Question 1

What is happening?

Accepted Answer

The Center for the Arts is asking the Town of Crested Butte to transfer ownership of the Center building from the Town to our nonprofit organization, using strong deed restrictions to guarantee permanent public use, community benefit, and continued Town oversight. We can legally ensure a high level of Town oversight of the Center building with nonprofit ownership.

Question 2

Who currently owns the building?

Accepted Answer

The Town of Crested Butte owns the land and both Center for the Arts buildings (the big blue one and the original Center building, which is currently closed). The Center for the Arts is five years into a 50-year lease with three 10-year extensions on both buildings. The cost of the lease is $1 per year. Under the terms of the lease, the Center is responsible for maintaining and operating the buildings and some of the grounds, which currently costs around $350,000 per year (10% of the Center’s annual operating budget). The lease states that the Town can review the Center's management of the facility to ensure public interest and community needs are being addressed in a reasonable manner.

Question 3

Who paid for the building?

Accepted Answer

In collaboration with the Town of Crested Butte, the Center for the Arts built Big Blue on Town-owned property in Town Park. The project broke ground in 2017 and opened in 2019. The total construction cost was about $20 million, 95% of which was funded by individual community members and foundations through donations made to the Center for the Arts as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. The Town of Crested Butte contributed about $200,000 in cash and an estimated $800,000 in in-kind services to support construction. Under the terms of a 2015 Town Council resolution, the building reverted to Town ownership upon completion.

Question 4

Why does the Center want ownership of the building?

Accepted Answer

The Center wants to do everything possible to ensure our long-term ability to serve the Community. The Center depends on Donor support for 65% of our annual budget and will depend on donor support for potential redevelopment of the Original Center. Aside from a strong belief in the value of the arts, Donors invest in the Center as a legacy to their family and the Community. Ownership of the building would significantly build donor confidence when the nonprofit they are investing in owns the operated assets. This confidence opens the door to new fundraising initiatives such as endowments and a long-term maintenance fund; benefits enjoyed by other successful Arts organizations.

Debt Retirement: Unlocks donation opportunities that require nonprofit ownership, including elimination of $1.4 million in debt service costs over the next ten years, allowing the Center to invest that money into programming and facility maintenance instead.

Supporting Redevelopment of the Original Center: Would allow the Center to use the building as collateral for a short-term, low-risk bridge loan if we launch a new construction project to redevelop the original Center building. In major capital campaigns, donor pledges often come in over several years, temporary financing is often needed to keep a project moving. We weren’t able to do this during the first phase of construction, which left the Center carrying long-term debt we’re still paying off today.

Question 5

How can I support this effort?

Accepted Answer

Attend the Town Council meeting on Monday, October 6 and voice your support
Write letters of support to Town Council members
Share why the Center matters to you with friends, neighbors, and on social media
Stay informed through the Center’s website and email updates
Contact Center Executive Director Jillian Liebl directly at jillian@crestedbuttearts.org to share your questions, concerns, feedback, and ideas for the future

Question 6

How has the Center’s perspective on facility ownership changed since 2015?

Accepted Answer

Ten years ago, we didn’t have a full picture of what it would take to operate and sustain the Center over the long term. Now, with five years of experience running the new building, a clear understanding of our financial reality and ideal operating model, and insight into how arts centers operate in similar communities, we recognize the challenges of our current ownership structure.

We’ve done extensive research on public-private partnerships in arts facilities across the country. Through that process, we have learned that our model (the Town owns both the land and the building, but the nonprofit built, funds, operates, and maintains the building without ongoing municipal support) is highly unusual. In every other example we’ve found, either the nonprofit owns and maintains the facility, or the municipality owns and maintains the facility.

Our current structure may be difficult to sustain over the long term as the facility ages, requiring a higher percentage of our budget to support facility maintenance, which will directly impact our ability to deliver community programming. According to Americans for the Arts, arts organizations typically receive 10% of their funding from governmental sources. In 2024, the Center received 1.5% of total revenue from governmental sources. To deliver our mission and care for our facility, the Center has to make up the balance with private donations, which is why it is essential that we work together to find a solution that both bolsters donor confidence to increase private contributions and protects the community benefit of the Center building.

We want to work with the Town of Crested Butte to make the best decision possible given this reality. Nonprofit building ownership with strong deed restrictions offers a path to long-term stability, greater fundraising potential, and expanded community benefit.

Question 7

Will the Center still be accessible to the community if the Town doesn’t own the building?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The proposed deed restrictions will legally require the building to be used for community arts, culture, and education, and public access is at the heart of the Center’s mission.

