After 10 years, RiverCenter for the Performing Arts still keeping ...

Venue celebrating its 10th anniversary of performances, partnership with Columbus State University

After the decision was made by city and community leaders to build the RiverCenter for the Performing Arts, Frank Brown recalls Columbus businessman and philanthropist Bill Turner saying the project needed to be more than bricks and mortar and glass that people visited only on performance nights.

"He believed, and I shared that belief, that the success of the RiverCenter depended on it not being a big box -- no matter how beautiful -- that's locked up every day ? that it had to have a living, breathing operation," said Brown, retired Columbus State University president and part of the project's development team.

As the 240,000-square-foot RiverCenter kicks off its 10th anniversary season with a gala Saturday, the facility that has hosted Broadway shows, concerts and comedians is heralded as a vital spark that has kept the revitalization of downtown Columbus on track with steady momentum.

Wave of students

The critical component of this resurgence, Brown said, was the decision early on to bring CSU's Schwob Department of Music to the city's central business district and turn it into a full-fledged music college, using classrooms and rehearsal space inside the RiverCenter to create a constant flow of students in and around the area.

"I would hesitate to say that the RiverCenter was the only project that could have revitalized or played that role in building downtown, but I'm hard pressed to name anything else that could have had the impact," said Brown, pointing to CSU's move to renovate the old Rankin Hotel into housing for students. "It fit all the needs."

The university has since added more dorm facilities downtown, with the collective downtown student population pushing 500, not counting those staying nearby in private housing in the Historic District and elsewhere. Factor in about 150 faculty members and others with ties to the university and Brown said the total CSU-related population is about 1,000 in any given week.

"We see sort of this tsunami of momentum down there that we want to capitalize on," said Tim Mescon, who succeeded Brown as CSU president four years ago. "We think it can become an overall part of our campus footprint."

Under Mescon's tutelage, the growth has continued, with the university renovating and moving into buildings within walking distance of the RiverCenter. Offices, classrooms, computer labs and retail outlets have been part of the mix, with Mescon estimating CSU now occupies 1 million square feet of space in downtown.

"And we've made no secret that strategically we'd like to bring other academic programs to Uptown to free up space to expand other programs on this campus," he said of the main campus off University Avenue in east Columbus.

It all has added up so far to a downtown area that has moved through a severe national recession in relatively good shape. Several restaurants, retail shops and nightclubs all have entered the picture over the last few years.

A steady stream of events, such as this weekend's Bikes on Broadway, along with seasonal concert series, have kept downtown buzzing with people, particularly in the evenings.

Front-row seat

Buddy Nelms has had a front-row seat for the evolution of the area. He opened The Loft nightclub in 1992 and has built on that with a downstairs restaurant, a bicycle shop, a recording studio and occasional entertainment events that contribute to the vibrancy on Broadway.

He likes to think of the RiverCenter and its CSU presence as one of the bookends for the downtown area, with the TSYS corporate headquarters campus on the north terminus of Broadway being the other.

"It gives me a lot of confidence that you have such great neighbors. I'm a little bit more confident, a little more reckless in my investing," said Nelms, chuckling as he discussed his penchant for entrepreneurism amid a downtown constantly in transition.

He called the impact of the CSU-infused RiverCenter "superb" for those doing business in the area. Moving the university's arts and theater programs downtown in recent years to join its musicians has created an eclectic mix of young residents who lean toward the creative side of the mind.

"But there's also the staff," Nelms said. "The teachers are just so talented and so invested and so much fun to work with and do projects with. They're really embedded into the community. They live downtown, they work downtown, they work in the studio."

The RiverCenter, he said, also has become a paycheck for a number of stagehand and production-oriented people who otherwise would have to leave the city to work in their chosen professions. Musicians who may have played in bands, but rely mostly on technical expertise for income, use their skills to set up and take down shows routinely, he said.

"They get to make money here," Nelms said. "So every time a show comes through, that money doesn't leave. It stays here inside the system, and it gives talented people stuff to do in their fields. It supplies a lot of needs."

Big idea

If not for an intercity trip by community and business leaders 16 years ago to Greenville, S.C., the RiverCenter for the Performing Arts might not have turned out as it has -- or perhaps not existed at all.

Mike Gaymon, president and chief executive officer of the Greater Columbus Georgia Chamber of Commerce, remembers taking the trip to Greenville, with the primary stop on the tour being the Peace Center for the Performing Arts, which was then about six years old.

The goal was to talk with that city's residents and find out what impact a beautiful performing arts hall could have in several areas. Quality of life, business recruitment and enhancing areas of the city in need of redevelopment were part of the discussions on the trip.

"I think everybody there heard the story that, when the Peace Center was built, it put Greenville on the map, with folks being able to go and hear and see top-flight entertainment," said Gaymon, pointing out that Three Arts Theater on Talbotton Road was the "best that we had" at that time. "I remember when we were doing the Miss Georgia Pageant, we would have to turn off the air conditioning whenever it was going to be televised because the wiring was so bad in Three Arts Theater we were afraid it was going to burn down," he said.

