Although there's no design or location for a new art museum, there is already an outstanding loan for the project.
By JANET ZINK, Times Staff Writer
Published August 5, 2005
TAMPA - Since 2001, the new art museum has cost the city nearly $11-million.
That figure includes $6.7-million for architectural and construction documents, and $1.2-million a year to pay back a $27-million construction loan.
Trouble is, there is no new museum. Not one shovelful of dirt has been turned and no brick has been laid. City and museum officials haven't even agreed on a location for a new facility.
That has city leaders wondering if they should maintain the loan.
In a memo sent Wednesday to City Council members, city finance director Bonnie Wise outlined options for handling the debt.
One possibility is to keep making payments until construction of the museum begins. The proposed budget for fiscal year 2006 includes the debt with the assumption that work will begin on the new museum in 2008, but "this date may be overly optimistic," Wise said in the memo.
Other options are to use the money for another project or pay off the bonds that generated the money and issue more later, when a start-up date for building the new museum is imminent. That would eliminate the debt payment, but subject future bonds to fluctuations in interest rates, Wise said.
What is the best option?
It depends on how long it takes to start building a museum, Wise said.
And that might take awhile.
Before building can start, said Mayor Pam Iorio, city and museum leaders need to find a site and agree on a size and design. Museum leaders have to come up with a conservative business plan, and set goals, and begin raising the money for an endowment, she said.
"Then the city's money will be available," Iorio said. "And this time around the city's money will not be the first money used."
In 2001, former Mayor Dick Greco pledged $27-million in community investment tax money for a new art museum. The city issued a $55.5-million bond to pay for it as well as several other projects, including an expansion of Lowry Park Zoo and a new marquee at Tampa Theatre.
Construction of a $76-million art museum designed by renowned architect Rafael Vinoly was to begin in early 2003. Museum leaders raised $31-million in a capital campaign to help pay for it. But the project collapsed amid financial wrangling among the city, the museum and bankers.
Museum board chairwoman Cornelia Corbett said Thursday she hadn't seen Wise's memo, but the mayor had told her there would be no problem keeping the city money in place until construction began.
Council member John Dingfelder said he has long thought the city needs to reconsider how the debt service on the museum is being managed.
"It's like borrowing money for a house that you don't build. Give the money back until you're ready to build," Dingfelder said. "That's not to say I'm against building the museum. If the mayor and the council and the community want to build a museum, and we get our act together, we'll take out the money and build a museum. But until then let's quit wasting the money."
"It's disturbing that we are losing money by holding this money open for everybody to figure out a location," said council member Shawn Harrison. "I don't think that makes a lot of fiscal sense. But I also don't want to pull the rug out from under anybody if there are legitimate attempts to move forward. It's disappointing the whole thing has unfolded the way it has."
Iorio said that when interim museum director Ken Rollins begins work in September one of his first duties will be to develop a timeline for getting started on a new museum. That will help city officials decide how best to handle the debt.
