$30 million request for Hilton Head Island arts center rankles sales tax panel

An ambitious plan to build a new arts and entertainment center on Hilton Head Island came under fire Tuesday.

The Beaufort County Capital Sales Tax Commission, a panel that evaluates infrastructure project proposals from local governments and colleges, grilled town leaders as they made their pitch for the center.

Preliminary plans call for a roughly 3.5-acre campus with several exhibit halls and meeting rooms, a 1,500-seat concert hall, and a 5,000-seat outdoor amphitheater.

The center would take advantage of “multi-use and very flexible spaces,” that could accommodate a touring band one night and a theater troupe the next, Jane Joseph, chairwoman of the town’s Arts and Cultural Strategic Planning Committee, said.

But such a large and dynamic project is expensive.

Town officials are seeking $30 million from the county to help build the center.

That money would come from a potential sales tax increase, which if approved by county voters, would add a penny to every dollar spent in Beaufort County.

Members of the sales tax panel balked at the total construction price, which town leaders estimate could be as high as $65 million.

Mike Sutton, chairman of the commission, said he supports the concept of the center, but questioned whether building it is “something that is absolutely (financially) do-able.”

He was also concerned that the project “will be a tough sell” to county voters.

Furthermore, Sutton said overreaching on one project could sour voters on the one percent tax increase and “jeopardize all the other capital improvement projects across the county.”

In addition to building costs, town officials estimate the center would cost at least $3 million per year to operate.

It’s unclear whether revenues from events and concerts would cover those operating expenses.

Where the arts center would be built also remains undetermined.

One option is an area adjacent to the Coastal Discovery Museum, “but we have not yet decided where we would like to position this (arts) campus,” Hilton Head Island Mayor David Bennett said.

Lack of this sort of detail appeared to irk some on the sales tax commission.

“We need to see something more substantial,” commissioner Joseph Kline said of the town’s plan.

Despite the panel’s concerns, town leaders pressed on.

The arts center will help “reposition Hilton Head toward what it should be: predominantly a recreation, tourism, retirement, cultural and arts-based region,” Bennett said.

Town Councilwoman Kim Likins said a “well-rounded community needs such a facility.”

“As a government, I think that we have long known that our arts cultural resources are an enormous asset,” she said. “Yet we have just never fully maximized their value to the community.”

Joseph said the project has had “an enormous and extraordinary groundswell of support” from island residents.

But those supporters were absent or very quiet during Tuesday’s presentation.

Several residents used a public comment session to speak out against portions of the plan.

There were concerns that the center could exacerbate traffic problems and calls for the potential sales tax revenue to be used for more pressing issues such as public safety .

Longtime resident Karl Engelman said, in theory, the plan “is wonderful and visionary.”

But in the real world, he questioned whether it is “practical or realistic.”

This story was originally published March 8, 2016 at 4:27 PM with the headline "$30 million request for Hilton Head Island arts center rankles sales tax panel."