Damakant Jayshi
A proposal for a second Wausau concert venue appears stalled for now amid questions over who should pay for a feasibility study requested by city officials.
Economic Development Committee members took no action this week on The River, a 3,500-capacity concert venue, as the item was listed solely as an update, given by Development Director Liz Brodek. No one from the development team spoke and unclear at press time is whether they were invited to participate in Tuesday’s meeting.
Brodek told committee members that the city identified three firms from an original list of about a dozen that could conduct a study to gauge the viability of the project. The committee directed staff in June to arrange for independent research on the demand for and sustainability potential of such a large-scale project. At the suggestion of Finance Director Maryanne Groat, who questioned some of the figures presented for the project, the committee said the developers, VY Properties, LLC, should pay for the study and not taxpayers.
Wausau resident Joe Ellis, of JEM Productions, and Anna Herman are co-owners of the proposed venture.
“I wrote an email to the developers on July 21 informing them of the confirmation and let them know that unless they are willing to pay for the study, we can’t move forward with the project,” Brodek said. Before writing to the developers, the development director said, she had confirmed with the Economic Development Committee Chair Sarah Watson the committee’s continued desire for such a study.
Brodek said the firms have been informed that the city will not move ahead at this time with the study.
Ellis and Herman said they expect an annual attendance of about 250,000 at The River, which will cost about $15 million to build and bring in an estimated $53 million in annual spending. They have sought a taxpayer investment of about $2.6 million, or 20 percent of the anticipated $13.1 million assessed value of the final project. The developers also propose purchasing the land for $50,000, and are seeking “agreeable parking solutions.”
Alder Lisa Rasmussen is among those who questioned those numbers, as quoted to the committee in June.
On Tuesday, Rasmussen said she has concerns about the “objectivity of the numbers…thrown around” in terms of the sales and revenue projections that were “privately sourced” by the developers.
“How reliable are those numbers and what can our markets sustain?” the alder said. She pointed out that the concert’s ticket volume figures that the developers shared during their presentation in June would make this venue in Wausau one of the top 10 in the country. “How does that happen here?”
From a size perspective, The River would be similar to The Eagles Ballroom at The Rave in Milwaukee, which also has a 3,500-person capacity.
The project’s numbers have been questioned by others too.
In June, Sean Wright, the executive director of The Grand Theater, termed the project a “pipe dream.” He said the proposal’s figures are not realistic, questioning the claim that The River could draw top artists to the city as well as projected annual sales of 250,000 tickets, a number he called “outrageous.”
