Goshen Theater, park projects receive favor of Indiana Regional Cities group

The authority, a five-member board made up of representatives from each of the region’s three counties — Elkhart, St. Joseph and Marshall — spent several hours July 25 discussing the merits of 26 projects that had formally re-submitted funding applications this past June. The projects, of which there were originally 39, are seeking a portion of the $42 million in Regional Cities grant money allocated by the Indiana Economic Development Corp. for the South Bend-Elkhart region earlier this year. The overall goal of the grant program is to leverage private and local government investment into economic development and quality of life projects.

“We made a call for applications here in June, and 26 of those original 39 went forward with formal applications,” said Pete McCown, president of the Community Foundation of Elkhart County and a member of the RDA. “So then we went through the process of evaluating the status of each of those 26 applications, and the fittedness of each of those as it related to the criteria of the Regional Cities goals.

“The challenge is, $42 million is still a fairly limited set of resources,” he added. “It sounds like a big number until you have $700 million worth of ideas, so we have to be very thoughtful about which of these projects will advance the region’s vision and agenda in terms of economic growth and millennial attraction and economic prosperity, etc. So those were the criteria we went through in grading these projects.”

By the end of the meeting, 15 of the 26 projects had been given an “A” grade, designating them as the most in line with the Regional Cities goals and most likely to be able to obtain matching funds.

In order to qualify for Regional Cities funding, each targeted project has to secure at least 60 percent of the total cost in private funding support and at least 20 percent in local public support. Once that funding is secured, the RDA then has the authority to award the final 20 percent in Regional Cities grant funds.

“In addition to the projects receiving an ‘A’ grade, there were another seven to 10 that we graded as ‘B’, and a handful that we graded as ‘C’,” McCown said. “That’s not to say that the projects themselves that were graded as B’s and C’s were any less important, but when we overlay the goals of the Regional Cities initiative, they didn’t fit quite as well.”

Goshen projects

Of the 26 projects to re-submit applications, two are directly connected to the city of Goshen. One of those projects involves the planned restoration of the historic Goshen Theater in downtown Goshen at a cost of approximately $12.5 million. Project organizers are seeking $2.5 million in Regional Cities funding assistance.

The second local project is a multi-use sports and recreational facility targeted for the Goshen Millrace to be known as Central Park Goshen. The project, which is being combined with a planned indoor climbing and recreational facility in South Bend, has a total project cost of $3.5 million. The project is seeking $700,000 in Regional Cities funding.

“Those two projects both received an ‘A’ grade,” McCown said. “The challenge of course for any of these projects, including those two in particular, is they still need to meet this 60/20/20 funding formula. So the 60 percent of private investment I think is going to be the real challenge for each of those projects.”

McCown noted that the Goshen Redevelopment Commission in March approved a conditional pledge of $4 million toward the Goshen Theater project, which should take care of the public funding portion of the formula. That leaves the additional 60 percent — about $6 million — in private funding that the project must raise in order to be eligible for the $2.5 million in Regional Cities support, he said.

Representatives of Goshen Theater Inc., the local non-profit currently spearheading the rehabilitation effort, are exploring their options for local fundraising and plans are in the works for a private capital campaign for the project.

Given that the project does not currently have the private funding necessary to qualify for Regional Cities support, McCown said the RDA has the authority to reserve the requested $2.5 million in funding support for the project for a designated period of time in order to allow Goshen Theater Inc. the time it needs to pursue its private capital campaign.

“The RDA is inclined to provisionally make a decision about the Goshen Theater,” McCown said. “Not all of the projects are ready to be funded at this point, and the theater would be an example of that. But we do intend to essentially dedicate $2.5 million toward the project.”

McCown said that dedication could come as soon as next today, when the group plans to meet again to finalize the first round of official funding awards. He said the most likely scenario would be that the RDA grants both the theater and Central Park Goshen projects approximately 12 months to raise the additional private funding needed to qualify for the grant assistance.

“So by June or July of next year, if the theater project for example can raise the $6 million it needs in private funding, we will have provisionally appropriated $2.5 million,” McCown said. “If they don’t get to the $6 million, then we will have to reevaluate where we stand with the Goshen Theater. But at least they can go forward with confidence in their fundraising with the idea that if they can raise the $6 million, and the RDC commits at least $4 million, that we have dedicated $2.5 million to that project.”