans, as well as Democratic Mayor Peter Corroon, are balking at handing the city millions for a theater from the county's portion of the soon-to-expire EnergySolutions Arena bond.
"My initial reaction is that money should come back to our county general fund. And that fund is important for some other needs that we have, not only for downtown but countywide," Corroon says. "Our priorities are the convention hotel and the Capitol Theatre [makeover to accommodate the ballet]."
Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker is banking on recommitting the collective taxes that finance the bond from the county, city and city Redevelopment Agency — an estimated $80 million — toward a 2,500-seat theater once the bond is paid off in 2015.
But that requires both City Council and County Council approval.
"I've been skeptical about this Broadway-style theater from the very start," County Councilman David Wilde says. "Nobody's convinced me that we really need this."
Fellow council Republican Steve DeBry echoes the point.
"It's not a top priority — absolutely not," he says, pointing to county revenue projections that "look gloomy, then gloomier."
"We should let the bond be paid off, then give the citizens a tax break," DeBry says. "We bond to death in this county. We need to see the critical needs be met before the peripheral needs. I don't see a theater as critical."
Sen. Ben McAdams, D-Salt Lake City, Becker's senior adviser and a former Wall Street bond attorney, is coordinating the negotiations — which could come to council votes this fall. He makes it clear there is no deal with the county or the City Council, but he is "very confident" about the financing plan.
"We want to do this before interest rates go up and construction costs go up," McAdams says. "We think it's consistent with the purpose of those [downtown bond] funds."
Told about the county's obstinacy, Becker's office expressed surprise.
"We look forward to our continued partnership with Salt Lake County in seeking funding solutions for the Utah Performing Arts Center and other projects," says Art Raymond, the mayor's spokesman.
If Corroon turns his back on the playhouse, it wouldn't be the first time the two-term mayor rejected a big-ticket project.
In 2007, Corroon refused to commit $35 million in county hotel taxes toward land, parking and infrastructure for the 20,000-seat Rio Tinto Stadium. Emboldened by a thumbs down from the county's Debt Review Committee, Corroon declared the Sandy soccer stadium an "unsafe investment," while other critics panned the public funding as "corporate welfare."
Despite the groundswell against it, the $35 million in stadium funding was resurrected by then-Gov. Jon Huntsman and then passed by the Utah Legislature.
Since taking office in 2008, Becker has made the theater a top priority despite facing budget deficits, layoffs, service cuts and deferred maintenance.
City officials envision a glass-encased playhouse, either on the southeast corner of 100 South and Main Street or midblock at 135 S. Main St., to serve as a "catalyst" between the LDS Church's $2 billion City Creek Center to the north and the revamped Gallivan Center and office towers to the south.
Blueprints call for the theater to connect to a new, 25-story office tower that could replace the former headquarters of The Salt Lake Tribune.
City Hall, armed with a market study, insists the theater project would generate $2.4 million within five years, create hundreds of jobs, draw patrons from across the West and deliver $15 million a year to the economy. It would be even more efficient, officials say, if the county uses its expertise and resources to manage it.
But veteran County Councilman Michael Jensen warns that next year's county revenue could be down between 6 and 10 percent, rendering the theater an afterthought.
"What Senator McAdams is trying to do is creative," Jensen says. "In a normal year, it might have some legs. I don't think we're going to be able to fund the have-to list, let alone anything on the like-to list."
County Council Chairman Max Burdick agrees. He laments that the county faces a $17 million budget shortfall for 2012, along with millions more in outdated election equipment and $100 million in deferred maintenance projects.
"It's a timing issue," he says. "We need to make sure our own house is in order. I just can't see me moving over and saying, 'Let's go build more things.' "
Burdick doubts his council has the necessary five votes to recommit the bond funds to Becker's theater.
Yet Democratic County Councilman Randy Horiuchi remains hopeful.
"There's plenty of room to negotiate," he says, noting that a theater could also hook conventions as an "annex" of the Salt Palace Convention Center for major speakers. "Even the most conservative of council members should realize the long-term benefit."
Horiuchi argues a theater would draw early-run Broadway touring shows, catapulting Utah's capital into a "world-class city" — in part, by geography.
"We're in the catbird seat by being in the interim spot between San Francisco and Denver."
But the theater's fate also rests, tenuously, somewhere between the city's lofty vision and the county's bleak revenue picture.
Funding plan for theater
A $100-million Broadway-style theater in downtown Salt Lake City needs approval from the Salt Lake County Council and City Council because the bulk of the funding depends on diverting $80 million in downtown tax dollars, once an EnergySolutions Arena bond is paid off in 2015. (Naming rights, private donors and other sources could cover the rest.) Yet county leaders say the theater is a low priority, ranking far beneath plans for a convention hotel and the need to fund essential countywide services.