NEGAUNEE, Mich. (WZMQ) – The city of Negaunee held a public input session this week to determine the future of the Vista Theater. The city presented preliminary blueprints for how the theater will look once renovations are complete.
Negaunee City Manager Nate Heffron says soliciting the public’s input is important.
“This is truly going to be a community theater and a community center. We want to get that community input from them so we can provide some services that they’ll be looking for,” said Heffron.
Until all input from residents is studied, there will be no definitive plans for how the building will be configured.
“We have not analyzed any of the information we received yet,” said Heffron. “We’re going to wait till all those public participation meetings, those input sessions, are completed, and then we’ll gather all those comments. See if there are any common themes, see if there’s anything we miss and any aha moments that we can apply to our planning.”
The plans obviously call for the Vista to operate as a theater, but Heffron see’s potential for much more
“Kind of making it into a community center at the same time. So that could be meeting rooms. It could be areas for live bands that come in, maybe playing movies,” explained Heffron.
The City of Negaunee received 3 million dollars in state money last year, however with rising construction costs, more funding will be needed to complete the project
“We’re going to find some funding by raising it within the community to some degree, but also, we are attempting to get some federal and state historic tax credits,” said Heffron.
The Vista Theater re-build is all part of Negaunee’s downtown re-development plan which has seen major improvements already to the city’s business district.