That Greenville visit led to a citywide campaign called Columbus Challenge, with $100 million being raised for the arts, which included the RiverCenter and renovations of other cultural and historic buildings.

The RiverCenter took $86 million of that, with the balance of the $123 million price tag for the project coming from a $17 million state appropriation and a $25 million commitment from the Bradley-Turner Foundation. Columbus Consolidated Government donated the former police department property upon which the performing arts hall was constructed.

While CSU students began using a portion of the complex in early 2001, it wasn't until April 2002 that the centerpiece of RiverCenter -- the 2,000-seat Bill Heard Theatre -- held its first performance. A monthlong series of grand-opening events followed, with opera star Jessye Norman, country singer Travis Tritt and Cuban trumpeter Arturo Sandoval christening the ornate theater that some have compared to Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

Big names that have since graced the Bill Heard Theatre stage include Bill Cosby, David Copperfield, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, James Taylor, Willie Nelson and Jerry Seinfeld. Broadway shows have included "Chicago," "Miss Saigon" and "Cats." The venue also is home to the Columbus Symphony Orchestra.

RiverCenter Executive Director Bill Bullock said he and his staff often are called on to give tours of the facility, which includes the 400-seat Legacy Hall and the 150-seat Studio Theatre. Convention and business prospects are among those who visit the complex.

"People from all over the country are bowled over by the fact that we have in our community that kind of facility. It's second to none," said Bullock, who maintains that a constant focus on quality and variety in programming has made the RiverCenter a success.

Big costs

The major challenge facing the facility now, Bullock said, is its pocketbook. With an annual budget of $2.5 million -- $300,000 of which goes to the electric bill alone -- it is next to impossible to break even, he said. Ticket sales make up 50 percent of its revenue, while a small portion of the city's hotel tax and donors contribute the rest.

"People don't understand that performing arts complexes all over the world, none of them survive on ticket sales," said Bullock, who is now working with his board of directors to discuss future funding and other initiatives, which include working to draw more people to performances from outside the Columbus-Phenix City area.

"We lose money each year. It's a costly business," he said. "You come see Jerry Seinfeld and you see a lot of people there and ? sometimes your own success is sort of the nemesis. The more you succeed, the more people think you don't need their support. It's not true."

Former RiverCenter board member and Columbus real-estate broker Reynolds Bickerstaff echoed those sentiments. He believes local residents need to view the RiverCenter for what it is -- a nonprofit arts organization with a mission of fostering creative talent and cultural experiences.

"Most of the residents, I think, really view RiverCenter as just another venue, not as the home of the Schwob School of Music, Broadway musicals, a stage for performances," he said. "We were always trying to figure out how to overcome that perception. It's tough."

Bickerstaff, who travels frequently, said he doesn't know of another "town" the size of Columbus in the U.S. that has a world-class facility such as the RiverCenter. He loves the performance hall and its Bill Heard Theatre, which itself pulls in about 40,000 people each year. And he relishes the hubbub of activity it and surrounding venues can generate some evenings.

"I've been downtown at times when you've got an event at the Springer, you have a big show at Bill Heard Theatre, CSU's doing something in Legacy Hall, and then they probably have a play over in (theatre department's Theatre in the Park)," he said. "It is a huge driver for that post-work, pre-bar scene activity ? The restaurants coordinate special menus for different events."

Source of energy

Most believe that without the RiverCenter, downtown Columbus would have nowhere near the energy it now enjoys. Peter Bowden, president and CEO of the Columbus Convention & Visitors Bureau, is among those, saying the city would sorely miss its impact.

"We promote it as a meeting space for groups," he said. "The Georgia Thespian Association, with 3,000 young actors coming to Columbus to do workshops, is a good example. The RiverCenter provides a perfect backdrop for that."

The facility also is part of the CVB's pitch when trying to recruit events and meetings to the city. While the 200,000-square-foot Columbus Convention & Trade Center is the major gathering hall, the RiverCenter helps fill any gaps. It also is a carrot for those looking for performances after their convention meetings are over each day.

"What makes it part of the selling is the fact that it's all walkable, which is really attractive to our customers," Bowden said. "When they come and see how close of a proximity all of this is to the Uptown area, plus the entertainment of what Uptown provides ... they tell us that there's nothing like this that they're currently looking at."

Former CSU President Brown, while praising the RiverCenter's legacy in its first decade, said its impact on resuscitating the downtown area continues to be a work in progress. And, again, he recalled those fateful moments of decisions early on when there were "so many unknowns" as to how everything would turn out. But with the rave reviews the RiverCenter has received from celebrities, dignitaries and educators who have come through its doors and stood on its stages, expectations have been exceeded, he said.

"We had struggled for years with downtown and trying to revitalize it, and we weren't having a lot of success. So we knew we needed a feature, some sort of draw," Brown said. "The decision to put the RiverCenter there, and to make it the beautiful and functional place that it is, was the key."

Source: http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2012/09/08/2194486/after-10-years-rivercenter-for.html

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