Should 23 artists get a $23M taxpayer subsidy?

Artists and arts groups pushed for continued operation of the Evanston's Noyes Center Monday night as city staff outlined the need for $23 million in upgrades to the structure.

Portions of the former school building at 927 Noyes St. date to 1892 and were designed by famed Evanston architect Daniel Burnham.

An image from a 1950 Sanborn fire insurance map showing the expansion of the Noyes School building over the decades. Credit: Library of Congress

Since the city acquired the shuttered school in 1980 for $1.1 million, it has provided subsidized rental space for about two dozen artists, sculptors, actors and musicians.

The building has seen some improvements, including a $1 million roof replacement a decade ago. About that time the city modestly increased rental rates for the building.

Noyes is the only one of the city's community centers where annual revenue has covered annual operating costs in recent years.

But at the rate of operating "profit" at Noyes over the past four years, the city would just now be coming close to recovering the capital improvement cost of the roof repair a decade ago — not counting interest.

At a similar rate, recovering the planned $23 million in new renovation costs would take centuries.

Murphy Monroe of the Actors Gymnasium told the council Noyes is a gem and "we must protect it," a view seconded by several other tenants in the building.

When the city council voted earlier this year to add an eighth community center to the city's real estate portfolio — the former Little Beans Cafe at 430 Asbury Ave. — Parks and Recreation Director Audrey Thompson promised she could have that property showing an operating profit by next year.

She said the city needs to view profitability as a community good, while still offering recreation program fee discounts to lower-income residents.

With the council Monday night also receiving a report on putting its assets to work — a study that envisions redeveloping some city properties to meet affordable housing and economic development goals and to generate new property tax revenue — council members chose not to take any immediate action on the Noyes renovation proposal.

Ald. Clare Kelly, whose 1st Ward includes the Noyes building, pushed for moving forward on a pared down renovation plan that would effectively lock the city in to continued use of the property.

But Ald. Jonathan Nieuwsma (4th), while saying the community needs to invest in the arts, asked whether the project could be delayed.

City Engineer Lara Biggs responded that it could be postponed for a couple of years, but would need to be completed within three to five years.

Ald. Eleanor Revelle (7th) said she didn't want to make a decision about Noyes without considering the city's other major capital needs — for a new civic center and new police fire headquarters — and how to pay for all of them.

The council agreed to seek a federal grant to move forward with exploring the putting assets to work concept. The grant program, with a May 10 application deadline, could provide up to $1 million to fund further work to come up with specific redevelopment proposals.