The Brown County Commissioners are advertising this week for companies to bid on building the 2,000-seat Maple Leaf Performing Arts Center.
Sealed bids are due back to the Brown County Auditor on April 18. They will be opened at a special meeting at 5 p.m. that night, before the regular commissioners meeting at 6.
Maple Leaf Management Corporation President Kevin Ault said March 19 that if the bids come back too high, the management corporation would make changes to the project to stay within the budget.
“Of our $12 million note, we’ve got $10 million we know we can spend on the rest of the project, because we’ve spent $2 million on land. If it comes in at $11 million, OK we’ve got to cut a million out; where are you going to do that?” Ault said.
One option would be to not pave the entire parking lot right away, which would save around $1 million, he said.
Another option may be to reduce the size of the music venue, which will go up on land formerly owned by Snyder Farm behind Brown County Health & Living Community.
“We’ve based everything on 2,000 seats. But if all of a sudden we need to drop the square footage of the building, then we may only need 1,500 seats,” he said.
“We’re going to build a building.”
Architect Doug Harden presented an update on the project to the commissioners March 7, before the commissioners unanimously voted to send the project out for bids.
Commissioner Jerry Pittman asked Harden how confident he was that the venue could be built within the budget. Harden also mentioned “value engineering,” or reevaluating certain parts of the project to stay within budget.
“I say it’s very high,” he said about his confidence level. “We’ve done a lot of homework. We have avenues for value engineering, which we’ve already discussed. If there’s things we need to delay, it won’t delay the opening; it won’t change the character of the building.
“One of the big ones is paving the parking lot initially. Personally, it wouldn’t hurt my feelings to let that sit and settle in the first six to 12 months anyway. … When push comes to shove, you do what you have to do.”
Harden said once the best two bids are picked, they will be taken under advisement.
“If we’re 10 or 20 percent over, we’ll say, ‘OK, what do we have to do to get this down?’ because otherwise, we don’t have a project.’ Again, this is our last mountain we need to climb, and right now I feel like we can get over it,” he said.
Ault said the group has received some quotes already and has an idea of who they want to work with, but no decisions have been made. “We have contractors that we want to work with, and there’s some local people we want to make sure have a chance to bid or that they are chosen,” he said.
Ault said, worst-case scenario, if the venue isn’t built, the remaining loan money can be returned to the bank.
“Worst-case scenario is we have a $2 million piece of property and we’re going to use innkeepers tax to pay for it,” he said.
He said that about $2.5 million had been spent at this point on drawings, civil engineering, legal fees and appraisals, along with paying the architects, a lighting contractor and a sound engineer.
“If we have to halt everything come April (18), then that’s what we’d be at, and we’d just give the innkeepers tax to pay for it over the next 30 years,” he said.
Ault said that as soon as the bids are awarded, a groundbreaking will be scheduled.
Who’s in charge
The Brown County Commissioners have to let the public bids because the CVC, CVB and the Maple Leaf Management Group do not have the legal ability to do it on their own, commissioner Diana Biddle said.
The Maple Leaf Management Group is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of the music venue, while the Maple Leaf Building Corporation signed for the loan and purchased the land as an agent of the commissioners.
The Maple Leaf Management Group Inc. met March 13 for their first organizational meeting. Ault was elected president and Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau Board President Bruce Gould was elected vice president of the group.
Barry Herring was elected treasurer. Herring, a former builder of commercial shopping centers, estimated the costs for the Maple Leaf with the help of entertainment company LiveNation.
Gould is the CVB’s representative in the group, while Herring and Ault serve as the Brown County Convention and Visitors Commission’s representatives. The CVC manages the innkeepers tax.
On March 16, Herring submitted his resignation from both the management group and the CVC.
“No reason was given for his resignation. His leadership and dedication to the project is greatly appreciated and will be missed,” Ault said at about 3:30 p.m. March 19.
At about 5:30 p.m. that day, Herring took back his resignation from both boards.
He said on March 23 that he resigned when it felt like the work for the Maple Leaf was getting to be too much on top of his ownership responsibilities at the Brown County Inn. When he was offered more help on both fronts, he rescinded his resignation.
“All of the directors on the management corporation have full-time jobs,” he said. “It’s an amazing amount of work, and it’s all volunteer, and sometimes it gets hard to balance.”
He did not return a call seeking comment on his decisions by deadline.
Biddle serves on the Maple Leaf Management Group as a representative of the county commissioners. However, a search of minutes of recent commissioners meetings did not show that the commissioners had officially appointed anyone. Biddle said Thursday that that would be on the agenda for the April 4 commissioners meeting.
County council member Darren Byrd was nominated March 19 to serve as the council’s appointee.
