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Provo » Pianist David Lanz may have been the main act at the Covey Center for the Arts Saturday night, but it was Mayor Lewis K. Billings' announcement that was the real headliner:
The $8.5 million arts center is finally paid off.
"That is something to celebrate," Billings said Monday.
Billings made the announcement during Lanz's performance in the Mayors' Series for the Performing Arts. Billings said Monday that the final bit of the building's $8.5 million cost were paid for through community donations, a grant from Utah County and the corporate sponsors of the Mayor's Series.
When the center opened in August 2007, there was still a half-million dollars left to cover the construction costs. Among those who donated to the construction were USX, the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation, the Melanie Bastian Family Foundation and self-help guru Stephen R. Covey. The city also used a $2.1 million tax increment bond and $871,377 from its general fund to convert the old library into an arts center.
Billings said Covey was the largest donor, giving $2 million toward the project, which was named in honor of Covey's wife, Sandra.
Kathryn S. Allen, the center's community outreach director, said the fundraising effort wasn't just directed at corporate sponsors and Provo's upper crust. She said the city's neighborhood chairmen and chairwomen went door to door and asked their constituents to contribute.
Paul Duerden, the center's general manager, said the Covey Center has been a bargain for the city. Had the city build a new arts center from the ground up -- the city converted its old public library into the Covey Center -- it would have cost more than $20 million.
Paying off the building lifts a burden from Duerden's staff's shoulders.
"It allows us to work on programming and not focus on fundraising to pay off the brick and mortar," Duerden said.
He said fears that there wouldn't be enough theatre and arts programs to support both the Covey Center, Orem's SCERA and the Hale Center Theatre have been dispelled. Between the 670-seat auditorium, the Brinton Black Box Theatre and the dance studios, the center is booked 260 days out of the year. That's 30 more days of performances than are booked at BYU's Harris Fine Arts Center -- which Duerden managed before coming to the Covey Center.
"When I was hired on, the expectation was that we would do 130 days a year," Duerden said. "We're doing 100 more than the expectation was." Duerden said the center is as busy as a theater that has been in business for five years.
He attributed the success to the fact that the Covey is the only roadhouse of its size in the area, attracting performing groups from Payson to Salt Lake City. He said there are practically no private-sector theatres in the nation. Also, the Covey Center has a different focus than SCERA, which primarily books major performers in its outdoor amphitheater, and Hale's emphasis on plays.
The center is part of the city's efforts to revitalize the downtown area. Among the acts that have performed there are Lanz and Kenny Loggins and the Utah Regional Ballet.
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