Alliance, Arts Plaza Boost Economy, Study Finds

THOUSAND OAKS-The Civic Arts Plaza and its booster group, the Alliance for the Arts, directly and indirectly contribute nearly $21 million to Thousand Oaks’ economy each year, according to a study by Pepperdine University.

“The total impact yearly is larger than the [operating] cost of the theater,” said Alissa Andress, one of five Pepperdine undergraduate business and economics students who conducted the study.

In addition, said Pepperdine professor Dean Baim, “The findings were that the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza attracts a large number of people into Thousand Oaks that would otherwise not be coming to Thousand Oaks, and to that extent they attract spending in the area that would otherwise be going someplace else.”

That is good news for the alliance and the Civic Arts Plaza’s other supporters, who have often had to justify the 4-year-old complex’s $86-million cost to doubters on the City Council and in the community.

But for those who hoped the Civic Arts Plaza would be a boon to Ventura County as a whole--and to western Los Angeles County--the Pepperdine study suggests that a much smaller portion of the money associated with the complex is spent outside Thousand Oaks.

Because Pepperdine was asked to measure the impact to Thousand Oaks alone, Andress said, the study may appear to discount the impact to other areas. Even without enlarging the scope of the study, she concluded, “The Civic Arts Plaza has definitely impacted the city of Thousand Oaks and Ventura County, but by far Thousand Oaks has been the primary beneficiary.”

That the arts plaza contributes between $19.6 million and $21.8 million annually to the city’s economy surprised Patricia Moore, the alliance’s executive director.

“I expected it to be positive,” she said. “I didn’t know it was going to be of this magnitude.”

After presenting the study’s results to the alliance board next month and then to the City Council, Moore said, she will start using the study’s findings to solicit donations and “show what a positive impact this has and why it is a good investment for the community.”

In creating their so-called multiplier study--designed to measure how dollars move within Thousand Oaks in an economic chain reaction--the students traced the alliance’s and arts plaza’s expenditures by ZIP Code and surveyed theater patrons.

Depending on the theaters’ schedule and the popularity of their shows, patrons pump between $10.9 million and $13 million into the Thousand Oaks economy, according to the study. That contribution comes from theatergoers’ secondary spending--the money they spend outside the box office on meals, clothing, baby-sitters and other things associated with seeing a show.

“They’re 95% sure that the per-person spending when one is out to the theater on a given night is somewhere between $26 and $31, apart from theater tickets and concessions there,” said Jere Yates, a Pepperdine business professor who supervised the study.

Another large contribution, and this is what surprised even alliance officials, comes from the nonprofit booster group’s own activities--what it spends to raise money and how it spends those donations.

Moore said it had not occurred to her that what her office does might contribute significantly to the Thousand Oaks economy. The study found that more than $3 million moves through the city as a result.

On average, every dollar raised and spent by the alliance changes hands in Thousand Oaks nearly five times. That multiplier is unusually high; a number closer to two would be expected for entertainment venues in Southern California, according to federal standards.

But, Andress said, the above-average multiplier stems from the alliance’s spending such a large portion of its money within Thousand Oaks for staff member salaries and everything from printers to caterers.

Using the same economic formulas, the students concluded that running the theater itself--salaries and maintenance primarily--pumps $5.7 million into the area economy.

Though the study was conducted by college students, theater director Tom Mitze said their professors’ reputations and experience with multiplier studies give him faith in the results.

“We didn’t want to pay a consulting firm because we wanted it to be impartial and objective,” he said.

And although having the study bolsters the case for the Civic Arts Plaza, Mitze said, there is a far greater quality-of-life value to the complex and its activities that would be difficult to measure.

“Even if the arts didn’t put a penny into the community,” he said, “I still think they’re worthwhile.”