April 29
Stand and deliver
Well, now it's getting weird. Days after blaming the delay answering Mayor Wilder's questions about its solvency on a "break down in communication" and adding that the deadline City Council set for its fund-raising was "understood" not to be a date by which fund-raising was supposed to be, you know, accomplished, VAPAF now claims it offered a seat on its board to the city back in 2003. Trouble is, no one, not even former mayor Rudy "Blank Check" McCollum remembers this offer. "Somebody offers something like that to me, I'm certainly going to take them up on it," McCollum told the T-D yesterday.

VAPAF's Brad Armstrong and Jim Ukrop say they offered then-City Manager Calvin Jamison the seat in "a short, friendly note." Not an email, not a letter. The horrible thing is, this is entirely plausible in a city that's been run like a feudal village well into the 21st century. A conclave of captains of commerce...and we have a convention center! And a performing arts center! And a stadium!

All VAPAF seems to be offering at this point is a string of increasingly farfetched excuses. We don't think they're lying. We just think that they're completely divorced from reality, just like when they say that they'll finance the remainder of the arts center with a transient occupancy tax that's DOA.

Incidentally, the Times-Dispatch is still reporting that VAPAF has raised $66.7 million as if it's not a figure worth questioning. We humbly direct them to this recent IRS filing, which paints a much darker picture.

April 28
Email of the day
From David Fischer: "It occurred to me that a bright and enterprising person (such as myself) could suggest the following to the city council at the next meeting: I propose instead of putting up an empty shell at the cost of millions that the city give me ONLY $1 million and I shall put up a sign that says 'Arts Center.' Can I get your input as to this wonderful idea that will save the city millions?"

April 27
What the papers (don't) say

To date, the group has raised roughly $44 million toward the complex, which will include, among other things, a renovated Carpenter Center and new music hall, community playhouse and jazz nightclub.—Richmond Times-Dispatch, June 25, 2004.
That's what VAPAF told the T-D. The same month, however, the foundation told the IRS it had raised $7,123,084 over the past year, for a cumulative total of just $13,303,809 (when added to the VAPAF's previous years' IRS records). This includes $3.89 million cash on hand, minus a million or so for bills due, leaving $2.8 million.

Today Save Richmonder Scott Nystrom went down to VAPAF to get a copy of the foundation's most recent IRS form 990, a 2.7MB pdf of which you can download here. He's also helped us make sense of the accountantese on it, which is, um, not our forte.

Fortunately, we're not alone in having a tough time understanding how much money VAPAF actually has. Do pledges made and not received count? What about city cash that comes on a contingent basis? How about pledges made the same way?

Again, let's look at our friends in Nashville for answers. The Schermerhorn Symphony Center, due to open next year, is anchoring a downtown that began blooming again when bars and live-music spaces were encouraged to revitalize Broadway. (Note the sequence of events: First nightlife, then a performing arts center.) The city of Nashville donated the land, but just take a gander at the Nashville Symphony Association's FY2002 990. Government contributions: $551,900. Private contributions: $41,066,006. That's a ratio of 74 private bucks to every 1 public.

Now let's have a look at VAPAF's most recent 990. Government contributions: $4,500,000. Private contributions: $2,623,084. A ratio of $1.70 from the City of Richmond for every $1 raised privately. Nashville has $40.6 million dollars on hand. Richmond has 2.8 million. Nashville's performing arts center will open in 2006. Richmond's will open roughly around the time Goochland begins issuing gay-marriage licences.

And let's not forget the most important lesson: In Nashville, they raised the money before they started construction. In Richmond, well, we took VAPAF's word for it, didn't we? And now we've got a hole on Broad Street that the city's gonna have to fill one way or another. VAPAF's bright idea is to build a shell, which we've noted below is a particularly apt metaphor for the plan altogether.

Finally, let us simply note that this report was filed on Valentine's Day, and has been available ever since simply by walking into VAPAF HQ and asking for it. No Richmond media outlet bothered to do that. They settled questions about VAPAF's finances with a phone call to Brad Armstrong. It's not something that gives us particular pleasure to point out, because we could have done it too.

Except, you know, we do this for free and in our spare time.