In 2024:

77% of all events were public, and 43% of those were free.
The average ticket price for Center events was $17, and 73% of tickets were purchased by locals.
45 local organizations and businesses used the Center, including for 16 nonprofit fundraisers.
The Center fully sponsored vital Crested Butte Community School arts programs, including seasonal elementary music concerts, seasonal jazz band concerts, and the AP art show, making it free for our local students to perform in a theater and show their artwork in a gallery instead of the Multi-Purpose Room at the school.

Question 8

What protections will be in place to make sure the Center stays community-focused and open to the public?

Accepted Answer

Deed restrictions on the building’s title could include things like:

Require the building to always be owned by a 501(c)(3) arts nonprofit based in Gunnison County.
Mandate community arts, cultural, and educational uses.
Give the Town an ex officio seat on the Center’s Board of Directors.
Require annual public reporting of financials, events, and community use.
Include reversion clauses so the building would return to Town ownership if the Center stops operating as agreed.

Question 9

How will the Town be involved if the Center owns the building?

Accepted Answer

The Town of Crested Butte would still have oversight via deed restrictions that could include:

Approve any future transfer of ownership.
Review any debt that uses the building as collateral.
Have an ex officio seat on the Center Board of Directors.
Receive annual reports on finances, programming, and community use.
Receive a certain amount of free and discounted facility use for Town meetings, events, and programs.
Work closely with the Center to ensure complementary use of the building and adjacent Town Park land and facilities.

Question 10

How is ownership of community arts centers structured in other places?

Accepted Answer

After exhaustive research, it seems that our exact ownership model may be unique. However, public-private partnerships between municipalities and nonprofits exist in community arts centers all over the country. Relevant examples include The Arts Center at Willits (TACAW) in Basalt, Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater (“the Amp”) in Vail, and the Center for the Arts in Jackson, WY.

In all three of these models, a nonprofit built, operates, maintains, and owns the facility, and the municipality owns the land underneath. The towns use deed restrictions on the building titles plus long-term land leases to ensure public use while empowering the nonprofits to fundraise and maintain facilities. In the case of the Amp in Vail, this ownership model has worked for nearly 40 years and is still going strong.

Question 11

Would the Town still own the land?

Accepted Answer

It depends on how the transfer is structured. One possibility is that the Town would transfer ownership of the building only and retain ownership of the land beneath the building, which would then be leased to the Center in a long-term (e.g. 99 year) land lease.

Question 12

How would an ownership transfer benefit the community and local taxpayers?

Accepted Answer

The Center already operates and maintains the building, and community use is guaranteed under our current lease. A transfer of ownership would keep those commitments in place, but with important added benefits:

Immediate savings for the community: Ownership would unlock transformative philanthropic support that would retire construction debt, freeing up $140,000 annually for the next 10 years to reinvest directly into sustaining the Center’s operation and increased community programming.
Long-term stability: Ownership is a necessity to effectively fundraise for endowments and dedicated building maintenance fund, ensuring financial durability and reducing the likelihood that the Town would ever have to take over operations at cost to the town of over $2M a year.
Reduced taxpayer liability: Transferring ownership reduces the Town’s risk and responsibility as a building owner and minimizes the chance of future public expenditures.

Question 13

Will ticket prices or rental rates go up if the Center owns the building?

Accepted Answer

Keeping programming and the facility affordable and accessible is a key part of the Center’s nonprofit mission. Our track record shows we keep prices reasonable and host many free events—74 last year! Deed restrictions will also be in place, requiring community-focused programming and access for local nonprofit and community users.

Question 14

What happens to the building if the Center for the Arts nonprofit stops operating?

Accepted Answer

The deed restrictions would require the building to revert to Town ownership (or a different local arts nonprofit approved by the Town) if the Center ceases to operate or violates the agreement without possibility to cure.

Question 15

Will the Center be able to take out debt against the building?

Accepted Answer

The proposed deed restrictions would allow responsible borrowing for mission-aligned purposes, but the Town would have the right to review any financial encumbrance to protect against overleveraging the asset. The main reason we would want this ability is to secure short-term bridge financing during Phase II construction, when donor pledges may be paid over several years. This would prevent the kind of long-term debt we’ve been carrying since finishing the current facility.

Since 2020, we have retired nearly $4 million of construction debt and have just $1 million left. Our goal is to avoid repeating that experience by using short-term loans, paid off quickly once pledges are collected.

Question 16

What’s the timeline for a decision?

Accepted Answer

We are in ongoing discussions with Town Council and hope to work together to draft deed restriction language this year. The timeline will depend on Town’s review process and legal considerations with Gunnison County.