The City of St. Croix Falls may spend close to $12,000 to study how much money a fundraising campaign could be expected to bring in for an Auditorium Theater building rehabilitation project.

A grant application the city council authorized last week for a National Trust for Historic Preservation planning grant commits the City to up to $11,850 for the project, which would match the amount of money contributed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Festival Theatre executive director Danette Olsen said that fundraising experts who have been consulted say it is critical to do a thorough feasibility study at this stage of the process.

“We need to come to an agreement, at all levels, as to what we believe can be raised in our region for this project,” Olsen said. “This is a very methodical step that we’re proposing, one that will involve interviews and research with foundations and organizations that fund capital projects. There will be governmental research. So we’ll have six months’ worth of very, very (specific?) research to answer those questions, and we will be able to move beyond speculation about what we can raise for this project.”

Olsen said that one of the principal partners in a firm that planned a capital fundraising campaign for a new theater building in Lanesboro, Minn., a few years ago would be involved if grant money is secured for the “sustainable feasibility study.”

“We believe that if we are able to work with him at this stage, and then in the future stage of capital campaign work, that we will really benefit from the work that they did in Lanesboro,” Olsen said.

Olsen said the director of the National Trust’s Wisconsin field office, Trent Magrif, believes St. Croix Falls’s grant application “is keyed up for success.”

Olsen has been working with the Wisconsin field office for about two years on the grant application.

“I think it’s a really well-framed proposal,” city administrator Ed Emerson said.

To Emerson, one of the exciting elements of the grant application is a three-year Festival Theatre business plan it includes. He believes that will be a critical component for future grant solicitations.

Emerson and city council president Brian Blesi believe it is time for the council to formally recognize a Centennial Committee that will spearhead any fundraising campaign, perhaps as soon as the next council meeting.