David Michael Miller
As a mayoral candidate in 1995, Al Matano staunchly opposed the construction of Monona Terrace because of the $60 million public subsidy that the project required.
“It was sold as a panacea that would make downtown wonderful,” Matano says. “But it never quite happened.”
Convention center proponents, including Mayor Paul Soglin, who defeated Matano in the election that year, argue that Monona Terrace helped catalyze a downtown development boom and has generated millions for the city. But there are signs that the facility could be doing better: City officials have proposed spending millions more in public funds to redevelop Judge Doyle Square and bring a hotel downtown to drive more business to Monona Terrace.
Matano, who now serves on the Dane County Board, has similar fears about a controversial plan to overhaul the Alliant Energy Center. A “political lefty” but a fiscal conservative, Matano believes that “the business of government is government” and questions the use of public funds to support the center’s redevelopment.
“I don’t think the county should go down the road of being in the convention center business,” he says. “Giving out subsidy upon subsidy? It never seems to work out.”
The board will vote Feb. 18 on a resolution that would authorize county officials to create a master plan for the “redevelopment and reinvestment” of the entire Alliant campus. The plan is based on the most aggressive of three options outlined in an October study by Hammes Company, which calls for a “comprehensive campus redevelopment,” including a new event venue and “destination-oriented ancillary development.” The overhaul would require up to $120 million in public investment and up to $400 million in private investment, and would in turn provide a total annual fiscal impact of $30 million to $40 million, according to the study.
The proposal was unanimously approved by the County Board’s Alliant Energy Center Strategic Design Study Committee last month and has since been recommended for approval by a handful of other committees. Despite opponents like Matano, supporters say the plan would help position the center as an economic driver for the region.
The Alliant Energy Center is believed to be the only facility of its kind in the U.S. operating without a public subsidy. That’s the way the business model was set up from day one, Dane County Executive Joe Parisi says, and it’s a major point of pride for the county.
“The board’s proposal would take us on a complete opposite [path],” he says.
Parisi wrote board members earlier this month urging them to reject the redevelopment proposal. He favors a more deliberate, incremental approach to the campus improvements, focusing on lower-cost, high-impact projects. He points to the construction of the New Holland Pavilions, which replaced nine outdated agricultural barns, as an example of the work his office has done, adding that the improvement helped secure a long-term agreement with the World Dairy Expo, which had been courted by other cities.
“We see a path forward that certainly does not include spending $120 million of taxpayer dollars and asking for an additional special tax in order to turn things around,” Parisi says. “We can get where we need to be for one-tenth of what [the board] wants to spend.”
But Dane County Board Chair Sharon Corrigan, who has been a major proponent of the redevelopment, says the resolution is more about forming a master plan than it is about committing to expensive construction projects.
Corrigan says the amount needed for a public subsidy is unknown but will be determined once the master plan is complete. She acknowledges that the center has done well operating with its own resources and is pleased with the improved 2015 revenue estimates, but she says more support and investment is needed to keep the facility viable.
“This discussion about a master plan and the market study really goes beyond the next five years and asks, ‘Where are we going to be in the future?’” Corrigan says. “We certainly don’t want to be in the position of eating through reserves and cutting into core county services.”
Dane County can’t take advantage of tools like tax increment financing or room taxes, so Corrigan and others are hoping that partnerships with private and governmental entities can help generate revenue. The resolution calls for city and county officials to push for the state Legislature to establish a special tourism or exposition tax district as another funding source.
Supv. Robin Schmidt, chair of the county’s public works committee, says a master plan would help determine where the county should focus its resources to support the campus.
“I think eventually we’ll all come to a solution that will be best for not only the county, but for the property and the future of that gateway into the city,” Schmidt says. “People have different paths, but eventually we’re going to get there.”
Parisi doesn’t deny that the Alliant campus — and particularly the Veterans Memorial Coliseum, which has had 15 years of deferred maintenance — is in need of attention. But he says the Hammes report is “flawed” because it uses financial projections based on old data. The study cites net operating deficits between $300,000 and $500,000 in recent years and notes that the facility’s reserve fund has been depleted. But Parisi notes that business has picked up since the recession and that the facility made money in 2015.
“Hammes burst on the scene and said, ‘The sky is falling,’” says Parisi. “It came somewhat out of left field.” He fears that the Hammes report “paints an unrealistically negative picture” of the campus, which could impede county efforts to attract events and to sell naming rights for the facility.
“My fear is that their negativity is going to become a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Parisi says.
Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell, chair of the strategic design committee that approved the proposal in January, says that Parisi’s incremental approach has not generated enough revenue. “We just get farther behind,” he says, adding that a master plan would help officials explore future funding options.
Says McDonell: “And even if there is an incremental approach, how can you have an incremental approach without a plan?”
Supv. Dennis O’Laughlin supports forming a master plan and isn’t opposed to the idea of a subsidy — particularly because the exact amount and where it will come from has yet to be determined. But he says he will vote against the measure because of a clause in the resolution that directs county staff to develop a “plan b” that would remove them from the exposition market completely, offering up the Alliant grounds for a bid from private, public or quasi-public entities for commercial and/or residential development. He fears that if the resolution includes such language it could impede center staff from working with clients on long-term contract negotiations or on building naming rights.
“I don’t think that’s a good business practice,” he says.
The center is in the town of Madison, but the area will be annexed by the city by 2022. With an eye on that eventual transition, Mayor Soglin says city officials have a “very deep concern about the site’s development” and has pledged to work with the county on the project.
Soglin declined to endorse the county’s proposal or comment on the economics of the redevelopment, saying, “We simply don’t have the data.” He cited the need for a community conversation about the future of the site that would include input from residents of the nearby neighborhoods, the convention and tourism industry, land use developers, transportation experts and environmentalists. But he also expressed optimism about the project’s potential to enhance downtown Madison into the next century.
“This could be something really spectacular,” he says. “I wouldn’t put any limitations on what we could do at this juncture.”
