Blue Ash will enjoy "increased theater patronage" and a "higher frequency of conference center bookings" if it builds a $21 million performing arts and conference center on the site of the existing Blue Ash Airport, according to a fiscal analysis delivered to the city this month.
For Cincinnati Vice Mayor Jim Tarbell, that's reason enough to vote against Cincinnati's sale of a 130-acre airport parcel it owns to Blue Ash for $37.5 million. Tarbell also quibbles with the price tag on the proposed airport sale, announced by Blue Ash City Manager David Waltz July 11.
The deal is subject to Blue Ash voters passing a 0.25 percent increase in that city's earnings tax, generating $5 million a year that would pay for the land purchase and the development of a city park on the property.
Blue Ash is asking Cincinnati City Council to vote on the sale by Aug. 9. Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory has issued a statement supporting the sale. So have Cincinnati council members Laketa Cole, Jeff Berding, Chris Bortz and Chris Monzel. Council members David Crowley and Leslie Ghiz said they want more details before deciding.
Tarbell endorsed the idea of selling the 228-acre airport as part of the 2005 budget process, but now that an offer has been made he sees several problems with the proposed deal. One of those is Blue Ash's plan for a 1,200-seat theater and 37,000-square-foot conference center on the site. Tarbell said both will compete against cultural attractions in and near downtown Cincinnati.
"We have facilities here that are under-used as we speak," Tarbell said. "The $20 million it would cost to build the new performing arts center (in Blue Ash) is exactly what it would cost to restore the Emery Theater. It's one of the finest acoustical environments within 100 miles of here, yet it's sitting here vacant because it needs to be restored."
Waltz said the Blue Ash center is not intended to compete with downtown or any other regional cultural attraction.
"It's a different niche than the Aronoff Center," a downtown theater complex that can accommodate up to 2,700 patrons per show, Waltz said. "This doesn't remotely compete with the convention center downtown or even the Sharonville center. This is a business conference center. It has its own niche."
But that's not how Blue Ash's feasibility consultant laid out the marketing prospects for the center in an October 2005 report. The 50-page report by Hunter Interests Inc. said about half of the conference center's 730 annual events would involve business meetings. Training seminars would account for 30 percent of the center's activity, while SMERF groups (social, military, educational, religious and fraternal) and trade associations, two prime targets of local convention facilities, would account for 20 percent of bookings.
On the performance side, Hunter Interests estimated the center would book 134 shows a year, including 24 stage productions, 45 concerts and 20 family and holiday shows.
Hunter said the success of the theater "will ultimately depend on how successfully the management will be in increasing an existing audience's frequency of attendance at performing arts or in attracting them to Blue Ash rather than their existing choices."
It added that Blue Ash had "locational advantages" over downtown, where parking hassles and perceptions about safety can keep suburbanites away.
Cincinnati Arts Association Director Steve Loftin, who manages the Aronoff Center and Music Hall, does not see the Blue Ash facility as a competitive threat.
"I think the region would enjoy a mid-sized hall like that. It wouldn't compete significantly for the majority of what happens in the downtown facility," Loftin said.
Sharonville Mayor Virgil Lovitt said the Blue Ash conference center would be a welcome addition to the local convention market.