Jim Schultz and Dena Patrick also serve on the board. Patrick was elected as assistant treasurer and secretary of the group. The group is allowed to have up to four additional members, but only these two have been appointed at this time, Ault said.
“We looked at people who have knowledge of things. Jim Schultz has construction knowledge and he has been involved with this since the beginning on the ad hoc committee, Dena Patrick with her accounting knowledge,” he said.
The Maple Leaf ad hoc committee of community members and government officials formed in early 2017 to explore the possibility of using innkeepers tax to pay for a music venue.
The Maple Leaf Management Group met on March 19 at the Seasons Lodge to discuss the roles and responsibilities of board members. Though this meeting was not publicly announced, a member of the news media was allowed to stay.
The management group talked about the scope of committees that have been formed. They are human resources/staffing chaired by Gould, construction chaired by Schultz, finance chaired by Herring, marketing chaired by Gould, and operations chaired by Ault.
The group also talked about the possibility of adding a project manager job, but no official decisions were made. Gould said that once the construction bids come back, the management group can begin searching for an executive director. He said he had drafted a job description.
Ault said at the CVB meeting on March 20 that the management group would be meeting on second Mondays at 2:30 p.m. at the Brown County Inn, and that meetings would be posted on the Brown County government website and in the newspaper.
Inside the plans
During the commissioners meeting, Harden said that the Maple Leaf blueprints had been refined with guidance from consultants, who include lighting designers and acoustic engineers.
“We’ve hired what we feel like are the best people in the industry,” Harden said.
Steven Durr of Nashville, Tennessee, has been in talks with members of the ad hoc committee to be hired as the sound and acoustic engineer. Performance lighting designers Bandit Lites also have been meeting with the ad hoc committee.
“We’ve hired the best performance, lighting people, the best sound system people. Our sound designer has an intimate connection with Bose, which is a high-end speaker company. Bose is very excited about the project and have thrown out the concept of discounts to use their equipment in this building,” Harden said.
The project being put to bid includes the construction of the venue, the mechanical, electrical and plumbing work, the lighting and sound. Ault said that the ad hoc committee has received quotes on some of the elements in the project that is being put to bid.
“We’ve had lots of consultants during the whole thing, like chair companies. We met with those people so we have an idea where we’re at price-wise,” Ault said.
“I think the experience of the patron of the theater will be top notch,” Harden said. “With using LiveNation and all of these other things, we’re going to be able to compete in a pretty competitive market.”
Pittman told Harden he was glad to hear that organizers were consulting experts on sound and lighting. “That’s one concern that has been expressed to me by a number of individuals: whether your credentials as an architect qualified you to design a music theater,” he said.
Harden said it’s important “to hire the right people and have the right people on your team.”
“Not all of them have come cheaply, but there’s value to be paid for doing it right,” he said.
“(We have) very good eyes towards doing the right thing and spending the right money and working with the right people. LiveNation … can control where acts play and where they don’t. We felt like having them on our side and on our team is the right thing to do,” Harden said.
The total amount of seats in the venue is a little over 2,000, with handicap and VIP seating toward the back. The ad hoc committee was encouraged by LiveNation to have the front three rows of seating be removable. “Apparently, millennials don’t like to sit during concerts,” Harden said, referring to people in their teens to 30s.
“Some bands have it in their rider that they want a mosh pit for in front of the stage for the ‘electricity’ that comes from the people standing there and dancing. We’ve made those seats removable, so we can take those out, and it increases our population.”
Five acoustic panels will be placed on each side wall. Harden said there are plans to do graphics or printed photos of Brown County to bring color into the building. “As far as finishes and stuff like that, it’s going to be a very practical Brown County building,” he said.
There will be raised seating in the back of the performance area. “There’s no bad seats. There’s no visual obstructions anywhere in the theater. You can see every inch of the stage from every seat,” Harden said.
The ticketing office has been moved to the front of the lobby because “LiveNation basically doesn’t want anyone in the lobby who doesn’t have a ticket, and that’s also where they will be wanded,” Harden said.
Biddle said some bands require certain levels of security. Prior to certain concerts, patrons will be security-wanded and rules will be in place on what is allowed in the facility. Off-duty police officers will be hired as security, Harden added.
Project organizers are in preliminary negotiations for naming rights of the venue’s beer garden. “You can guess with who,” Harden said.
The plan is still to offer limited concessions in the lobby. “We don’t want to feed people there, we just want to tide them over so they can go come into town and go to our restaurants,” Harden said.
Local timber frame company The Beamery has been mentioned in project plans to do heavy timber trusses in the lobby, and the columns will be made of stripped-bark trees, Harden said — “kind of a little bit of the Brown County feel as you come in.”
