City IDs $65M in creative space needs for possible 2024 bond package

The city has identified $65 million in critical needs for cultural arts infrastructure projects that will be under consideration for a possible bond vote in 2024.

A memo released last week spells out the progress being made on a handful of major creative space projects funded by the city. It also offers a glimpse at the long-term needs for the local arts and music communities.

The memo from Parks and Recreation Department Director Kimberly McNeeley informs City Council and Mayor Kirk Watson that design work is continuing on the expansion of the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center and the relocation of the Dougherty Arts Center.

Neither of those projects are currently funded to completion. The Mexican American Cultural Center expansion is expected to begin in July, with a focus on site and infrastructure improvements and no adjustment in its scope, making its completion likely contingent on the success of a 2024 bond package.

The Dougherty project has entered the construction document and permitting phase, and it has received funding from the city to begin construction near ZACH Theatre at Butler Shores. A memo released last month noted that money from the 2024 bond issue will be needed to complete the project.

Last week’s memo notes that until a funding plan for the new Dougherty Arts Center is agreed upon, the existing facility on Barton Springs Road will continue to offer arts programs “for as long as the building remains viable.”

The $27 million Mexican American Cultural Center expansion has been in discussion for nearly a decade, with its current rehearsal and performance spaces at maximum capacity. Some of the funding for the expansion was provided in a 2018 bond package to support cultural centers, and last year, members of the Mexican American Cultural Center advisory board expressed concern about the designs and how the new configuration would be able to handle large events and festivals.

The memo also spells out possible plans for improvements to the George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center and the Asian American Resource Center. The Carver Museum received $7.5 million for building improvements in the 2018 bond election, while the Asian American Resource Center received $7 million.

A request for quotes for the Carver expansion is expected this fall or winter, to determine design and early cost estimates. The Asian American Resource Center had its design schematic approved in November, and leaders there are working on creating the final design and development proposal, though the memo doesn’t note a possible completion date for that work.

There’s no mention made in the memo regarding long-term plans to establish creative hub facilities in the Mexican American Cultural Center, the Carver Museum and the Asian American Resource Center. A community engagement process for those plans is expected to begin later this summer, with a Chicago group consulting based on its experience with operating a 160,000-square-foot creative hub and incubator.

Related to the overall long-term needs for creative facilities, the memo notes that the 2022 request for proposals issued by the Austin Economic Development Corporation was used to identify a pipeline of both high-priority projects in the near term using existing bond funds, as well as larger projects that could be completed in the future. That request found more than $300 million in needs, but the shortlist totaled around $65 million.

The Austin Economic Development Corporation has spent much of the past year working behind the scenes to negotiate real estate deals to create or preserve arts and music spaces around the city.

Thus far, it has closed two projects: $400,000 for improvements at the Millennium Youth Entertainment Complex and $2 million to renovate more than 7,000 square feet of space in the city’s Permitting and Development Center on Highland Mall Boulevard and Middle Fiskville Road, in order to make the facility into an exhibition and studio space for local artists.

Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.

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