by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
Frustrated by a lack of private fundraising for the Cecil Equestrian Center, the mayor’s office is looking for corporate sponsors to help fill a $5 million hole in the center’s construction and operating budget.
The mayor’s policy chief, Steve Diebenow, told the City Council’s Finance Committee the center’s property manager, SMG, was working on an agreement to put potential sponsors’ dollars to immediate use. No sponsors have been identified. SMG General Manager Bob Downey said in September that no strong candidates to buy naming rights had emerged. If a buyer is found, Downey estimated the rights could bring in $100,000 a year for 10 years.
Peyton wants to join the sponsorship money with rents from the center’s barn and stables to help pay the center’s operating costs with minimum City subsidies. Peyton announced last week he would use $1.1 million of Better Jacksonville Plan money to build the barn, which was originally to be funded through private donations. The BJP will pay for about $29 million of the 110–acre project’s $32.4 million price tag.
The private campaign has fallen far short of its $5 million goal — about $65,000 has been raised so far — so Peyton decided to pay public money rather than forgo the barn and the revenue it will bring in, said Diebenow.
“The outside folks said they’d raise the money and they haven’t,” said Diebenow. “The mayor decided to build the barn because it provides the best opportunity to raise revenue.”
Without a barn, Diebenow estimated the City would have to contribute about $1 million each year to the center’s operations. Building the barn should save the City annually about $400,000, he said. The center would need three or four barns to operate independent of City subsidies. Mayor’s office spokesperson Heather Murphy said additional barns would not be built without private contributions.
The Northeast Florida Equestrian Society, a non–profit group formed to oversee private fundraising, is expecting the pace of contributions to increase once the center opens in March. Former council member Alberta Hipps, who helped bring the center to her former district and now sits as president of the non-profit, said the barn’s presence would spur donations.
Although Hipps said the enabling legislation never specified a primary fundraiser, she said she was confident that the equestrian society and SMG would raise $5 million.
“Five million and more,” she said. “We view that our organization will have an ongoing fundraising impact. We’ll always be trying to raise money for enhancements.”
In addition to selling naming rights to the barn, Hipps said rights to individual stalls would sell for around $2,000. The barn holds 150 stalls.
“The money from selling naming rights, those are still considered private dollars,” said Hipps.