LovelandPolitics
| Loveland's Independent News Source |
| Council Votes To Divert Flood Aid To Promote McWhinney's African Art Collection |
Loveland, August 1, 2017
Loveland's City Council will vote tonight (second reading) on a plan to divert CDBG (Community
Development Block Grant) monies provided by the Federal Government to assist victims of the
September 9, 2013 floods to instead promote McWhinney's African Art collection in Centerra.
The federal flood relief funding stems from a 2013 colloquy by then Congressman Cory Gardner
to seek support for continuing relief funding from impacts that would exceed the normal
emergency disaster relief budgets.
According to Colorado's Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) that manages those grants today,
Colorado business and property owners were hard hit by the 2013 floods. In the canyons,
floodwaters washed away motels and cabins, restaurants and stores. In other places retail
and commercial establishments suffered extensive damage or revenue losses. Farther east,
farmers lost their crops and oil wells were damaged or shut down. CDBG-DR economic
recovery programs address these impacts.
On July 5, 2017 Loveland's 9 member City Council approved a request 8-0 (Councilman Troy
Krenning was absent) upon first reading to access community marketing funds to remove snow
and conduct a light show in Chapungu Park each December using city funds. The proposed
project is an annual event named the Winter Wonderlights Event for an annual cost of
$150,000.
Loveland's City Council will appropriate the funds first from transient occupancy taxes and later
reimburse that account $100,000 when the flood disaster relief funds are received by the city
later this year.
Chapungu Park Back Story
Chapungu Park sits in a 27 acre drainage basin east of I-25 and the Promenade Shops at
Centerra featuring some 80 contemporary art pieces acquired from African Art Promotions inc.
The company's principle is a white, Rhodesian born art dealer named Roy Guthrie. In 2005
Guthrie paid over half a million dollars for a home in Berthoud where he resided until 2013
while working as Centerra Metro District's Park Manager.
As described in a 2007 press release, McWhinney had big ambitions for the park and future
development opportunities they would create around it.
“Positioned between the Promenade Shops and the future Grand Station at Centerra,
Chapungu Sculpture Park will be a refuge of calm and contemplation within Centerra, and
ultimately, as the largest art center devoted to African artists in the United States,” said Rocky
Scott, President of Centerra, McWhinney.
Guthrie also owned the original "Chapungu Arts Gallery" in Harare, Zimbabwe (formerly
Rhodesia) since the 1980's. McWhinney's interest in this unusual art form couldn't have come
at a better time for Guthrie. Zimbabwe's "Financial Gazette" published a story in August of
2014 stating,
"When the financial woes of the 80s and 90s set in, the village was not spared creating
challenges for the [Chapungu] centre. The same woes touched the dealers, too, sending
Guthrie into a brief involuntary exile."
Foreclosures and Art Liquidations in US and Africa
Grand Station was never built east of the park and in 2009 creditors took back the Promenade
Shops at Centerra from McWhinney and their partner to sell at a foreclosure auction for a
fraction of what Loveland taxpayers and McWhinney creditors invested in the project.
McWhinney and their partner continued fighting over the foreclosure for another three years.
As it turns out, Chad and Troy McWhinney have fairly unique taste in contemporary art as the
expected interest in Chapungu carved statues never really materialized in the United States.
Once most of the stone carvings were acquired for Chapungu Park, the original Chapungu Art
Galleries were forced into a liquidation sale by the Zimbabwe government to pay an estimated
$150,000 in unpaid wages to the artists and employees in 2012 according to a local newspaper.
There also exists a 35-year agreement between the Centerra Metro Districts and Guthrie's
company African Art Promotions to display Chapungu art pieces which McWhinney refers to as a
"partnership" for Chapungu Park. Whether Centerra taxpayers are continuing to fund that
agreement we don't know since the document has never been made public to the best of our
knowledge. Guthrie's Colorado company, which is party to the agreement, has been delinquent
in Colorado state records since 2014. Guthrie and his wife sold their home in Berthoud and
returned to Harare, Zimbabwe in 2013. Centerra's 2015 financial statements reflect a
$147,000 annual expense for Chapungu Park but doesn't provide anymore detail.
Despite constant references to Chapungu Park as the McWhinney brothers' contribution to the
Loveland art scene by local news outlets, a 2006 press release by McWhinney indicates Centerra
Metro District public dollars were accessed by McWhinney to reimburse themselves for
developing the park and acquiring the stone statues. Centerra's unpaid debt now stands at over
$186 million dollars.