The over-5,000-square-foot lobby also could be used by other local groups during the week when shows aren’t happening. Harden said.
Harden said the ad hoc committee has been having meetings with LiveNation, and that they’ve been going over details of a possible agreement with the national marketing company to book at least 26 shows each year. About 50 other shows would be scheduled by an executive director, who may get assistance from another booking firm that has yet to be hired.
“We really want to be a player in the entertainment field. We want people to come to Brown County. Don’t get me wrong, the only reason to build this building is the economic impact. Otherwise, we could just do something else,” Harden said.
Funding flow
Auditor Beth Mulry asked how bills were being paid.
“I am hearing talks of things being paid for. I know the auditor’s office, the only thing we paid for was one interest payment that I think was then refunded,” she said. “At what point does the county’s auditor’s office become involved?”
Biddle said, “very soon.”
“We have no written direction; there is no fund set up; we have no money; I have no idea how things are being done, I guess, at this point on the finance. We need ample time to receive that information from you guys,” Mulry said.
Biddle said a meeting will be scheduled with County Attorney Jake German, who was not at the March 7 or March 21 commissioners meetings, to discuss the flow of financing and roles in the project.
“The tourism commission, the different moving parts of this project, we need to all sit down and make sure we all know what we’re doing, what our piece of the project,” she said.
Mulry said she wants to make sure the project is in compliance with the Indiana State Board of Accounts.
“From my perspective, I know the building corporation has borrowed $12 million. The county auditor’s office still doesn’t have any formalized copies of that stuff. I don’t know who has the authority to spend that money. … I don’t understand what’s going on,” she said.
Lauren Box, with Barnes and Thornburg LLP, attended the commissioners meeting March 7 in German’s place. Box said the law firm will take all of executed documents related to the bond closing and put them together in a transcript that will be shared with the county electronically and in hard copy.
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A series of meetings has taken place in recent weeks regarding the Maple Leaf Performing Arts Center.
The Maple Leaf Management Group Inc. met March 13 for its first organizational meeting, then again March 19. Many members of that group are members of the Maple Leaf ad hoc committee, which has been getting together periodically for roughly a year to discuss aspects of the project.
On Feb. 27, members of the Maple Leaf ad hoc committee, the Brown County Convention and Visitors Commission and the Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau Board of Directors heard a presentation from the Three Sixty Group.
On March 9, the same group heard a presentation from the Bohlsen Group, another possible marketing firm.
The Three Sixty Group has been working with the CVB to advertise Brown County for the past seven years.
Creative Director Eric Murray said the firm has created brochures, advertisements and other materials for the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre and the Palladium at the Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel. The Three Sixty Group named the Palladium, Murray said.
Dave Bray, the senior art director and account executive, said his firm would write a mission statement for the Maple Leaf project if they were hired. This would clarify the direction of the project and make sure all parties are “on the same page,” Bray said.
The firm also would design a brand for Maple Leaf Performing Arts Center. “It’s a fancy way of saying we need to repeat who we are and what we do — the exact same way — in everything, ‘This is why you come to Maple Leaf and Brown County,’ over and over,” he said.
“Without that, it will be much harder to make the Maple Leaf a viable project. The key is to bring them together and sell as one,” Bray said.
“We’ll introduce the Maple Leaf to your neighbors in Brown County. We’ll do our best to make sure they love you. We want to rally troops, everyone to be on board. This is a project that is going to bless everybody.”
Because Brown County is one of the least populated counties in the state, marketing is essential, Bray said. “We can’t put our light under a bushel and expect people from Indy to flock down here. We have to be smart and strategic about picking our markets and maintain that constant communication,” he said.
“LiveNation is not going to market Brown County because they don’t know anything about Brown County.”
As an example, Bray said a radio advertisement could promote a country artist coming to the Maple Leaf Performing Arts Center and include in that commercial what else Brown County has to offer, like horseback riding, hiking and staying at lodges.
CVB Executive Director Jane Ellis said the Maple Leaf’s website could live within the current CVB website and ticket sales could be done through that page. “We’re going to have to sell the experience, not just the concert,” Ellis said.
“We need to be realistic. We’re not going to be pulling people here nationally to come here.”
Ellis said the focus needs to be regional, and that marketing for the Maple Leaf needs to begin soon. She said she has been sitting on the CVB’s budget, intentionally not committing to anything in case the CVB’s budget needs to be used to help market the Maple Leaf.
Barry Herring, the treasurer of the Maple Leaf Management Group Inc., said it is possible to hire another marketing firm specifically for the Maple Leaf, and then share Maple Leaf funding with the CVB to pay the Three Sixty Group to market Brown County and the Maple Leaf together.
