Effort to save Mountain Laurel Center continues

BUSHKILL — Careening from peaks of optimism to depths of despair, the ill-conceived $35 million Mountain Laurel Center for the Performing Arts stumbled again last week when the Pike Courier revealed a major source of operating funds were lost. Whether its 2008 summer season can be rescued, now that the $1 million a year subsidy from the Pocono Mountain Visitor Bureau has been cancelled, is in question. Adding to its woes, word was revealed last week that Richard Bryant, president and CEO at Mountain Laurel Center for the Performing Arts, recently resigned. Bryant could not be reached for comment. Edward Mayotte, president of PMVB board, said the bed tax money saved by cutting off Mountain Laurel will be used for overall tourist promotion in Pike, Monroe, Wayne and Carbon counties. According the center’s income tax returns, the total cost of the center was $35 million, but event income in 2006 was only $534,309. More than 100 events a year had been envisioned before the center was built with state and Pike County bonds, but only a dozen actually happened each year since 2003; in 2004 the whole season was cancelled amid the ongoing financial mess. Under Bryant, the arts center revived and hopes soared that there would be a rebirth after what Bryant called Mountain Laurel’s “false start.” However, the Courier learned last week that the center’s board is now considering leasing the buildings and grounds for long periods in the season to one or more groups. That would mean events staged by the center would be cut back drastically, if not eliminated. Carl Wilgus, executive director of the PMVB, suggested that the center might rent to religious or civic groups for retreats. According to the income tax filings, funding from the bed tax revenues represented about 33 percent of the center’s total operating budget of $2.9 million. For the past three years, the PMVC’s subsidies were $750,000, then $1 million in each of the last two years. Striking a more positive note, Davis Chant, a member of the center’s board, remained optimistic last week that the center could continue staging events. The bed tax in the four counties is three percent and is collected by each county, then turned over to the PMVB, which then returns a percentage to the counties for their individual tourist promotion. Each county has a separate contract spelling out the percentage of bed tax gross revenues to be returned. The bed tax gleans about $4.5 million from the four counties. “There was not a good long-term prognosis,” Carl Wilgus, the new executive director of the visitors bureau, said of the arts center. In May of 2006 the struggling center, facing bankruptcy, was sold to two Philadelphia-area developers. John Wolfington, of Greystone Capital Partners in Chester County, and J. Brian O’Neill of O’Neill Properties in King of Prussia, bought the arts center and 675 surrounding acres for $23 million. The amphitheater and 42 acres of land were leased by a for-profit entity, Mountain Laurel Development Group. In return, the development group assumed $23 million of the center’s debt, and made plans to build condominiums on the remaining 633 acres of land. The 12,000-seat amphitheater and satellite buildings would be leased back to the arts center. Some $17 million of Pike County Industrial Development Authority bonds and a state loans comprised the center’s debt that was assumed by Wolfington and O’Neill. The development group planned a vast real estate undertaking on the 675 acres added to a contiguous 2,200 acres the pair bought from the Tamiment Resort for $65 million. They anticipated that the performing arts center be a massive integrated attraction for customers who bought homes and condominiums. For now, high hopes of two years ago are deflated, as supporters and investors explore anew ways to pull the Mountain Laurel Performing Arts Center upright.