Centrum Signs 35 Year Lease with State Parks

News by Beacon Staff

PORT TOWNSEND– If you’ve ever been moved by a reading during the Writer’s Conference, danced the night away at Fiddle Tunes or belted one out at Voiceworks, you probably have Centrum’s Executive Director Rob Birman to thank.

“I came here at the very end of the recession, so Centrum was cash-strapped and unambitious,” Birman said, reflecting on his 14 years at Centrum’s helm. “It was hard times for everybody, including all the nonprofits where I used to work and everywhere else. So I'm not being critical, but Centrum was struggling, and it didn't have a plan.”

Now, Centrum very much has a plan. The Washington State Parks Commission have signed an agreement with them to govern 14 historic buildings at Fort Worden State Park. The new lease is for 35 years with an option for an additional 35 years.

A significant aspect of the agreement is that Centrum will raise capital to renovate several Fort Worden buildings and, in exchange, will receive credit against future rent payments.

“This is a win-win for State Parks and Washington state,” said Chris Holm, Fort Worden Campus Business Manager for Washington State Parks in a press release. “It retains Centrum as the anchor tenant of Fort Worden and helps us continue to make improvements to these well-loved and historical buildings that tell an important part of our state’s history – many of them date back to the early 1900s.”

Centrum will assume responsibility for managing and programming the 280-seat Wheeler Theatre as well as the 1,200-seat McCurdy Pavillion. These facilities are used for Centrum’s many programs, plus they’ll oversee their use for third-party organizations.

With this increase in financial responsibility, Birman is going to apply his strengths in fundraising in a new role focused on long-term capital fundraising and guiding large projects, like the multi-million dollar renovation of building 205. “I've been doing three jobs since I got here, three full-time jobs,” Birman said. “One is running Centrum day to day. One was participating in the PDA experiment, the third is growing funding for facilities so that we can maintain and upgrade the buildings.”  It’s definitely time for him to turn his full attention to just doing the one job.

Under Birman’s tenure, the organization has grown from an annual budget of $2.6 million in 2013 to $5.1 million this year. The value of its endowment fund has risen more than 900% over that same period, to just over $1.1 million, and the organization began actively raising restricted funds for its capital projects beginning in 2022 under its previous agreements with the Fort Worden PDA.

Centrum will launch a nationwide search for a new executive director to lead the organization; that search is expected to take several months, and Birman will stay in the director role until it is completed.