Carmel concert hall draws debate

CARMEL, Ind. -- The city will soon begin debating whether to build an $80 million concert hall, with some saying the community cannot afford it. The Carmel Performing Arts Center would bill itself as Indiana's only true concert hall, occasionally playing host to the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and inviting top acts that do not usually play in the state, The Indianapolis Star reported Sunday.\nCarmel is counting on music to anchor its effort to build a new downtown that would give the growing city a skyline and an identity distinct from its southern neighbor Indianapolis, officials said.\n"This hall will be so much better than anything else in the Indianapolis area," said Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard. "This will be the top performance concert venue in the state and among the best in the Midwest."\nThe three-term Republican might face a tough political test in getting the 1,600-seat concert hall built by 2008.\n"The mayor has spent thousands and thousands of dollars getting this project to this point, and he's just assuming, like everything else, that we're all going to buy into this," said City Council President Kevin Kirby.\nHe is among the critics who suggest Carmel should deal with problems such as annexation and traffic congestion before taking on the biggest project in city history.\n"To me, $80 million seems like an absurd number," he said.\nDoubters also argue that Indianapolis already has four performance venues.\nBut Brainard said none of them was built as a concert hall, with the acoustics that draw touring acts such as European symphonies.\nAnother challenge is that like most venues of its kind, it would operate at a loss -- an estimated $300,000 every year. Brainard wants to raise $20 million more as an endowment fund, covering operating and other expenses. He said he hopes to raise the money through donations and fees for the concert hall's corporate-sponsored boxes. The arts center's name is also for sale for $25 million. Nationwide, more high-priced arts venues are being built to capture the discretionary income of growing, affluent suburbs in suburban Baltimore, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Washington, D.C.