Over 4 Years Later, Confluence Project Finally Digs In
Tom Giffey, photos by Andrea Paulseth |
One-thousand six-hundred and five. That’s the number of days that passed between the May 15, 2012, announcement of the Confluence Project and Thursday’s ceremonial groundbreaking for the downtown Eau Claire performing arts center. During that four-and-a-half-year span, an enormous amount happened: Countless meetings were held. Two referendums landed on the local ballot. Funds were raised – and raised and raised. Money for the project was put in the state budget, then taken out, then put back in again. Plans were drawn and bids were opened. While the backhoes and bulldozers won’t get to work on the construction site for a few more weeks, the nearly two dozen hard-hat wearing people who flipped ceremonial shovelfuls of dirt on Thursday, Oct. 6 had already done much of the metaphorical heavy lifting to bring the Confluence Project from a single conceptual drawing to an honest-to-goodness construction project.
“We can rightly say that we built this building – all of us. No one person gets to claim that honor. We did it. The idea came from you, the money came from you, the energy came from you.” – Eau Claire City Council President Kerry Kincaid
Hundreds of others – from City Council members to college students to donors – gathered to watch the ceremony, held on a sandy lot just yards from where the Eau Claire and Chippewa rivers flow together and in the shadow of Haymarket Landing, the mixed-use residential-commercial element that will complement the Confluence Center. The $45 million shared university-community performing arts center is slated to be completed by 2018. While much work remains, Thursday was a time for reflection and celebration by those with a stake in the project.
“Soon there will be a beautiful building here that will make us proud and help us revitalize our downtown,” Eau Claire City Council President Kerry Kincaid, one of those who donned a white hard hat and wielded a gold-painted shovel, told the crowd.
“We can rightly say that we built this building – all of us,” Kincaid added. “No one person gets to claim that honor. We did it. The idea came from you, the money came from you, the energy came from you.”
Tom Barland, a retired judge who serves as one of four co-chairpersons of the fundraising effort, praised the project as a unique partnership that succeeded against the odds. “This project began with opposition from some, doubt and questions by others, and a relatively small cadre of strong supporters,” Barland said. “Now, four years later, we have an outpouring of love and support for the project from many. We have arrived at the point when construction can begin on the building of a remarkable educational arts center. … Already we have seen vibrant results in the renaissance of Eau Claire’s downtown and the additional music festivals drawing thousands of visitors to Eau Claire. There is new life where previously pessimism prevailed.”
The effort also brought bipartisan praise from state lawmakers, who worked together to ensure that Gov. Scott Walker put funding for the project in the 2015-17 state budget.
“I truly believe this public-private endeavor will be a model for other college towns in Wisconsin and – just possibly – the nation,” said state Rep. Kathy Bernier, R-Lake Hallie.
State Rep. Dana Wachs, D-Eau Claire, agreed, noting that he grew up in Eau Claire at a time when the future looked much dimmer for the city’s center. “I think we’ve found the key to urban development in this state,” he said.
While it may be located in downtown Eau Claire, the future performing arts center will enrich the lives of people from across the Chippewa Valley, emphasized Jerry Jacobson, president of Chippewa Falls-based Northwestern Bank and chairman of Eau Claire Confluence Arts, the nonprofit entity that will own the building. “We know it’s not just designed for bankers in suits,” he said. “We want to see everyone here.”
The approximately 130,000-square-foot, three-story arts center will include two theaters, a large lobby, a small performance space, scene and costume shops, a recording studio, dance studio and music and theater rehearsal rooms, offices for Visit Eau Claire, and more.
The Confluence Project is a public-private partnership that will be built with funding from many sources, including the state of Wisconsin, the City of Eau Claire, Eau Claire County, federal new market tax credits, and private donors. While nearly $15 million has been raised from donors, fundraising continues, in part to obtain the entirety of a $1.5 million anonymous matching grant. About $1.3 million was raised toward that total as of Sept. 30, the original deadline. However, the deadline for the matching grant has been extended through the end of the year.
Kimera Way, president of the UW-Eau Claire Foundation, one of the project’s partners, said ongoing fundraising will be targeted to specific potential donors, and that naming rights for some elements of the center are still available. While the budget is still flexible – for instance, extra financing could go toward improved technology in the facility – “We’re at the point that this is the building we’re going to build,” Way said.
And it’s a building that is destined to be a downtown landmark for generations. As Kincaid said in her remarks, “In our time, Eau Claire built something important, and it changed everything.”
