$1.5M is OK'd for Music Hall
By Roy Wood
Cincinnati Post staff reporter
November 6, 2003
Plans for a nearly $3.8 million renovation at Music Hall cleared a
final hurdle Wednesday, bringing construction of the long-awaited
Corbett Opera Center closer to reality.
The project should help to keep the 125-year-old landmark viable
and a cultural and economic asset for its Over-the-Rhine
neighborhood for years, arts organization officials said.
On Wednesday, the Hamilton County Commissioners adopted a
resolution that will allow the county to issue $2 million in bonds for
the Cincinnati Arts Association.
Of that, $1.5 million will go toward the
Music Hall renovation to create a new
space for Cincinnati Opera, and
$500,000 will pay for new stage
lighting.
"This is really the last step in moving ahead with the actual building," said Cincinnati Opera Public Relations Director Julie Maslov. "It's really part of making sure Music Hall remains an economic anchor in Over-the-Rhine."
The opera has about 25 permanent employees, but that number swells to more than 300 during the summer show season.
When the opera began looking at its expansion needs more than a year ago, its board made a commitment to do everything possible to stay at Music Hall, said Opera Managing Director Patricia Beggs.
"This was a strategic and purposeful decision on the part of the opera," she said "We believed it was critical to be able to stay here."
Wednesday's commission vote will not subject taxpayers to any liability from the bonds -- the arts association and opera will be responsible for repaying the debt.
But it will enable the arts association to borrow money at a lower interest rate, Commissioner Todd Portune said.
The city of Cincinnati of Cincinnati has awarded the opera a $650,000 grant for the project.
Opera officials announced in February 2002 that the organization had received a $1.5 million grant from the Corbett Foundation to create a new opera headquarters in the north wing of Music Hall and expected to begin work shortly thereafter.
But putting together the rest of the financing proved to be more difficult than originally anticipated, Maslov said.
Currently, the opera, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the May Festival all share space in Music Hall's south tower, and some opera employees work in offices on Central Parkway.
The space being renovated has "just been like an attic-like space for years," Maslov said. "It's basically been underused."
The new Corbett Opera Center will consolidate all opera activities in one "building within a building," with its own headquarters, rehearsal and production areas, multi-purpose and community rooms.
It will have its own street-level box office at 14th and Elm streets, and windows along 14th Street that are now bricked over will be reopened. "We want to bring life to that part of the building," Maslov said.
The center is the first of two phases the opera hopes to do at Music Hall. A later phase will include converting storage space into a large rehearsal space.
No timeline has been set for that work.