It is ironic that the original Chapungu gallery bankrupted after failing to pay the African artists
$150,000 in back wages when that is the same amount the City of Loveland is diverting from
federal funds appropriated for victims of Colorado's 2013 flood to promote the African art in an
annual "Winter Wonderlights" display. McWhinney is hoping to continue developing properties
east of Chapungu Park so will likely continue using their influence over Loveland's City Council
to subsidize events that draw attention towards the undeveloped areas of Centerra they still
own.
Loveland's City Council will vote tonight (second reading) on a plan to divert CDBG (Community
Development Block Grant) monies provided by the Federal Government to assist victims of the
September 9, 2013 floods to instead promote McWhinney's African Art collection in Centerra.
The federal flood relief funding stems from a 2013 colloquy by then Congressman Cory Gardner
to seek support for continuing relief funding from impacts that would exceed the normal
emergency disaster relief budgets.
According to Colorado's Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) that manages those grants today,
Colorado business and property owners were hard hit by the 2013 floods. In the canyons,
floodwaters washed away motels and cabins, restaurants and stores. In other places retail
and commercial establishments suffered extensive damage or revenue losses. Farther east,
farmers lost their crops and oil wells were damaged or shut down. CDBG-DR economic
recovery programs address these impacts.
On July 5, 2017 Loveland's 9 member City Council approved a request 8-0 (Councilman Troy
Krenning was absent) upon first reading to access community marketing funds to remove snow
and conduct a light show in Chapungu Park each December using city funds. The proposed
project is an annual event named the Winter Wonderlights Event for an annual cost of
$150,000.
Loveland's City Council will appropriate the funds first from transient occupancy taxes and later
reimburse that account $100,000 when the flood disaster relief funds are received by the city
later this year.
Chapungu Park Back Story
Chapungu Park sits in a 27 acre drainage basin east of I-25 and the Promenade Shops at
Centerra featuring some 80 contemporary art pieces acquired from African Art Promotions inc.
The company's principle is a white, Rhodesian born art dealer named Roy Guthrie. In 2005
Guthrie paid over half a million dollars for a home in Berthoud where he resided until 2013
while working as Centerra Metro District's Park Manager.
As described in a 2007 press release, McWhinney had big ambitions for the park and future
development opportunities they would create around it.
“Positioned between the Promenade Shops and the future Grand Station at Centerra,
Chapungu Sculpture Park will be a refuge of calm and contemplation within Centerra, and
ultimately, as the largest art center devoted to African artists in the United States,” said Rocky
Scott, President of Centerra, McWhinney.
Guthrie also owned the original "Chapungu Arts Gallery" in Harare, Zimbabwe (formerly
Rhodesia) since the 1980's. McWhinney's interest in this unusual art form couldn't have come
at a better time for Guthrie. Zimbabwe's "Financial Gazette" published a story in August of
2014 stating,
"When the financial woes of the 80s and 90s set in, the village was not spared creating
challenges for the [Chapungu] centre. The same woes touched the dealers, too, sending
Guthrie into a brief involuntary exile."
Foreclosures and Art Liquidations in US and Africa
Grand Station was never built east of the park and in 2009 creditors took back the Promenade
Shops at Centerra from McWhinney and their partner to sell at a foreclosure auction for a
fraction of what Loveland taxpayers and McWhinney creditors invested in the project.
McWhinney and their partner continued fighting over the foreclosure for another three years.
As it turns out, Chad and Troy McWhinney have fairly unique taste in contemporary art as the
expected interest in Chapungu carved statues never really materialized in the United States.
Once most of the stone carvings were acquired for Chapungu Park, the original Chapungu Art
Galleries were forced into a liquidation sale by the Zimbabwe government to pay an estimated
$150,000 in unpaid wages to the artists and employees in 2012 according to a local newspaper.
There also exists a 35-year agreement between the Centerra Metro Districts and Guthrie's
company African Art Promotions to display Chapungu art pieces which McWhinney refers to as a
"partnership" for Chapungu Park. Whether Centerra taxpayers are continuing to fund that
agreement we don't know since the document has never been made public to the best of our
knowledge. Guthrie's Colorado company, which is party to the agreement, has been delinquent
in Colorado state records since 2014. Guthrie and his wife sold their home in Berthoud and
returned to Harare, Zimbabwe in 2013. Centerra's 2015 financial statements reflect a
$147,000 annual expense for Chapungu Park but doesn't provide anymore detail.
Despite constant references to Chapungu Park as the McWhinney brothers' contribution to the
Loveland art scene by local news outlets, a 2006 press release by McWhinney indicates Centerra
Metro District public dollars were accessed by McWhinney to reimburse themselves for
developing the park and acquiring the stone statues. Centerra's unpaid debt now stands at over
$186 million dollars.
