The Sunset Center plans to announce its 2013-14 season at 11am Saturday, even though the nonprofit’s lease from the city of Carmel expires eight days later.
Sunset Cultural Center Inc. and city officials have each indicated confidential contract negotiations are nearly complete, but a special City Council closed session on the matter June 11 ended with no public announcement.
“We are not going to comment on any active contract negotiation,” Sunset Center Executive Director Christine Sandin says.
She says the negotiations have generally focused not on whether Sunset Center will occupy the 718-seat performance hall, but rather on details like how to improve the marketing and use of renovated conference rooms.
The nonprofit formed a decade ago when the city transformed the old school into an events venue, but its 10-year agreement expires June 30. Under the current contract, the city pays Sunset Center $600,000 a year to run the venue.
“As July 1 was getting closer, we realized we needed to have options,” Mayor Jason Burnett says. “The show must go on.”
So while the council continued negotiations with the nonprofit, it also solicited requests for qualifications (RFQs) from other potential operators. Three responded by the June 5 deadline, including the Monterey Symphony; Live Nation, which owns Ticketmaster; and SMG, which operates hundreds of venues worldwide.
A few days later, City Administrator Jason Stilwell wrote to those interested parties: “Based on the information received, the city is immediately suspending the RFQ process at this time.”
That leaves Sunset Center, which in 2012 exceeded pre-recession revenues for the first time since 2008, according to documents filed with the IRS, as the likely operator for the foreseeable future.
The city continues to pay off about $500,000 a year on its outstanding $6.7 million Sunset Center debt.