Officials are going back to the drawing board on the push to replace the Heymann Performing Arts Center. After the matter appeared all but settled in favor of a facility on UL Lafayette’s campus, a new study marks a reset.
A new study contracted by the Heymann Commission will look at the current site, examining updates to the historic facility or new builds on that site. The 2022 feasibility study that pointed the project to UL, a result critics saw as a fait accompli, left those scenarios out.
“We have not necessarily evaluated the city asset that we own,” says Heymann Commission Chair Cindy Randazzo.
And it’s a big asset. The Heymann reported $1 million in sales taxes last year from mostly local bookings: dance companies, Mardi Gras balls, and the symphony. And it sits on 11 acres, enough room to add onto or replace the theater on site, Randazzo points out.
Is the UL plan dead? Not necessarily. UL is still planning an entertainment district near the Cajundome that includes a performing arts center, and it has a taxing district to fund it. However, that facility might not be a Heymann Center replacement as pitched before.
More on the Heymann Center
In all, Lafayette is in line for $688 million across dozens of projects in this year’s proposed state budget, including big money for UL and parish government.
With a hastily completed application, LCG met a Nov. 1 capital outlay request deadline, asking the state to help fund a $127 million replacement for the Heymann Performing Arts Center in the next budget cycle.
The long-discussed plan to build a new performing arts center in Lafayette may be taking shape. Attached to the proposal is a $100 million price tag funded by state capital outlay and a 1-cent sales tax in the city of Lafayette.
The funding picture has changed. And not to UL’s benefit. A key political argument in pushing for a UL location was tapping into state funding to close the gap on a potentially $150 million project. Lafayette’s outgoing legislative delegation secured $75 million in 2023. That dropped to less than $10 million in the current budget.
M-P Monique Boulet has hit pause on many Guillory-era ambitions. She has not ruled out the UL partnership. Instead, she’s using the Heymann Commission’s study to “revisit” the Heymann Center as an asset based on “best use,” according to LCG Comms Director Jamie Boudreaux.
While the debate roiled, the Heymann languished. It needs work, according to Randazzo, and the commission is requesting $250,000 in repairs in the upcoming budget, Boulet’s first as M-P. Beyond that, it’s unlikely the city will come up with the millions needed to finance a more ambitious facility any time soon.
“We really need to maintain what we own and already have,” Randazzo says.
Big picture: The slow roll here is as much a change of approach — Boulet is so far much more deliberate than her predecessor — as it is a change in circumstances.