Officials Cautious on Bowers’ New Game Plan : Worry About Added Cost to Santa Ana Appears to Keep Some on Sidelines

Mayor Dan Young isn’t returning phone calls. John Acosta, the man who is running against him in November, says he is not ready to talk. What’s the hot potato?

A museum. Santa Ana officials appear shy when it comes to talking on the record about Bowers Museum’s 11th-hour decision to discard a major expansion plan in favor of a proposed deal with a private developer that would combine a museum annex with an office tower.

The mixed-use concept would require city approval because, while the Bowers is managed by a private, nonprofit corporation, it is city-owned, and its share in any real estate deal would be funded with city redevelopment money.

In any case, the proposal is still very much in the talking stages: No developer has been found; no costs have been estimated. Off the record, city officials will tell you they are concerned that it could end up costing Santa Ana more than the $9.2 million that has been set aside to improve and expand the museum. But there is also considerable optimism that the plan could give the museum financial independence.

“I think people on the (city) council want to see what happens behind the scenes,” said one council member who asked not to be named. “There isn’t a lot of money for the city to be spending right now, and nobody wants say something until they’re sure they aren’t on the side of a lot of spending.”

Scrapping the original expansion plan would, for openers, mean the loss of $1 million in architectural drawings for which the city already has paid. The board’s idea, though, is that a private developer could build an office structure in which the Bowers Museum would share not just space but rental income, thereby saving Santa Ana money by giving the museum an independent source of operating funds. The developer, presumably, would be attracted by the prospect of free land (the city already owns the site) and the museum annex as a selling point in luring tenants.

Whatever happens, even the present shift in plans is expected to delay the opening of the completed museum by at least six months, well into 1990.

Young, who is facing recall proceedings stemming from disputes over budget priorities, failed to respond to a series of phone calls left over four days. And Acosta, his opponent, would not take a public position. “I think it is important for Santa Ana to have a museum,” Acosta said. “I’m going to be studying the proposals and getting more information.”

Santa Ana City Manager David N. Ream voiced support for the mixed-use proposal but said he is prepared to discuss it only in very general terms. Among other things, he won’t say whether he would support the use of city funds for such an arrangement. “The Bowers Museum board is taking a very sensible approach,” Ream said. “I haven’t had an opportunity to discuss it with any members of the board, but it certainly sounds interesting. It sounds like they are planning for the future.”

One council member who supports the concept forthrightly is Miguel A. Pulido Jr. “I’ve been worrying for six months about how the Bowers Board of Governors was going to finance the (original) plan,” Pulido said. ‘Even if we could have paid to build it--and I’m not sure we could have--I have no idea how we would have gotten enough money to run it. I think that the mixed-use plan is a very necessary and good course of action.”

Pulido said it does not bother him that $1 million in city funds has been spent on an architectural plan that would not be used in its entirety. “Finding a long-term solution for the museum is the priority,” he said.

A 52-year-old museum dedicated to the arts of the Americas, Bowers receives about $1 million a year from the city, an amount that will be phased out by 2007--and by that time, it is expected that operating the museum will cost at least $2.5 million annually. Museum officials feel that the right real estate deal could turn the museum’s property into an income-earning asset.

The original expansion design, purchased from the New York architectural firm of Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates, would have tripled the size of the museum. It called for a 45,000-square-foot addition with new administrative offices and a 350-seat auditorium to be built next to the existing 23,000-square-foot facility. Work on the expansion was set to start this summer but is now on hold, according to museum officials.