By Monica D. Spencer | In Maricopa
After two years of discussions, the Maricopa city government has decided to back out of its proposal to give a permanent home to the city’s burgeoning art community.
Remodeling the former police station into an arts center would cost nearly triple the original budget, said Assistant City Manager Jennifer Brown during the municipality’s annual futures planning meeting yesterday.
The city had budgeted $1.2 million to design and remodel evidence rooms and jail cells into art galleries and stages.
“The actual cost is $3.3 million, significantly higher than we thought,” said Brown.
A bigger obstacle than the money is the square footage. Fitting an adequately spacious auditorium with proper acoustics along with galleries and a small business incubator would require building additional space. The whole project just proved too costly, Brown said.
