Old Mansfield Theater seats for sale as replacement project gets started
Removal of seats in the Mansfield Theater is underway this week to make room for the new seats that will be installed this summer in a roughly million dollar theater improvement project.
The old seats, which have been in the theater for decades, will be available for the public to purchase on May 22.
“These seats have allowed patrons to see thousands of productions over the decades, and they deserve the best new homes,” according to theater staff.
The seats will be available for purchase from 2-4:30 p.m. May 22 for $30 at the Civic Center.
The city prefers cash or check, but Visa or Mastercard may be accepted if necessary, according to staff.
Buyers must be able to load the chairs into their vehicle or trailer.
Anyone interested in buying multiple seats should contact Sylvia Tarman at 406-455-8474.
During the May 16 Mansfield Advisory Board meeting, Owen Grubenhoff, city events manager, said that the removal project is estimated to take about seven to eight days.
He said staff has been contacting businesses that might be interested in buying seats in bulk and that Black Eagle Community Center was interested in purchasing some for their bowling alley.
The board won’t meet again until September and Grubenhoff reminded them to recruit potential new members for the Mansfield Foundation board, a separate private entity established to help fundraise for theater improvements.
The foundation is down to just a few members with few dollars and those members were seeking to dissolve the foundation last fall.
Members of the city’s advisory board said they wanted to try finding new members to keep the foundation alive.
Foundation members said the seat replacement project was the main focus of the foundation, and theater supporters, for years, so now that’s being accomplished, they don’t see as much need for the foundation.
During their May 6 meeting, City Commissioners unanimously approved a $445,000 contract for the Mansfield Theater ceiling repair project.
The city received a Montana Historic Preservation Grant toward the project, but like the theater seating replacement, the ceiling repair is also short funding.
Facing shortfall for Mansfield theater projects, staff looking to private donors
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.”
City Commission approves TIF funds for Mansfield Theater projects [2024]
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.
Downtown group OKs funding for Mansfield Theater improvements [2024]
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.
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.
City approves new Mansfield business model [2024]
Staff said during the March 18 meeting that they were 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.
City approves new fees for Mansfield [2019]
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.”
