A 9,000-square-foot reception hall and 12-acre research park are among the options leaders of This Is the Place Heritage Park are studying to put the site back on firm financial footing, much to the chagrin of neighbors and local historians, who prefer open and non-commercial space.

This Is the Place Foundation board discussed the future of the living history park for two hours Friday. They gave a unanimous thumbs-up to new additions for 2007 that park and state officials hope will bring some much-needed operating revenue.

"We cannot keep breathing life back into this phoenix," said Robyn Pearson, deputy director of the State Department of Natural Resources. "At some point, it has got to get its own wings and fly."

In March the state-owned park received $2 million in one-time cash from the Legislature to keep it afloat, after mounting debt nearly shut its gates.

The privately run park had previously received a yearly stipend of $700,000 from the state. But leadership, revamped after the near financial disaster, hopes never to have to ask for a bail-out again.

Up first to turn a profit is a lineup of program additions, such as:

• Adding two trains to travel the perimeter of the village.

• Opening 38 of the 46 period homes and featuring hands-on activities in each.

• Hiring 35 full-time seasonal paid interpreters.

• Building a pioneer playground with mini replicas of the homes and a petting zoo.

• A visitors center where Mormon Handicraft is currently located (the shop will clear out next spring), with a cafe, gift shop and orientation film.

Those improvements will be paid for by $1.1 million from the state-given cash. The rest of the money will be put in an endowment.

"We can keep the park going at the level we want it to go, without help from the state," said Ellis Ivory, foundation chairman. Ivory is also chairman of the Deseret Morning News board of directors.

To achieve that goal, however, will take hundreds of thousands of dollars that Ivory and park director Matt Dahl believe can come through leasing a chunk of their 430-acre property and building a three-wing event center on an adjacent empty lot.

The two envision a two-story, domed building with a chapel and kitchen that can be rented out for weddings and other large events. It would replicate the original architectural renderings of the Fillmore statehouse, a design never fully completed after Utah Territory's capital was moved to Salt Lake City in the 1850s. The building could also play stage to park events, most of which are currently showcased outside in the bowery and limited by weather.