April 27
The dog ate my performing arts center
As apologies for management screwups go, Brad Armstrong's letter to Mayor Doug Wilder yesterday is not quite up there with Reagan's "mistakes were made" admission about Iran-Contra. But it's nearly as weaselly. Opening with a "the dog ate my homework" gambit, Armstrong blames the nearly one-month interval between Wilder's letter asking specifics on the Virginia Performing Arts Foundation (VAPAF)'s financial condition on...wait for it..."a break down in communication."

You see, Brad assumed that when Mayor Doug wrote him a letter, what he really wanted was not a letter in return, but a meeting. "My letter of April 6, 2005 did state that we would respond by April 14...[h]owever, we did not realize that you would be out of town, making an appointment impossible."

But it's all okay, because the letter VAPAF "planned to personally deliver and discuss" all along went to Wilder yesterday (dated, um, yesterday) . And boy, is it a doozy.

Wilder's first question was "Does VAPAF believe it is on track to demonstrate full funding by July 1, 2005?" And to that, Brad answers an enthusiastic "sort of!" VAPAF has "commitments totaling $67.7 million," he asserts, adding, "Of course, this includes the full $27.8 million commitment from the City of Richmond." That will bring VAPAF within $30 million of full funding, BUT he admits that "it is unlikely that we will have written commitments" for that remaining amount, because—and we just love to imagine steam shooting out of Wilder's ears and his neck spinning into a corkscrew as he reads this—"frankly there is some reluctance on the part of certain private donors to make a commitment in the face of what is perceived as uncertainty regarding City support."

So it's really Doug's fault, then? Brad Armstrong has had three years to raise actual money, not "commitments," and the arrival of a mayor three months ago has somehow rocked the whole trolley off its tracks.

"We've been ambitious with our timing...perhaps too ambitious" Brad admits. But it's just 'cause he's so darn enthusiastic! "The average performing arts center takes 10 years to design, fund and build—but we are trying to do so in just six years," he reminds the mayor. Then he takes a deep breath and shows that he truly has what we in the journalism biz like to call "brass ones."

"It is our plan to request that City Council permanently waive [the July 1 deadline], and we plan to make that request now."

So, the answer to question No. 1 is "No."

But that's not really that big of a deal! "It's important to remember that, when the [meals-tax-increase] ordinance was approved," Brad continues, "the deadline of July 1, 2005 was established largely as a 'fail safe.'" Well, this is news to anyone who went to the city council meeting in question. I remember Brad reassuring council and public critics that these deadlines "hold our feet to the fire" to ensure that the performing arts center won't turn into a fund-raising debacle.

Well, the flame is near Brad's Florsheims now. And his response? "Also, it was understood at the time that, in the event VAPAF was close to meeting its fundraising goal, the date could easily be extended."

Hmmmm. I can't seem to find any record of this "understanding" in city code. But I guess that's the price of passing off backroom deals as policy debates.

Wilder's third question asks exactly when VAPAF might meet its fund-raising goals. And Brad tells him, "It is our belief that, with your personal involvement and support, we'd complete the funding commitments no later than December 31, 2006." In today's Times-Dispatch, Wilder expressed some astonishment at this proposal: "'My personal involvement?' he said incredulously, of Armstrong's suggestion that the mayor help with fundraising."

Apparently, VAPAF recently requested a $2,051,047 draw from the meals-tax money. Wilder asked why the foundation "cannot use [that amount] from the monies you have raised privately?" And Brad's answer is rather instructive. "The initial $12 million [the only cash VAPAF has ever had, as far as we can tell, incidentally] was specifically dedicated to preconstruction and demolition for the project," he says. "VAPAF has incurred expenses in excess of $2,051,047 for the...costs reflected and documented in the current draw request."

In other words, they're out of money before the work begins (and remember, demolition is not complete--the Carpenter Center stagehouse is still extant, and the demolition machines are gone). Perhaps someday we will figure out exactly how they managed to blow through so much cash in two years, but here's a short list of possible culprits:

It adds up. And so do those construction costs—the original estimate for construction was $80 million, Brad says. But that didn't take into account final designs, so it's going to be more like $93 million."We are fully aware of the volatility in the construction market, and expect that we will have to live within the $93 million," he says, "and apply value engineering to offset any increases in market forces [emphasis ours]." Sheesh, better stay out of the cheap seats, especially since construction costs, buffeted by sharp increases in the price of gas and steel, are skyrocketing.

