REGINA - The long-standing effort to renovate Regina’s Globe Theatre is in need of funds, and they have turned to City Hall for help.
At the Executive Committee meeting Wednesday morning, council members heard from executive director Jaime Boldt of Globe Theatre and Wyatt Eckert, P3A Architecture, about their capital funding request to address the financial crunch they face in completing the Globe Theatre’s major renovation at the old City Hall at 1801 Scarth Street.
But no final decisions emerged from Executive Committee Wednesday. Instead, the matter has been referred to a February meeting where administration will bring back options on where the city could find an additional $1.9 million to accommodate the Globe’s capital request.
The Globe Theatre is Regina’s largest regional theatre and is located in the old City Hall downtown. But the venue is aging and in need of upgrades. There has been an ongoing capital campaign to raise funds towards renovating the building, but the indication is that costs has gone way up.
Originally, a motion had come up during budget deliberations for the city to provide $1 million towards the Globe renovation, but instead that item was tabled to Wednesday's Executive Committee meeting to allow the Globe's representatives to respond.
During her presentation Wednesday, Boldt said their ask to council was not $1 million, but for $1.9 million to cover their shortfall.
Boldt had explained that “all hell broke loose and the pandemic hit.” She noted the organization now faced a 30 percent shortfall for the construction project.
Eckert explained the single largest issue that caused the most significant cost overruns was the structure of the hundred-year old building. "It's not necessarily the material cost of the structure and the concrete and the steel, it's all of the labour that had to go into that and it was meticulous work to get done not typical of most buildings."
Boldt said their initial goal had been to raise $32 million for the project, but now that had gone up to $40 million. The organization was also seeking a bank loan and were due to learn this week whether that would go through.
Boldt pointed to the importance of Globe Theatre to the downtown, noting it was open 364 days a year and pointed to the role it could play in downtown revitalization efforts.
“The Globe is one of the anchors in this vision,” said Boldt. “The Globe is one of those great places. It is the first catalyst project. It is low hanging fruit in the revitalization of Regina’s downtown city centre core.”
To this point, the City has already committed just under $7 million towards the Globe project. The sentiment on council was to find a solution and accommodate the request, and there had been a motion presented by Coun. Bob Hawkins to provide the $1.9 million to the Globe capital project.
But finding the money within the constraints of the current 2024 budget is a challenge, with no funding source identified. A motion passed to refer Hawkins' motion to an Executive Committee meeting in February. The intention is for administration to bring back options to council on which areas the $1.9 million could come from either at the next Executive Committee meeting on Feb. 7, or alternatively at the meeting on Feb. 28.
