Wooing Cirque du Soleil to Irvine’s Great Park was a feat worthy of one of the Canadian troupe’s European carnival-inspired productions.
Cirque du Soleil has signed a 10-year contract at the under-development Great Park, moving from its longtime local home at the OC Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa.
Its first Great Park show, Kooza, is set to open Jan. 8.
Larry Agran, an Irvine councilman and chairman of the Orange County Great Park, called the landing of Cirque du Soleil a “milestone.”
The city’s ambitious and sometimes controversial plans to convert the former El Toro Marine base into homes, stores, business space, cultural attractions, parks and open space have been slow.
Landing Cirque du Soleil arguably is the biggest coup yet for the park’s backers.
Kooza, which runs for five weeks, is set to see $1.7 million in spending to set up and advertise the show and then to house and feed its 145-member cast and crew, according to Cirque du Soleil.
About 125 locals are expected to be hired to work in concessions and in the production office, said Sylvain Guimond, Cirque du Soleil’s touring sites development director.
Irvine is more ambitious in its projection. It sees $2.4 million in local impact directly from the show as well as from related spending at restaurants, hotels and shops.
For now, the Great Park’s remote location and sparse development at the former base stand to limit the impact. But having Cirque could lead to more activity down the road.
On tours, Cirque works with area businesses to maximize spending for them, according to Guimond.
At Kooza’s Santa Monica show, which closed Dec. 20, parking was situated to bring visitors onto the pier, which is littered with restaurants and shops.
“In Santa Monica, we had everyone walk down the pier so the restaurants had the opportunity to catch them before they came in,” Guimond said. “We told the businesses on the pier that people will come. After that it is up to you. We will deliver 150,000 people; now make sure your shop is ready.”
Rent-Free
The Great Park had to lure Cirque. Administrators aren’t charging the troupe any rent. Cirque had been paying $500,000 to set up its tent and stage shows at the OC Fair & Event Center.
“As a largely undeveloped property, the Great Park definitely faced an uphill battle in its effort to secure one of the world’s renowned touring performance shows,” said Mike Ellzey, Orange County Great Park chief executive. “We decided that our position of strength could best be achieved by offering the venue rent-free, while we would benefit from assuming the parking operation and its resulting profits.”
Instead of paying rent, Cirque du Soleil is offering help on development of a 600,000-square-foot paved area called the Festival Site. It’s set to hold Cirque and other traveling shows and events.
Park officials are pitching the site to other tours. None are finalized yet.
Officials said they wooed Cirque for several years. The troupe eventually was won over by the park’s commitments to environmental sustainability and the overall vision, Guimond said.
“I remember the first time I saw the grand plan for the Great Park, I was intrigued because of the scale of the project,” Guimond said. “When we saw what they were doing at the Great Park, it was something we were more than happy to be associated with.”
Plans call for transforming about 225 acres of the former base into exhibition space, sports fields, lawns and farmland, among other uses.
In October, the Orange County Great Park Board approved $65.5 million to develop 200 acres—largely as cultural and open space—that is slated to be done by the end of 2011.
The Great Park portion of the redevelopment is set to be funded by city money and development fees that park officials hope to collect from houses and commercial space that are planned on the majority of the former base.
The depressed real estate market has scaled down some of those development visions. Early work on that part of the redevelopment is expected in 2010.
So far, Irvine has spent more than $100 million, largely on the park’s design. The park’s iconic orange balloon recently was retooled for greater visibility.
So far, the Great Park has hosted movie nights, concerts and lectures. Cirque marks a new level of entertainment.
“We feel that we are moving closer and closer to our vision,” said Sukhee Kang, Irvine mayor and director of the Great Park.
Fairground’s Loss
Cirque’s move is a loss to the OC Fair & Event Center, which faces an uncertain future.
Elected officials and community members are lobbying to save the 150-acre state-owned fairgrounds, which hosts the annual OC Fair and holds the Pacific Amphitheatre concert theater.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger approved the sale of the site, along with six other fairgrounds state-wide, to help cover some of the state’s deficit.
The loss of Cirque’s $500,000 site fee as well as a $3 million drop in lease revenue after a re-negotiation with the Market Place swap meet has left the fairgrounds without much in its reserves.
Officials with the fairgrounds couldn’t be reached for comment.
“We don’t make a switch like that very lightly,” Cirque’s Guimond said. “We looked at it for quite a while because of the relationship we had at the fairgrounds. There is long-term potential. We would not have left the fairgrounds to just perform once at the Great Park.”
If the moving of locations sounds like a bit of drama, it has nothing on Cirque’s latest show.
The two-hour show—with a 30-minute intermission—combines Cirque’s signature artistic flair with old-fashioned circus antics and feats.
Contortionists and catapulting men on stilts are interspersed with dance-inspired acrobatics. There’s even a juggling act.
“Kooza is a return to the basics,” Guimond said. “We went back to the original days of Cirque du Soleil where we didn’t have much money for our shows and we had to use our imagination.”
The show cost less to run but isn’t a response to the economy, according to Guimond. Kooza was created by David Shiner in late 2006 before the economy tanked and is performing well, he said.
“Cirque is one of the few companies doing well,” Guimond said. “We are suffering in the sense that we have failed to meet our targets, but we will get through it. We are one of the lucky ones.”
