After years of delays, the Corp no longer intends to pursue the construction of a café in the Davis Performing Arts Center, according to outgoing Corp CEO Brad Glasser (COL ‘11).
The Corp first announced plans for the café in the summer of 2009. A joint venture between the Davis Performing Arts Center and the Corp, it was originally slated to open in Nov. 2009. The Corp’s proposal was chosen by the Davis Center over proposals from several other local vendors.
Derek Goldman, artistic director at the Davis Center, said that a café space had been a priority since the building opened in 2005.
“We felt … that the cultural center of the campus could benefit from a real café space,” Goldman said.
The café was intended to supplement the Davis Center’s planned role as a social hub for campus, meant to draw more students into the building. According to Goldman, the area would have ideally served as a place for students to both eat and congregate, with potential space for student performances.
However, development of the facility never made it past the planning phase, and construction was pushed back during 2009 and 2010. At the same time, café planners scaled back more ambitious proposals, including full meals, in favor of a simpler approach. In Sep. 2010, the Corp announced that construction on the Davis Center café was unlikely to start for at least another six months.
Goldman said that although discussions continued over this period between the Corp and the Davis Center, he believed that pursuit of the project was not a priority for the company as it transitions to new leadership under incoming CEO Alex Pon (COL ’12). (Disclosure: Pon previously worked as the Voice’s Director of Technology.)
“My sense is that internally, the current Corp administration was less bullish about the project than previous boards,” Goldman said. “We had been kind of ready to proceed … and then they weren’t ready to jump in in the way that we wanted.”
As of the beginning of the spring semester, progress on the Café remained stalled. According to Glasser, the Corp has withdrawn its involvement from the project.
“Talks have ended on the potential Davis Center project. This decision was reached amiably and mutually by the Corp and the Davis Center’s representatives,” Glasser wrote in an email.
Glasser declined to elaborate further on the Corp’s withdrawal, although he noted in an earlier email that Corp priorities for the coming year would ultimately rest with Pon and the remainder of the new board. Pon declined multiple requests for comment.
Nonetheless, Goldman added that he and the Davis Center administration remain committed to bringing a new student space to the center in the coming year.
“We’re really optimistic about what it can do for this corner of campus,” he said.
Although there are no plans to rush the project, Goldman said that the Davis Center has begun to engage with other vendors that might be interested in taking over the project.
“We want to do it right, we don’t want to rush it,” Goldman said. “Certainly, it’s still on our front burner.”
