City may buy land for Civic Auditorium

by Carol Crump
Monday, June 16, 2008 1:14 PM MDT

The idea of a Civic Auditorium for Casper is still alive.

A tentative commitment from the Casper City Council to purchase a site for the proposed facility may be enough to let the Citizens for a Civic Auditorium move the community project another step forward.

A committee of council members and City staff has been meeting with the CCA for the past year to see if the City had any level of commitment to what has been a privately-funded project. A joint proposal from the CCA and council members Guy Padgett, Kate Sarosy, Kenyne Schlager, Lynne Whalen asked for the council to consider a proposal that would commit the City to involvement.

The proposal asked for gap financing of $5.8 million, a loan that would be repaid over time from the overriding royalty from the trona leases pledged to the group by John Wold.

The CCA has approximately $7 million in pledges toward an $18.7 million facility. According to CCA’s Ken Barbe, the committee has the pledges but doesn’t have the cash to write a check for land purchase, architectural plans and the start of construction.

“Our plan anticipates the up-front money comes from the City,” with a commitment of $2 million in 2009, 2010 and 2011, Barbe said.

The CCA’s proposal identified two other sources of funding, in addition to a commitment to $2.5 million more in fund-raising and private bank financing to bridge the gap as pledges come in.

With the City’s help, the CCA would apply for a Wyoming Business Council grant of $3 million and pursue the $5 million from the Amoco Reuse Joint Powers Board that the Reuse Agreement identified as potentially available for redevelopment of the Old Yellowstone District.

“All have to come to fruition,” City Manager Tom Forslund told the Casper City Council. “If not, it’s back to the drawing board and back to fund-raising” for the CCA.

Barbe said calling in pledges early is not an option.

“It’s a chicken and egg issue,” he said. “People who have pledged have concerns with paying their pledge and then we can’t get the project done. It’s unrealistic to call in the pledges early unless we know the City will be there.”

How and when the CCA would repay the City for its financial commitment from the trona royalties depends on when the asset is mined and how assignment to the City can be made.

Wold has pledged one-third of 1 percent of the gross revenue stream of the leases -- approximately $6.8 million -- in what is the most profitable area of the Sweetwater Basin to the Civic Auditorium project. FMC, which bought the leases from Wold, has publicly stated that it will mine the leases, although there is no current date for when the mining will start.

The compromise reached by the Casper City Council supports the Casper Civic Auditorium project. It also takes into account the uncertainty of the timing of payback from the trona leases and a Wyoming Constitutional prohibition against donation of City funds to a private entity.

“If this facility is ever built in Casper, it has to have City funds,” said Mayor Paul Bertoglio. “They need an infusion of cash from both them and us.”

Under a contractual agreement that will come forward to the council for final approval, the City will use $1.4 million of $2 million already set aside in the coming budget for development of the Old Yellowstone District to purchase three acres of land.

The three acres, which could become the site for the Civic Auditorium, will be owned by the City.

”If the grants don’t come through, we’ll rededicate the land to Old Yellowstone District projects,” Padgett said.

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