Report: Profit is possible

The proposed cultural center in Triangle Park could play home to surfing and ocean-themed exhibits, a 350-person event space, and create more than $4.4. million a year in revenue, according to a draft study obtained by the Independent.

The document, commissioned by the Huntington Beach Marketing & Visitors Bureau, is an analysis of the potential market demand, estimated revenue and the economic impact of a cultural center, and hasn’t been released to the public or responded to by the bureau, President and Chief Executive Steve Bone said.

The bureau is waiting for City Council members to approve the Downtown Specific Plan before commenting or moving forward on the draft, Bone said. At this point, the draft does not represent the opinion of the bureau, but is the recommendation of a third party, Bone said.

The center is part of the proposed changes to the Downtown Specific Plan to create a hub at the north end of Main Street’s downtown area. The plan is an update to the long-range planning documents the city uses to determine building specifications.

The plan is being amended to increase development over the next 20 years. It encompasses the area south of Goldenwest Street and north of Beach Boulevard along the beach and up to Palm Avenue in the downtown area. From Sixth Street north, the plan only extends up to Walnut Avenue. South of Main Street, the plan includes the resort areas.

The cultural center would be the focal point of a proposed cultural arts overlay district that includes the Huntington Beach Art Center, a performing arts theater and an underground parking structure. The center is projected to open in 2013 and would attract an estimated 300,000 tourists and community members a year — increasing the city’s income from transient occupancy tax and bringing in a projected $4.4 million a year, according to the draft.

The three- to four-story, 40,000- to 50,000-square-foot building would include a 350-person rentable event space, a possible rooftop terrace and a restaurant or cafe with veranda seating, according to the draft. The center would also boast a 100- to 125-seat theater, a gift shop and interactive exhibits.

The center would feature different exhibits, including one on surfing that the report states would be superior to the California Surf Museum in Oceanside, Huntington’s International Surfing Museum and others in California. The exhibit would feature the history of surfing and those who have contributed to its culture, including inductees in the Huntington Beach Walk of Fame, according to the report.

The center would also have a marine life exhibit with live specimens, an interactive learning library and educational classrooms.

“The idea is to make it highly interactive,” Bone said.

One of the most hotly contended aspects of the Downtown Specific Plan — the possible removal of the Main Street Library — is included in the draft.

“The existing building would not remain,” Bone said.

The center would replace the library with a larger, state-of-the-art one that would better accommodate the needs of the community, Bone said.

Despite the possibility for increased revenue, some residents have been up in arms for months over the possible development of the center and the destruction of their park and library. Community members have created the Huntington Beach Downtown Residents Assn. and have packed the city’s Planning Commission study session meetings with residents against the cultural center being built in their neighborhood.

Resident Richardson Gray said he is most concerned with how large and visitor-intensive the proposed center could be, and said he has been trying to lay hand on a copy of the report to no avail. Gray said residents need to see the details of the plan to understand the full scope of the project.

One of the residents’ biggest concerns is with the loss of the buffer zone between the downtown bars and their homes, and the increase of traffic on the two-lane highways around the intended site of the cultural center.

The Downtown Specific Plan must gain approval from the Planning Commission and the City Council before the Cultural Center can become more than a draft.