OAKLAND — Faced with a multimillion-dollar shortfall, the city is considering closing the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, officials said Wednesday. Tired of subsidizing the facility built in 1913, city officials are not sure there's a need for such an old and large venue.
"It's an anachronism," said Dennis Power, director of the city Cultural Arts Department. While the center is too large for some gatherings, it is too small for other concerts and events, he added.
Since fiscal 1998-99, the Kaiser center has cost more to run than it earns. The center is expected to lose $600,000 this year and $700,000 in each of the next two years, said Oakland Budget Director Marianna Marysheva.
The Kaiser center's account in the city's treasury has a deficit of $5 million after years of snowballing shortfalls. The city intends to pay the debt over the next decade, officials said.
"I just don't think it's profitable," said City Administrator Deborah Edgerly.
Closing the Kaiser Convention Center is just one of a host of proposals the Oakland City Council will consider in its effort to erase a $31.7 million shortfall by the end of June. Unless it comes up with long-term solutions, the 2006-07 budget is expected to be an additional $26.4 million short.
Other proposals on the table include shuttering city government for several days between Christmas and New Year's Day, layoffs, fee hikes and the sale of surplus city property.
Council President Ignacio De La Fuente (Glenview-Fruitvale) said the city has a responsibility to consider all options.
"We must focus only on basic city services," De La Fuente said. "We can't continue doing all of the things we used to do. This is just the tip of the iceberg."
Additional marketing efforts to increase the number of events at the center — which often loses out to the Oakland Arena and McAfee Coliseum in East Oakland — would make no difference, De La Fuente said.
Mayor Jerry Brown did not return several phone messages for comment Wednesday.
"It's not fiscally responsible to allow those deficits to continue to accumulate," Edgerly said. "At some point you have to weigh the historic value with what it's costing to operate.
Power and Edgerly will meet in the next two weeks to discuss the proposal, which must be approved by the City Council.
Naomi Schiff, Oakland Heritage Alliance president, denounced the proposal, saying it was a particularly bad idea in light of the 12th Street reconstruction project, approved by voters in 2000 as part of the $198 million Measure DD. The city should redouble its marketing efforts, she said.
"If the city closes the center, this historic building will not benefit from what I'm sure will be a major resurgence of that area," Wolff said.
The alliance board has not taken a formal position on the proposal.
In addition to the 8,000-seat arena, the center includes the 2,000-seat Calvin Simmons Theater and two smaller ballrooms.
The Kaiser center, originally known as the Oakland Civic Auditorium, was built by renowned local architect John J. Donovan, who also worked on City Hall and a number of local schools and library branches. After a $15 million renovation in 1984, it was renamed for Kaiser, a prominent industrialist.
The arches facing Lake Merritt were designed by Alexander Sterling Calder, father of the famed sculptor, Wolff said.
"I'm worried about vandalism and security," Wolff said.
The city should attempt to keep at least part of the building operating, she added, even on a reduced schedule.
Douglas Cattaneo, president of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 107, which represents center stagehands, said it would be "terrible" if the center closed. About a dozen people would lose their jobs, he added.
"It's a center of Oakland culture," Cattaneo said, calling on the city to look for other ways to make the center self-sustaining, perhaps through a partnership with local corporations and businesses.
Many older Oaklanders fondly recall the old auditorium as a place of magic and wonderment. When the circus was in town it often pitched its tent there, and it was the home of the Oakland Oaks, a member of the now-defunct American Basketball Association. The Harlem Globetrotters also played there frequently.
In its heyday, the auditorium hosted dozens of boxing matches between some of the greatest fighters of the day, including Max Baer and Jack Dempsey. In the 1970s, it was one of the most high-profile roller derby arenas.
Also during the 1970s, the Grateful Dead played the auditorium dozens of times, and it became known as the group's home base. Duke Ellington, Elvis Presley, Cyndi Lauper, Wham!, LLCoolJ and Public Enemy all played the auditorium from the 1930s through the 1980s.
Today, the Kaiser center is home to the Oakland Athletic League and has seen many high school graduations. The center hosted several Black History Month events last month, including a lecture by Princeton professor Cornel West.
But most of those booking the center are small groups that cannot fill the Oakland Arena. In the coming weeks, the Soweto Gospel Choir and the Diamano Coura West African Dance Co. plan to perform there. The Chinese Performing Artists of America played there last month.
The benefit those groups bring to Oakland warrants the subsidy, Cattaneo said.
"I know $700,000 sounds like a lot of money," Cattaneo said. "But in the Bay Area, it's really not."
