Barlow & Associates Principal Janis Barlow presented Lakeway City Council members with their first look at a proposed site plan for a local performing arts center, or PAC, Oct. 3, including a roadmap for construction finances.

“The [PAC] committee has been working on this for over a year, and they have concluded that an 800-seat main stage performing arts center would be a wise investment,” Barlow said.

Architecture, financing

The proposal included a 65,448-square-foot facility with three stages—a main stage of 800 seats; a second, smaller black box theater with 250 seats; and a 100-seat rehearsal hall, she said. The project has the ability to book 140-200 dates per stage every year, she said.

The price tag for the project is about $30 million, and Barlow suggested using a public-private partnership to fund the PAC, which will also require an annual operating budget of $1.2 million-$2 million. She said an average annual city subsidy of about $250,000 would be needed from Lakeway’s hotel occupancy tax, with the remaining funds accumulated through grants and donations.

The PAC can be owned by the city but managed by a governing board of directors, said Barlow, who suggested the city recruit an executive director to coordinate a minimum three-member board. She said the board can form a nonprofit organization to pursue the project.

Although Barlow proposed a tract within the city of Lakeway, behind the new H-E-B off RR 620 in the town center, Mayor Joe Bain said other sites—including an 82-acre tract under contract to local developer Haythem Dawlett off Lohmans Crossing Road—may be considered.

Ruling needed

However, before the city pursues the idea of adding a PAC within its borders, a ruling from the state attorney general’s office is needed to determine if Lakeway can use additional hotel tax funds to build and fund the operation of a PAC, Bain said. The city requested a clarification of the hotel tax laws from the state in August through the chairman of the legislative committee, and staff is awaiting a decision, he said.

“Fifteen percent of the hotel tax can be used to promote the arts in general, and that’s not in question,” City Manager Steve Jones said. “We are questioning [whether] we can go beyond that 15 percent. We think we can.”

Bain said he does not want the city to manage the project and suggested a developer may be interested in having the PAC as an anchor to draw attendees who will patronize its nearby restaurants and shops before or after a show.

“We are not asking the public to finance this [PAC],” Jones said. “We are not going to them and [asking], ‘Can we raise your taxes to finance this?’”

Moving forward

Council Member Ron Massa said Lakeway residents have an economic benefit in the project since the sales tax generated by the PAC may be used to offset residents’ property taxes.

“I would like to be able to judge if the folks of Lakeway want this,” he said.

Council Member Jim Powell said he was concerned that citizens would confuse this project with funding for a new justice center that will be the focus of a May bond election.

The council agreed to not proceed further with the PAC until the state attorney general renders an opinion on the city’s use of its hotel tax.

“Until we know for sure that people are on board, we shouldn’t be making decisions,” Council Member Jean Hennagin said.