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Progress Energy makes 20-year promise to Mahaffey

The utility will pay at least $250,000 per year for 20 years to help attract performers.

By CARRIE WEIMAR
Published May 3, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG - First the city poured $20-million into renovating the Mahaffey Theater. Now a local corporation is offering up $6.2-million to ensure theater patrons will have something to watch.

Progress Energy Florida announced plans Wednesday to buy naming rights to the area surrounding the Mahaffey, promising to pay at least $250,000 per year for 20 years to help attract performers.

"This is really a major development for the theater," Mayor Rick Baker said. "The key to it all is you have to have things going on inside."

The money will give the theater an instant endowment, something it has been lacking for years. Programming used to be handled by the Mahaffey Foundation, which struggled to stay afloat.

The complex will include the Florida Orchestra offices, a waterfront park and a plaza adjoining the theater and the future home of the Salvador Dali Museum. It will be called the Progress Energy Center for the Arts, while the names of the individual facilities won't change.

In exchange, the company will give a total of $6.2-million over 20 years. The annual amount begins at $250,000 and will increase with inflation.

In 1998, the Mahaffey Foundation was forced to spend virtually its entire endowment of about $1-million to cover losses of an ill-conceived Broadway series built around the musical Big. A string of other flops followed and money continued to dwindle.

After ceasing operations in 2004, the foundation was recently reorganized as a fundraising organization. David Metz, the city's director of downtown enterprise facilities, said the foundation will focus mainly on school and community programs.

Last year, the city hired SMG, a Philadelphia company that controls 34 performing arts centers nationwide, to manage the theater. Metz said the city will work with SMG to decide how to spend the $250,000 annual payment.

In June, the city embarked on a $20-million renovation of the aging Mahaffey. Among the new features are a 40-foot cylindrical atrium made of glass overlooking Tampa Bay, a redone box office, bathrooms and concessions stands. The theater itself was brightened with new paint and upholstery for the chairs.

Baker said the renovation and the money from Progress Energy will go a long way toward ensuring the theater's success.

"Overnight, we have a very strong endowment for this theater," he said. "That's very important."

Jeff Lyash, who was recently named Progress Energy's top official in the state, said the money is intended to demonstrate the company's commitment to local residents as well as its employees.

"We believe investing in the arts and improving the vibrancy and the vitality of a community adds to the quality of life," Lyash said. "It's good for our employees and, over the long term, it's very good for the economy."

The cost of the naming rights won't be passed on to customers and will come from corporate profits, Lyash said.

This isn't the first time the energy giant intervened on behalf of the arts. In 2001, Progress Energy bought the naming rights at a theater complex in Raleigh, N.C., its corporate headquarters.

City Council members are expected to hear the proposal at their meeting today.

"I think it's going to be a great idea. It's sort of a missing piece," said council member Jeff Danner. "We've put all the bricks and mortoer in place. Now we've got the programming."

[Last modified May 3, 2006, 20:11:01]