Theater plan downsized

The effort to renovate the old Utah Theater on Main Street into a 2,500 seat Broadway-style playhouse hit a bump in the road Thursday: Independent consultants said it would be too costly and would cram too many seats into the historic structure to be practical.

"If you lean with (historic buildings) they become cost-effective. If you try to overwhelm them, they become very costly," Daniel P. Coffey, of Daniel P. Coffey & Associates said.

Instead, the consultants said money would be better spent building a brand new 2,500-seat playhouse from the ground up somewhere else in the heart of downtown.

Coffey, along with Chicago-based consultants HVS International, did recommend that the old theater be renovated but into a smaller, 800-seat theater, with potential to expand to 1,400 seats. That could be done for closer to $30 million, instead of the $63 million that a Salt Lake County study said a 2,500-seat Utah Theater would cost.

The consultants' recommendations, then, were for two new theaters in Salt Lake — one a massive new facility and the other a smaller, renovated Utah Theater, on Main Street between 100 and 200 South.

"We need to look at other options," City Councilwoman Nancy Saxton said, after being briefed on the consultants' report. "We need to look seriously at the options that are presented to us by the consultants for a brand new theater built from the ground up."

The consultants were hired by Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, the Salt Lake Chamber and the Downtown Alliance to examine the feasibility of creating a performing arts district downtown. The centerpiece of that district would potentially be the renovated Utah Theater. The consultants presented their preliminary findings to several community leaders Thursday and will release draft and final reports later. They maintained the new facilities could be compatible with existing playhouses and theaters and would allow existing arts groups to grow and expand.

Howa Construction, which owns the Utah Theater, has wanted to make the old theater into a 2,500-seat arena that could house first-run Broadway shows. Howa has wanted funding for that project to largely come from public monies.

After hearing the report Thursday, Howa director of development Dru Damico said the company is willing to build on a smaller scale if that's the political will.

"If the community and the politicians agree with the results of the study and it's realistic, we would certainly agree and support the Utah Theater at any size," he said. "Howa's intent all along has been for an economic development engine for Main Street."