As Co-Chairs of the Partnership Board, which seeks to build the New Juneau Arts and Culture Center (what we call “the New JACC”), we’re excited about this dynamic project and want to report on our progress.
When the City and Borough of Juneau acquired the National Guard Armory and leased the facility to the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council in 2007, both the city and the council recognized that the JACC was a temporary solution. The Assembly adopted its Comprehensive Plan the following year, acknowledging that a New JACC “would provide a much-needed year-round venue for arts and cultural performances,” “be an anchor facility … spurring development in the surrounding area” and “provide auxiliary exhibition and meeting space for events, conventions and meetings held at Centennial Hall.” Now we are on the cusp of creating that permanent home.
As currently planned, demolition of the existing JACC will commence next summer; the new center is anticipated to open in 2020. It will include a 300-seat theater, an open multipurpose event space that will handle 120 people, a large community hall (much like the main hall in the current JACC), visual arts gallery, gift shop, welcoming atrium, café, and office spaces for several community groups. The New JACC will contribute to the ongoing revitalization of the Willoughby District, which is fast becoming a new “town center” of Juneau. The New JACC is estimated to cost $26 million, the majority of which is being raised from private sources including corporations, foundations, businesses and individual donors.
We want to thank the CBJ for its ongoing support of this vital community project. The CBJ provided the real estate, $1 million in voter-approved sales tax revenue, and has taken the lead in addressing Willoughby District parking concerns. Earlier this summer, we asked the Assembly to consider additional funding for the project, specifically by increasing the existing bed tax to provide an estimated $1.6 million. Last week, we withdrew this request because of concerns raised by the Juneau visitor industry, whom we regard as a key partner, and pledged to work with it and our business community to advance this project by other means.
Centennial Hall (CH) and the New JACC complement each other. The New JACC and CH create a synergy, allowing Juneau to compete more vigorously to attract and host convention, conference and cultural activities. In fact, CH currently needs spaces in the JACC for large events such as Celebration, Folk Fest and Public Market. It is not adequate on its own.
We also examined whether to “just add on to Centennial Hall.” We discovered this alternative poses numerous major construction and engineering issues. These include the need to replace the existing operable partitions, upgrade aging mechanical and electrical systems, replace the existing water and sewer lines with larger ones and regulatory issues associated with expanding the footprint and bringing older construction into code compatibility. The major single construction expense of the New JACC is its theater, which cannot be replicated in CH itself. The considered judgment of design professionals is that the cost of retrofitting and including the theater and other non-duplicative features would equal or exceed that of the new building.
The existing JACC is probably the most utilized publicly available facility in Juneau and is literally bursting at its seams. But this extraordinary use cannot hide the fact that the old JACC is dilapidated, poses risks to the health of some community members, and simply cannot meet the needs of our diverse community any longer. Juneau’s artists, community groups and the amazing citizenry and businesses that support them deserve better. The New JACC is specifically designed to meet the needs of our community, is economically viable and will provide a much needed source of new investment in downtown. We hope you will join us in making this project happen for Juneau’s future.
• Peter Jurasz and Bruce Botelho are co-chairs of Partnership Inc., the private nonprofit corporation raising the funds for the New JACC. Bruce is a former CBJ Mayor and Alaska Attorney General. Peter is a senior vice president and financial adviser. They may be reached via www.newjacc.org or 586-5099.
