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University Daily Kansan, July 18. 1984
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get that far. And we couldn't get backing because I'm a trumpet player and this is not my field of expertise."
All the commissioners except Shontz said that Bowersock would have to provide more financial information, which the city's policy on IRBs calls for, to City Manager Buford Watson before they would consider approving the IRBs.
David Hayden, one of the Bowersock investors, told the commission that he could provide financial information on the partners in Bowersock who would be guaranteeing the lease of the building, but not on the group of investors whose money would be securing the bonds. He said that was all the application required.
HE SAID THE investors preferred to remain anonymous because of the political controversy surrounding the Opera House and its possible conflict with Town Center Venture Corp.'s plans for downtown redevelopment in the 600 block of Massachusetts Street.
Reilhan explained that because of the IRBs, the city would be assuming
no financial risk and therefore did not need to know how the bonds would be secured.
IRBs are a tool culture use to finance private development projects. The city merely lends its name to the project by granting credit to the company, and bears no responsibility for repaying the bonds.
After the vote and a 15-minute recess, Mayor Angino tried to convince the Bowersock representatives to give the city manager the financial information the commission wanted and to return at a later date for another hearing.
HAYDEN SAID THAT the investors and those planning the project would be unwilling to go on unless the commission would express some sunport.
Angino said again that he did not think the angina was financially sound. Hayden threw his hands in the air and walked away from the podium, saying, "The matter is
The group of Bowersock representatives stayed at city hall to talk with Watson while the meeting continued, but there was no indication whether they would again appear before the commission.
Stopping short of endorsing renovation of the Lawrence Opera House, 642 Massachusetts St., the Downtown Improvement Committee scheduled a July 25 special meeting at the Opera House to discuss the committee's position on the building.
Opera House's fate still uncertain
By SHAWNA SEED
Staff Reporter
bers who were not present could not have known the issue would arise.
A DIC RESOLUTION supporting the proposed renovation was withdrawn after chairman Hank Booth said that he thought the resolution was premature. He said the vote should wait because committee mem-
A Topeka company, Management Alternatives, had proposed a renovation of the Opera House to be financed by industrial revenue bonds issued by the city of Lawrence, but last night the Lawrence City Commission turned down a proposal for the bonds. The Opera House stands in the block where the proposed downtown mall is planned.
The discussion of the Opera House was not on the committee's announced agenda.
Even without the resolution, committee members expressed support for saving the Onera House.
BOOTH SAID THAT he did not think Town Center Venture Corp. would have been chosen developer-of-record for the downstairs of the opera House had been mentioned at the time.
John Naughtin, a committee member, said that he did not think the people of Lawrence wanted redevelopment in the 600 and 700 blocks of Massachusetts Street if it meant the loss of the Opera House.
Tuesday, Skip Moon, the owner of the Opera House, outlined what he said he understood to be the developer's plans for the Opera House.
"As of late yesterday afternoon, the options were to gut it and use it as office space; to remold it for a bank building, or to
tear it down." he said.
Three members of Town Center — Diane Schwada, Bob Gould and Richard Zinn — had been present earlier in the meeting to discuss the status of the downtown mall. However, they left before the discussion of the Opera House began.
BUFORD WATSON, city manager, asked the developers before they left about their position on the Opera House.
"The city should control it. Other than that, we have no comment." Schweda said.
Booth said that he did not understand the developers' position, because the plans they had originally shown the city and the DIC had included the Opera House. "If we weren't going to have an Opera House," he said, "then why write Opera House in the plans?"
Booth said that if the developers planned to tear down the Opera House, he thought the committee should rethink its position on the developer's plans for the 600 and 700 blocks of Massachusetts St.
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