It is ironic that the original Chapungu gallery bankrupted after failing to pay the African artists
$150,000 in back wages when that is the same amount the City of Loveland is diverting from
federal funds appropriated for victims of Colorado's 2013 flood to promote the African art in an
annual "Winter Wonderlights" display. McWhinney is hoping to continue developing properties
east of Chapungu Park so will likely continue using their influence over Loveland's City Council
to subsidize events that draw attention towards the undeveloped areas of Centerra they still
own.
| From: "Kraft - OEDIT, Jeff" <jeff.kraft@state.co.us> Date: July 22, 2017 at 1:23:41 PM MDT To: "Kraft - OEDIT, Jeff" <jeff.kraft@state.co.us> Subject: Re: Thank You for Your Emails about Loveland Marketing Grant Hello: At the State of Colorado we have received several email inquiries regarding the grant awarded to Visit Loveland from the Disaster Recovery Tourism Marketing Grant Program. Thank you for reaching out with feedback, concerns, comments, questions and suggestions which I will address in this email. The floods of September 2013 devastated much of northern Colorado, and our congressional delegation worked with state and federal leaders to appropriate funds for disaster recovery. Because tourism is a key sector of the Colorado economy, a portion of the funding was directed to revitalize regional tourism and let visitors know we are open for business. The Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) was tasked with administering the Tourism Marketing Grant Program in accordance with federal regulations, with program guidelines available at https://www.colorado. gov/pacific/dola/tourism-marketing. The second round of funding received twelve applications for funding from disaster impacted areas around Colorado. A selection committee comprised of representatives from Governor Hickenlooper’s Recovery Office, the Department of Local Affairs (DOLA), the Colorado Tourism Office, and the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program administrators at OEDIT conducted a robust multi-stage evaluation. Visit Loveland’s proposal, the only application received from any entity associated with the City of Loveland, was approved based on the quality of their proposal, the area’s reliance on tourism and visitors, disaster impact, the eligibility of the applicant, and community support including matching funds. The application met these pre- established criteria developed based on public comment, federal rules and learnings from the first round of tourism disaster grants which Loveland did not apply for or receive. Our assessment is that these grants will be an important stimulus to help Loveland and the Northern Colorado region recover from past and ongoing impacts from the 2013 floods and their aftermath. Specifically, Winter Wonderlights, the primary marketing event in the proposal, was designed to increase destination travel to Loveland from Colorado (most tourists in Colorado come from Colorado). This event will be new to Loveland, and the Centerra location was easily accessible and visible from I-25 and would attract visitors to the Highway 34 corridor which is impact by ongoing construction and closure issues. Furthermore, the venue offered the prerequisites of space, parking, electrical, etc. The committee was confident in the ability of Visit Loveland to ensure the success of this event due to the City of Loveland’s history of outstanding activities like the Fire & Ice Festival, Corn Roast, Cherry Pie Festival and several arts related programs, many of which take place in downtown Loveland. The proposal also included a Highway 34 Grand Opening Celebration in conjunction with Estes Park in May 2018. Some emails we received referenced businesses damaged by the flood. OEDIT also administers the Business Grant Program which, I want to emphasize, is still accepting applications for businesses that lost revenue due to the disaster. The program guidelines and an application are available at https://www.colorado. gov/pacific/dola/recover-colorado-business- grantsloans. The Disaster Recovery Counselor for Larimer County, Michael Haughey, has been in touch with the Loveland Chamber of Commerce and contacted many Loveland businesses offering his assistance in obtaining a grant. He can be reached at 970-581-4958 or mrdhaughey@gmail.com. Many of the email questions we received sited sales tax and property issues that must be resolved at the city level. Visit Loveland produced a FAQ fact sheet that addresses many of these issues in more detail (available at http://www. visitlovelandco.org/). Our mission was to fund projects that promote regional tourism and benefit not just a neighborhood or district, but businesses and communities throughout the northern Colorado region. After a thorough review of the selection criteria, evaluation process, the Visit Loveland proposal and your input, we are continuing to fund the project at the $100,000 level as submitted. Our office will be engaging in ongoing dialogue with the local grant administration team in Loveland to help them refine their budget and program to ensure maximum benefit. If you do have more questions or suggestions about the specifics of the proposal being funded, after reviewing FAQ sheet cited above, I encourage you to also discuss this with local officials in Loveland. We hope this has cleared up some of the misconceptions about the grant and addressed your concerns. Sincerely Jeff Kraft Director of Business Funding and Incentives P 303.892.3840 | C 303.501.4095 1625 Broadway, Suite 2700, Denver, CO 80202 jeff.kraft@state.co.us | www.choosecolorado.com |
