Home / Full Info / Contacts / Comments Sample Email Message Updated: Feb. 19, 2015 at 12:30pm NEW: Act fast! Brevard County School Board will consider 'highest and best offer' for the old Mel Hi building at a public meeting -- postponed to 5:30pm Tuesday, March 10, 2015. Please contact BOTH School Board and Melbourne City Council QWIK TIP: COPY + PASTE combined email addresses of School Board + City Council: craig.john@brevardschools.org, belford.misty@brevardschools.org, kneessy.amy@brevardschools.org, henderson.karen@brevardschools.org, ziegler.andy@brevardschools.org, cityhall@melbourneflorida.org, mlbdist1@melbourneflorida.org, mlbdist2@melbourneflorida.org, danporsi@melbourneflorida.org, debbiethomas@melbourneflorida.org, teresalopez@melbourneflorida.org Sample text, rewrite as desired! TO: BREVARD COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD + CITY OF MELBOURNE re: Old Melbourne High School URGENT! 1. Time-Out! Stop everything! 2. Do a full expert feasibility study on the Old Mel Hi building BEFORE and disposal decisions are made. 3.
Feasibility study should be done by MAI or similar (see
LINKS below), to fully determine: 4. Once that building is gone it is TOO LATE to consider old Mel Hi and Henegar as a downtown cultural center, which would create huge long term benefit to this area. 5. Consider LONG TERM benefits to Melbourne... 6. P.S.-- An apartment building is not 'public use'! (and can be built elsewhere!) ----------------- See: http://oldmelhi.com/full.html SOME EXCERPTS from http://oldmelhi.com/full.html 6. MAI STUDY: FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTION OF THE TORPEDO FACTORY ART CENTER In 2010, MAI (Management Analysis, Incorporated) prepared a study of the Torpedo Factory Art Center for City of Alexandria to assess the economic contribution provided by the art center to the City. (See LINKS below.) A PDF of the study is accessible online. (See LINKS below.) MAI: Torpedo Factory provides "more than $16.2 million in direct revenues and received some 400,000 visitors annually." In the MAI study: "$39 per person average visitor spending x 394,300 visitors = $15.378 million spent in the City in 2009." "… the total economic impact of tourists coming for the cultural events and activities such as those found at the Torpedo Factory was $66.4 million in the year 2006. One can therefore assume that slightly less than one-fourth of all the total cultural tourism spending in the City estimated by this study was attributable to the Torpedo Factory Art Center, or approximately $15 million." " The Torpedo Factory Art Center Visitor Impact Study conducted from June 1993 through May 1994 reported more than 820,000 visits with 83% of those visitors being from out of town." The question for Alexandra was not unlike the question for Melbourne: retain Torpedo Factory Art Center? or abandon it and -- put an apartment building there instead -- for example? 12. ADVANTAGES OF AN ART CENTER TO CITY OF MELBOURNE We know people prefer to live in an area that is rich in cultural activity -- the more cultural activities in all of the arts, the better. Look again at the contributions to Alexandria of the Torpedo Factory Art Center: financial and cultural, greatly enriching that city. Similar economic advantages, though smaller scale, would accrue to City of Melbourne from an art center at old Mel Hi. If visitors to a downtown Melbourne art center spent an average of $39 in downtown Melbourne -- using figures from Alexandria which could be applicable -- you'd have: 103,000 visitors x $39 = $4 million. Even if that number of visitors stretched out over… five years? -- you'd have to conclude that support for an art center was at least worthy of serious consideration -- urgent consideration, given the situation. Over a period of years the financial return to City of Melbourne would be meaningful and cultural activities would be enhanced -- a win-win for Melbourne. In the
long term then, would a $4 million
investment begin
to
seem
worthwhile? LINKS Full
story about this effort: Torpedo
Factory Art Center, model for reuse of old building: MAI (Management
Analysis Inc) conducted study evaluating Torpedo Factory Art
Center, see: Feasibility
Study Report by MAI for
City of Alexandria VA, the
report
itself: ArtCenter
in Miami
Beach
established
with
community redevelopment
grant
which benefited
city: ====================== |