Iggy Pop performs on Friday, March 10, 2023, at the Salt Shed in Chicago. The iconic venue is one of numerous types consultants said Aurora might pursue. (Photo by Rob Grabowski/Invision/AP)
AURORA | Aurora is looking at the possibility of building a multi-purpose entertainment venue, city officials announced at a study session on Monday.
“This is an ongoing effort by the city to investigate the potential construction of a multi-purpose entertainment venue in the city,” said Councilmember Curtis Gardner. “There’s been a lot of work done and a lot more work to do, but tonight is an update on that process.”
A large entertainment venue has been near the top of the city’s wish list for decades. The effort is preliminary, without a site or even a firm idea of what kind of entertainment venue is possible.
The feasibility study, led by consulting firms Johnson Consulting and MIG, is taking a comprehensive look at the market potential, stakeholder engagement, facility requirements, financial analysis and economic impact of a potential entertainment venue.
“The study will cross a broad range of areas to study the possibility of an entertainment venue for Aurora,” said Laura Perry, deputy city manager.
This includes a market analysis, a facility and site analysis and a stakeholder engagement, which Perry said was done late last year, where they conducted a consumer preference survey and conducted a variety of focus groups and interviews with various stakeholders.
“I think this was one of the most well-responded to surveys from the city,” said Ryan Johnson from Johnson Consulting. “I just wanted to point out the high level of interest from the community.”
The stakeholder engagement process included nearly 2,000 survey respondents who revealed strong community interest and preferences, Mark de la Torre, director of Denver operations MIG.
Concerts, dance performances, festivals and events were some of the more popular priorities the community said they preferred in the survey. Concerts were the highest priority overall, and sports and high school events were also noted as possible interests, de la Torre said.
Concerts were almost more than double some of the other top-performing activities, and they would do well with the other top-performing activities the community had preferences for, Johnson said.
“There’s a lot of synergy and coalescence around concerts and all those other theater, dance performance, as well as festivals, which can happen at the venue potentially or also around the venue while an event is happening,” Johnson said.
The consulting team also presented case studies of successful multi-purpose entertainment venues and entertainment districts from around the country, such as the Toyota Music Factory in Texas and Fourth Street Live in Louisville, Kentucky.
The examples included indoor and outdoor seating opportunities, venues with capacities between 2,000 to 8,000 seats, historical districts that reuse older buildings and pedestrian malls. They also presented public-private partnerships with tax increment financing districts where the sales tax of surrounding hotels and retail businesses would be reinvested into the venue.
Johnson Consulting said that these examples highlighted the importance of flexible design, public-private partnerships and unique funding mechanisms like tax increment financing districts.
The team will finalize a recommended program and location, develop cost estimates and initial renderings and conduct economic and fiscal impact analyses to inform the city’s decision-making process.
“How is this facility going to get paid for? Who’s going to own it and operate it? These are some of the key questions that we’ll be answering there,” Johnson said.
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