City Commissioners unanimously approved a $445,000 contract for the Mansfield Theater ceiling repair project during their May 6 meeting.
The city received a Montana Historic Preservation Grant toward the project, but like the theater seating replacement, the ceiling repair is also short funding.
The theater ceiling contract was on the May 6 consent agenda and commissioners asked no questions about the contract, funding shortage or status of staff’s fundraising efforts toward the theater projects.
Facing shortfall for Mansfield theater projects, staff looking to private donors
There was no public comment on the item.
Commissioners approved the contract to Custom Plaster, LLC as a sole-sourced project.
The ceiling project is being funded with $250,000 of Montana Historic Preservation Grant funds and $147,300 of downtown tax increment financing funds, leaving a $47,700 shortfall.
City staff wrote in their agenda report that they were continuing their fundraising efforts to support Mansfield Theater projects and any money raised would be used toward that shortfall before additional city funds are used.
Mansfield seat project progressing, staff looking at fundraising options
The ceiling project shortfall comes after commissioners approved the $995,190 seating contract in December, at which time, staff said they recommended awarding the contract despite the overage of $345,190, plus $12,000 in design fees to Nelson Architects.
In December, staff said they were intending to fundraise to make up the Mansfield projects shortfall.
During the March 18 work session, staff said that combined with the ceiling portion of the project, the city was looking at a $389,890 shortfall of available funding for the Mansfield projects.
With the ceiling contract approved during the May 6 meeting, the budget shortfall is now $404,890.
In March, city staff presented their plan to commissioners of proposed donation tiers for their fundraising effort.
City approves Mansfield seat replacement contract [2024]
In a May 9 email response to The Electric regarding the project shortfall and fundraising, Tom Hazen, city grant manager, wrote that “staff is still reaching out to potential individual and corporate donors requesting contributions to the project. At this time, unfortunately, we have not received any donations to help address the difference. The city still plans to pursue donations and will submit an additional request to the TIF for funding. The hope remains to fund this project with non-general fund dollars. However, if there is not sufficient capital contributed to the campaign the city may be forced to consider project scope adjustments to meet the funding available.”
Staff wrote in their May 6 agenda report that they’d been working with the ceiling contractor to develop a work scope and estimate for the project.
“Given the sensitive and historic nature of the Mansfield Theater and the specialized work needed to stabilize the decorative ceiling, staff opted to work solely with Custom Plaster as a sole source contract. They have extensive experience in historic restorations on large and small scale projects,” according to staff.
City Commission approves TIF funds for Mansfield Theater projects [2024]
The project includes stabilizing or replacing sections of ceiling structure where the lathe and plaster sustained too much water damage to be touched up and salvaging as many of decorative tiles as possible.
The project will replace the generic, non-decorative tiles that have fallen or warped.
Additional nails will be placed in all tiles to stabilize them and prevent detachment, according to staff, and touch-up painting will be done as needed.
The ceiling project requires substantial scaffolding in the theater so staff is planning the project in conjunction with the seat replacement project this summer.
Once the old seats are removed, the scaffolding will be set up for the ceiling repair and once that’s complete, new seating installation will begin, according to staff.
The state historic grant was awarded through the 2023 Legislature and the city finalized its funding agreement with the state on Aug. 13, 2024, according to staff.
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The contract documents included in the city staff report for the May 6 meeting indicate that the ceiling project will be completed within 90 days of the notice to proceed and the tentative start date is June 1.
In an April 24 sole source justification form included in the staff’s agenda report, staff report that “due to the specialized experience needed to repair/replace the lathe and plaster structure of the ceiling, stabilize the existing tiles, and re-paint the decorative tiles as necessary; city staff opted to work with Greg Marsters at Custom Plaster, LLC. Greg has a demonstrated history of completing large and small scale historic preservation projects. He also worked on the plaster in our new court space, which looks great. Greg is the only contractor in the region that we are familiar with that has the capabilities to complete this project, while ensuring the preservation of the historic characteristics of the Mansfield Theater.”
Mansfield Theater projects were identified as a potential priority use of ARPA funds in 2022, and eventually set as a second tier project, but no funding was allocated at the time as the previous commission opted to wait until the city received notification of the result of an application for the Montana Historic Preservation Grant application. The city was awarded a $250,000 grant.
In March 2025, Hazen and Sylvia Tarman of the city finance reviewed the city’s projects being funded through the State-Local Infrastructure Partnership Act that the Montana Legislature approved in 2023.
The Mansfield seat replacement project is one of them.
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Staff said during the March 18 meeting that they’re working on plans to fundraise to cover the project shortfall.
In December, staff told commissioners that the shortfall would be covered by remaining COVID relief funds and staff was working with the contractor and suppliers to trim the project cost if possible and exploring fundraising options to reduce the impact on COVID funds.
In the March 18 presentation, the breakdown of funding for the project did not include COVID relief funds.
Mayor Cory Reeves asked what the city will do if staff can’t raise the additional funds.
Hazen said during the work session that was the “crux” of the discussion.
Local projects receive historic preservation grants [2023]
During the Mansfield advisory board’s January meeting, Owen Grubenhoff, Mansfield manager, said the theater calendar is blocked out from May 20 through the first week of October for construction.
Grubenhoff said he’s hoping it doesn’t take that long but they can’t book shows and risk the work being incomplete.
The convention center will also be closed for the summer since it will be used to store the theater seating during demolition and installation, he said.
The theater currently has 1,780 seats with 917 on the main floor, 282 on the lower balcony and 581 on the upper balcony, according to the city.
City seeking grant for Mansfield Theater improvements [2022]
Grubenhoff told the advisory board in January that staff was going with deeper and wider seats, but trying to maintain about 1,500 seats.
The city was allocated $755,461 of SLIPA funds and commissioners approved the package of projects for SLIPA funding in March 2024 and ratified contracts with the Montana Department of Commerce in September 2024 for the project.
Mansfield Theater gets fresh coat of floor paint with donation [2020]
In their Dec. 3, 2024 agenda report recommending that commissioners award the seating replacement contract, staff wrote that the city had received a $650,000 estimate for the removal/disposal of the existing seats and the installation of new fixtures and had applied for and received $487,500.00 in SLIPA funds, as well as $162,500 downtown TIF funds.
“These infusions were meant to cover the entirety of the project,” staff wrote in December 2024.
They wrote that bids came back in November 2024 for the project “substantially higher than was estimated. This is generally due to the amount of seating necessary, having a complete demo and reconstruction plan and inflationary factors from previous estimates. By far, the biggest cost included in the bids is the actual seating supply and installation. The original amount budgeted for this project, what the grant was awarded on, was $650,000. The low bid, provided by Wadsworth Builders, came in at $995,190.”
The Electric heard about a possible discrepancy in the bids and followed up with city staff.
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In the May 9 email to The Electric from Hazen wrote that the SLIPA application was based on an older estimate that had been presented “to the Mansfield as a ‘quote’ that was purported to be good for five years. Unfortunately, outside factors caused price increases that caused bid submissions to exceed the estimate. And the estimate was for a lower number of chairs. Mansfield was, at that time, considering having an open ‘standing area’ in front of the stage for contemporary music shows that could be filled with portable seating for traditional shows. Unfortunately, this design difference was not taken into account when the SLIPA applications were prepared.”