Wilder then asks whether VAPAF will provide "operating statements to demonstrate that you will be able to operate as a going concern." Brad replies, "As with every other performing arts center in America, we expect to have an operating loss." Oh, good. And let's not forget that with all the money spent on consultants, there has never been a feasibility study done for the music hall. So any projections included are guesses at best. (Incidentally, if you're curious about what a non-Keystone Kops-planned performing arts center looks like on paper, compare the IRS statement of Richmond with that of the center going up in Nashville.)

The assumptions grow. VAPAF will raise the remaining $30.3 million, Brad asserts, via a combination of private sector contributions, federal grants, and "regional funding," i.e., the wheezing, left-for-dead transient occupancy tax increase VAPAF has been lobbying for. Never mind that it's an all-or-nothing proposition, and Chesterfield county isn't on board, and Wilder's against it, too.

BUT HERE'S WHERE THINGS GET REALLY INTERESTING, and if you've gotten bogged down by the previous information, skip to this. If, for some reason after reading all this, the City waives the fund-raising deadline and gives VAPAF the $27 million it needs to stay afloat, THE FOUNDATION PROPOSES TO BUILD AN EMPTY SHELL ON BROAD STREET.

Yes, friends, that's right. Millions of dollars down the tube and the net result is that they will replace an empty old building with an empty new building. Of course, this building will be finished in "months, not years," Walter told the T-D yesterday. Right. Because cranes that can reach over an empty building and insert THE ENTIRE INSIDE are probably quite inexpensive!

"After thoughtful consideration," Brad explains, "our Board decided it would be more responsible to not force the music hall...to be completed by 2007, but to let construction efficiency dictate its schedule."

So there you have it, good people of Richmond. If we only free up $42 million, loosen the deadline, and live with AN EMPTY FREAKING SHELL, the performing arts center will be a raging success. (Totally going for it now, Brad reminds Wilder that "[t]he economic benefits provided to the City from t his revitalization are enormous, and the ability of a performing arts center to bring people back downtown is proven beyond any question.") All along, Brad and Co. have stressed the need to have "businesspeople" plan the center and raise money. They've relentlessly (and effectively) pitched this project as the only hope of downtown, taking in vast numbers of former elected officials, journalists and arts groups with their projections. Where are the renovated Empire, National, and Landmark theaters in these projections? These "grown-ups" don't want you to ask.

And now they propose to build a monument to those empty promises on Broad. We've said it before, but dang, that Brad Armstrong is a master of unintended metaphor.

April 26
So long, Mayor
Waverly Crawley, the "mayor of Second Street" died yesterday. We'll miss him for his many contributions to civic life, including the Second Street Festival, and singing (a la James Brown) "Please Please Please Don't Build This Arts Center" at city council during the meals tax vote. We need more characters like him.

April 26
Meet it to death
This morning the Downtown Neighborhood Association hosted a chat with Michele Walter, COO of the Virginia Performing Arts Foundation, to discuss the future of the proposed Performing Arts Center. We didn't go because we think VAPAF is increasingly irrelevant in the political landscape of Richmond.

Brad Armstrong still hasn't answered the questions about VAPAF's finances that Mayor Wilder put to him at the beginning of the month. The group's current form 990, which will show its true financial condition, hasn't been posted on Guidestar, which leads us to believe VAPAF's trying to avoid any further disclosures of its dire financial condition. And to be frank, VAPAF can talk as good a game as anyone, but that doesn't matter, because it simply doesn't have the money or the constituency to build the arts center, and its chances of weaseling the money out of the city are dimming with every missed deadline.

April 25
Whenever we despair
It's important to remember that civic debates can always get worse. Just to be safe, we're not leaving our greasepaint and wigs in our lockers the next time we play softball against VAPAF.

April 6
The drumbeat of failure...
...Is beginning to sound like a flam paradiddle-diddle. Is it time to talk about scaling this plan back yet? Or is Brad Armstrong still pretending to "welcome" developments such as this? (Other things he enjoys: hangnails, hurricanes, Paul McCartney's Flaming Pie.)

April 4
Chill the Champagne
Andrew and Don singing:

Close the window, calm the light
And it will be all right
No need to bother now
Let it out. let it all begin

Learn how to pretend



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