Durham City Council tonight approved a new long-term contract renewal with Carolina Theatre of Durham Inc. that paves the way for the nonprofit organization to continue operating the historic Carolina Theatre complex for up to 20 years.
"The city’s commitment is an overwhelming show of support for our company,” said Carolina Theatre President/CEO Bob Nocek. “It demonstrates that the city has complete faith in the path we are on and recognizes the success we’ve achieved so far."
The Carolina Theatre of Durham, Inc. is the nonprofit operator of the city-owned complex, and under the new contract will continue to manage the facility for a 10-year term through June 30, 2024. The agreement includes two subsequent five-year renewal options. The pact ensures the Carolina Theatre will continue to contribute to the ongoing renaissance of Downtown Durham and guarantees that a facility so important to the city's past will have a participatory role in shaping its future.
"With the security of a long-term contract, we can continue to focus on growing the organization, expanding our role in Durham, and serving as a major presenter of the arts and a valued steward of the city’s historic theatre," Nocek said. The Carolina Theatre had been operating on a one-year extension of its previous five-year contract, which expired in June of 2013.
In the first year of the contract approved Monday, the Carolina Theatre of Durham, Inc. will receive $635,000 from the city, which is an increase from $614,000 in the current fiscal year. The new contract provides the nonprofit with a yearly 2.5 to 3.5 percent increase or decrease in the subsidy, based on a combination of the organization’s performance and the city’s budget.
"We want to partner with the city by running the facility in the most efficient way imaginable. Our goal is to increase development revenue, ticket and concession revenue and grow presenting relationships," Nocek said.
Under the new agreement, the Carolina Theatre will retain 100 percent of all facility fees collected on ticket sales. The funds will provide additional operating revenue as well as provide for maintenance and improvements that the non-profit plans to address, including the installation of new seats in both Cinema 1 and Cinema 2 over the next 12 months, and the upgrade of Fletcher Hall’s star dressing rooms.
"The additional revenue from facility fees will help us fund some projects to keep the building competitive," Nocek said. "Controlling that process internally will make it easier for the organization to fast-track those improvements.”
The contract calls for a new set of performance measures, which were developed jointly by the city and Carolina Theatre management. They include a broad range of metrics related to both financial performance and community engagement. The performance measures give the Carolina Theatre and the city a framework with which to measure success in a concrete way going forward, which is important to the relationship, Nocek said.
The theater has been ranked among the top 100 theatres worldwide in trade magazine Pollstar for the past two years, despite being one of the smallest venues on the list. Nocek was nominated for a Venues Today Hall of Headlines award for his efforts, and he will present a session on the theater’s revitalization at the League of Historic American Theatres Conference in New York in July.