The City of Billings is scheduled to accept or assign ownership of the Babcock Theater by March 15, 2017, as part of a 2008 development agreement with Babcock, LLC, and the Downtown Billings Partnership to purchase and restore the Babcock retail building, which contains the theater.  The City Council approved Res. 16-10529 on March 14, 2016, creating an Ad-Hoc Advisory Committee on the Babcock Theater.  The resolution called for a committee report to the City Council by Dec. 31, 2016, on who should own and operate the theater,

The 11-member committee, which includes four Council members, has been meeting and continues to investigate private and public options for developing the Babcock Theater. The committee requests that the City Council allow that process to continue and extend the deadline to February 27, 2017.
 

City Council may:

• Approve the resolution, allowing the committee to investigate as many options as possible, or;
• Disapprove the resolution, which potentially would result in the transfer of the Babcock to the City without a viable plan for its operation and management.

There are no costs to operating the committee at this time.  The costs of future theater operation will depend on the outcomes of the committee's investigations.

Staff recommends approving the resolution, and extending the reporting deadline to Feb. 27, 2017.