By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph might hire an outside firm to manage the Civic Arena and, perhaps, even the Missouri Theater.
The city council during a work session discussed the possibility of having an outside firm manage the two venues in downtown St. Joseph.
St. Joseph City Manager Bryan Carter says the city has asked firms to submit proposals on how they would manage the facilities.
“That will give us an idea on a number of different things, but it will give us an idea on how we can balance the local use with other potential uses that they can bring in at the national level,” Carter says. “So, we’ll be able to get an idea of how the facilities could be used relative to how they are used.”
Responses to the requests for proposals should be in by the end of the month.
Carter says this is new for the city and city officials and the council will take their time evaluating the proposals.
Carter says even the responses from firms about the city proposal will give the city better insight on the feasibility of outside management.
“We’ll also have the chance to evaluate whether those two facilities should be looked at together or if we should separate out one versus the other, because we do use the two of them for pretty significantly different purposes,” according to Carter. “And we’ll have to look and see if there’s a benefit to having that management for just Civic Arena or including Civic Arena and Missouri Theater.”
Carter says a big consideration would be how much outside management would cost.
“When we’re looking at utilizing outside service to manage these, we also have to see if it’s financially feasible for us to do it, if we can get enough benefit to justify the expense that might be associated with it,” Carter says.
All of this comes as the city undertake $3.1 million in renovations to the Civic Arena, paid in part with the city parks sales tax, but also from American Rescue Plan funding.