Just as a student's future rests on passing a certain class, it appears the Academy Square - former home of Brigham Young Academy - is taking its own final exam to determine its future.
Members of the Academy Square Foundation signed an option to buy the property from Collier Heinz & Associates, a Salt Lake investment company that owns the academy, in the Provo mayor's office Tuesday.The foundation put down $15,000 to secure the option and now has six months to raise $800,000 to complete the purchase. If the funds are not raised, the square will be turned back to Collier Heinz for destruction.
In the past 13 years, seven developers have failed to turn the academy into a commercial center. The Brigham Young Academy Foundation, in its 10th year of trying to preserve the buildings, thinks it has found the solution in a community center.
Another non-profit entity - the Academy Square Foundation - will launch a major drive to solicit funds from organizations and private donors. Officials from Provo City and Brigham Young University have joined together in the foundation with renewed interest in academy preservation.
"Developers have always looked at Academy Square, but this time it's the folks from Provo," said Wally Raynor, a member of the Academy Square Foundation, at a press conference Thursday. "It's our one heroic chance to restore it to its significance."
"We've been meeting for some time to see if there was one last opportunity to save Academy Square," said Provo Mayor Joe Jenkins, a member of the foundation. "I think we've got a chance. We'll never know unless we try."
The city has had safety concerns with the buildings and will construct a security fence around the academy to keep trespassers out, he said. The fence will be built with block grant funds.
The Academy Square Foundation - which includes Raynor, Jenkins and Ronald Hyde, executive assistant to the president at Brigham Young University, among others - has established a trust at Zions Bank to be used for the purchase and preservation of Academy Square.
If not enough funds are collected, the money will be returned to donors at the end of the six months, Jenkins said.
"This complex represents our past as a university and we are excited for its future," Hyde said. "We hope as a community center all members of the community will get behind it and support it."
Brigham Young Academy alumni will be contacted for contributions and other BYU fund-raising networks will be tapped, Hyde said. Citizens will be encouraged to contribute their talents as well to help preserve the building.
The academy preservation as envisioned by foundation officials would cost $12 million to $15 million, but Raynor said it can be done in phases and is "real flexible."
The buildings would include facilities for the performing arts, including ballet, dance or theater classes and studios for vocal training. Vocational education facilities would also be available as would an early childhood center, an entrepreneurship building, an atrium with swimming and therapy pools, a visual artist center, a senior citizen center and a museum with a walking museum in the halls.
Richard Poll, president and secretary-treasurer of the Brigham Young Academy Foundation, said the buildings would not be restored, but rehabilitated to make them usable.
The group's aim is to return the academy to its original intent as long as it is functional. The foundation is shooting for a Jan. 4, 1992, rededication date, 100 years after the academy first became totally operational.
Developers in the past have had problems turning the academy, located between 500 and 600 North and University Avenue, into a workable project because the buildings are on the Utah historic register, which places restrictions on property development.
Anyone interested in developing the academy must restore the face of College Hall and the Education Building. Developers have said that it would cost more to restore the buildings than it would to tear them down and start over.
Those interested in the project are invited to attend a meeting at 7 p.m. Oct. 5 in the Provo City Council Chambers. A room in Academy Square will also be opened for fund-raising activities.