Ellis said working with a firm that doesn’t know much about Brown County as a destination puts the project “farther behind the eight ball.”
“I feel like it’s this (CVB) board’s responsibility and the CVC’s to be a good steward of innkeepers tax,” Ellis said. “When we talk about brand, we have a team that has made that brand so well known. … To start with someone that is way out here on branding a venue, do they even know Brown County?”
On March 9, the same group of people heard a presentation from the Bohlsen Group, which specifically markets music events and would work with an executive director on filling out the rest of the event calendar that LiveNation doesn’t fill. Project organizers have been in talks with LiveNation about booking at least 26 national shows, meaning the executive director would be responsible for booking around 50 more.
The Bohlsen Group also books acts. Its clients include the Indiana Motor Speedway, Lucas Oil Stadium, Sesame Street Live, LiveNation and Broadway Across America. The group has also worked on tours, including U2 and the Rolling Stones.
“It’s not just putting together a fancy logo or plan. Anybody can spend advertising dollars,” said Bohlsen Group Vice President Andy Wilson.
“What’s important is getting the right shows and advertising properly. That’s what matters and keeps the doors open,” he said.
Wilson said he has years of experience marketing shows not just in Indiana, but surrounding states. “I can tell you who sells more in those markets,” he said. “Never make assumptions because it’s a name you know, and certainly not the music you like.”
A band like the Americana string band Old Crow Medicine Show is an example of an artist who would attract an audience in Brown County, Wilson said.
He said the Bohlsen Group knows that every show is different, and they would figure out which radio stations to advertise with, what print or online advertisements to run and what social media promotions to do.
He said there would be opportunities for the Maple Leaf to cross-promote with the Bill Monroe Music Park; they should not compete. For example, he said the Maple Leaf could let the music park set up a booth at a bluegrass concert and make sure not to schedule a bluegrass concert there during the Bill Monroe Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival.
He said people know about Nashville already as a destination, and that will help the Maple Leaf.
“Once you get into this thing, the right people have to be in the driver’s seat,” Wilson said.
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The Indiana Department of Transportation is still planning to build a concrete curb to separate the eastbound and westbound lanes of State Road 46 East and make the highway four lanes in order to accommodate Maple Leaf Boulevard.
Maple Leaf Boulevard will be the main road to the Maple Leaf Performing Arts Center. It will have three lanes. Two lanes will be set aside for either outgoing or incoming traffic from the music venue before or after a show.
State Road 46 East will be four lanes from the Snyder Road area to just past Hawthorne Drive, architect Doug Harden reported to the Brown County Commissioners on March 7.
“Basically, as you’re coming from Columbus, there will be a left-hand-only lane from Snyder Road to Maple Leaf. There will be a concrete curb separating the traffic for safety issues. That will allow you to turn and come into Maple Leaf,” Harden said.
There will be a curb from Maple Leaf Boulevard extending west past the Salt Creek Plaza entrance on 46 East, because INDOT wants that to be used as only a left-turn lane into Hawthorne if you’re driving west,” Harden said. The curb will prevent westbound traffic from turning into the old Salt Creek Plaza/Salt Creek Inn entrance, he said.
“They (INDOT) wanted that for a reason, because there’s too many entrances and exits. They really want The Seasons to realign with Hawthorne at some point, to move that down and clean up all of these random kind of entrances.”
Harden said that 46 East will be widened “slightly” on the south side, because right now the road doesn’t really have a shoulder.
Although INDOT doesn’t want Chestnut Street to be connected to Maple Leaf Boulevard, Harden said he thinks that’s still an option because those streets are not owned by INDOT.
Nashville Chief of Police Ben Seastrom had voiced concerns at a town council meeting that the new center curb would restrict drivers from moving over for emergency vehicles on State Road 46.
“My feeling is, right now, the town police use this (Salt Creek Plaza entrance) as a secondary relief if Hawthorne (Drive) is busy and they need to get out,” Harden said. “I think the better plan, especially for traffic overall, is to connect Chestnut to Maple Leaf to allow them that secondary way out. With the three lanes on Maple Leaf, you should be able to get out of there one way or the other if you’re using (emergency) lights.”
Hawthorne Drive will be widened to three lanes by the town of Nashville using a Community Crossings grant this year, said Utility Manager Sean Cassiday.
“We are going to see if we have the money to improve the intersection after the widening is done,” Cassiday said in an email March 22.
Cassiday sad he believes there may be grant money left to do the intersection improvement this year, but if not the town will apply to do the intersection improvement as a Community Crossings grant project for 2019.
Last year, Hawthorne Drive residents asked the Maple Leaf ad hoc committee to not connect Hawthorne Drive to Maple Leaf Boulevard because of concerns about an increase of traffic in that area.
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