The city of Seymour is making an offer to buy the Community Agency Building in the downtown in order to renovate the first floor and create space for live theater, meetings and other events.
Courtesy of RQAW Corp.
Seymour Mayor Matt Nicholson was in Rushville for a meeting a few years ago and saw a theater in the city hall there.
Seymour officials then considered looking at purchasing a different building and moving city hall, but that didn’t work out, and the thought went on the backburner for a while.
Over the summer, Nicholson was at a mayor’s function in Bloomington when he heard something that sparked his thoughts on the Community Agency Building in downtown Seymour needing a first-floor tenant. He thought a theater would help bring nightlife to the downtown.
A post was made on the city’s Facebook page seeking letters of support for a downtown theater project. Nicholson said letters were submitted from teenagers to those in their 70s.
When Nicholson met with the Community Agency Building board, he was asked if the city could get the building at 113 N. Chestnut St. purchased by the end of the year.
He knew he needed a proof of concept before presenting the idea to the Seymour Redevelopment Commission, so he reached out to an engineering firm the city has worked with on other projects to develop that and tell him if this would be feasible.
The firm determined there’s room — about 6,600 square feet on the first floor — to make it happen and provided a rough design to prove it could work.
During Monday’s redevelopment commission meeting, Nicholson discussed the theater project. In the end, the commission approved providing up to $250,000 to cover the costs of buying the Community Agency Building, including appraisals and fees, if the CAB board accepts the purchase agreement. Tim Hardin and Bonnye Good were absent.
If the agreement is approved, Nicholson said the next step is to pursue funding for renovation, which is estimated to cost between $1 million and $3.3 million.
The city is going to include the project in the READI 2.0 application that’s due in the spring and also work with the city and Seymour Main Street to apply for Office of Community and Rural Affairs funding. That way, his ask from the redevelopment commission is a lower amount.
“Ultimately, that’s the goal is to bring as many sources together as possible but also to have a chance to go ‘OK, here’s the final design, here’s the cost, here’s the full estimate, not a range estimate like I’ve got currently. How do we make it happen?’” Nicholson said.
If all goes as planned, the mayor said remodeling would take place in 2024 and the first floor would open in 2025.
Nicholson said his vision is a live theater with the ability to lower a screen to show movies. Actors Community Theater of Seymour has been renting space at Shops at Seymour for several years, and Nicholson said the first floor of the CAB could provide them a permanent home to lease and share the space. The plan is to have 80 to 100 seats in the theater.
“Then also be able to do small music performances,” he said of the first floor. “Shawn Busby has the house concerts, potentially getting them to do something like that here. Being able to use it as a listening room for (Crossroads) Acoustic Fest, but then also live comedy or whatever live performance.”
He also sees it as a chance to host learning series. Accelerate Indiana Municipalities conducts educational meetings around the state, and that could be brought to Seymour, he said.
The first floor of the CAB has been vacant for nearly two years after the Indiana Health Center moved. The second and third floors mainly house offices for nonprofit organizations, which was the original intent of the building when it opened 15 years ago.
Commission President Mark Dennis asked about monthly rent income the city would receive and if that would cover maintenance and upkeep. Nicholson said rent for tenants would be comparable to what it is now.
“We looked at the numbers to try to figure out if it is feasible,” Nicholson said. “If we bring the management of the building in-house, we should be able to maintain while we’re working through the process on the first floor. Once the first floor is in some sort of use, it generates enough to maintain.”
Dennis said historically, the city or redevelopment commission has not owned real estate and has gone out of its way not to do that. Nicholson said in talking with former mayor Craig Luedeman, he travels the state as part of his new job as business development manager for HWC Engineering, and the communities that have invested in their downtowns, including Rushville and Franklin, are thriving.
“I could agree with that,” commission member J.J. Reinhart said. “I think there are quite a few vacant storefronts downtown now. That’s not a good trend to have. The ultimate goal for me is to try to see that the downtown thrives and survives.”
Nicholson said it could go either way with ownership: The city or redevelopment commission.