The Spokane Park Board has given Mobius Science Center backers until Dec. 31 to address concerns some of the boards members have about business-plan projections for the proposed center, which would be located on city-owned land just north of Riverfront Park.


Gage Stromberg, Mobius executive director, downplays the deadline, though, saying he expects that the Park Boards concerns, which deal partly with attendance estimates, will be resolved through discussions before then.


I am not anticipating any problem, Stromberg says. The concerns that have been expressed were not requesting significant or dramatic changes to the business plan.


Park Board approval of the science center business plan is needed for Mobius to formalize a long-term land lease agreement and proceed with a capital campaign. Stromberg says the Spokane nonprofit organization would like to start that campaign by early next year.


Mobius hopes to raise $30 million to $36 million for construction of the science center, which is expected to have 60,000 to 75,000 square feet of floor space, and to include a range of education-focused science, technology, and entertainment exhibits and activities. The current tentative timetable calls for construction to begin in late 2007 or early 2008 and to take about a year to complete.


The science center project first was proposed three years ago by a nonprofit called Inland Northwest Science & Technology Center.


Since then, the names of both the nonprofit organization and the proposed science center have changed to Mobius, through a merger of the science center group and the Childrens Museum of Spokane. Mobius also operates Mobius Kids, a 16,000-square-foot discovery museum for children that opened in River Park Square about six weeks ago.


Plans still call for land north of the science center project site to be subleased for commercial development, and for the rent collected from tenants there to be used to help pay the centers operating costs once its built.


From the start, though, the biggest question has been whether the organization can raisethrough corporate sponsors, other local fundraising, and state, federal and private grantsthe money needed to construct the center.


Mobius received $1.5 million from the Washington Legislature in the latest biennial budget, and in May of this year submitted a business plan to the Spokane Park Board.


At a special Park Board meeting in June, members voiced concern about the ambition of Mobius fundraising plan and attendance projections, and said they want to revise the boundaries of the land lease based on the smaller anticipated size of the center. They also said they wanted assurances that neither construction nor subleasing activity would begin until 80 percent of the funding for the project was committed.


The Park Board deferred approval of the business plan until it could discuss those concerns further with Mobius representatives. Late last month, though, having heard little more from Mobius, it had Michael Stone, the citys parks and recreation director, send Stromberg a letter setting forth the Dec. 31 deadline by which it wanted to make a decision to accept or reject the business plan.


They just kind of left things up in the air, says Jeff Halstead, Park Board president, of the reason for the letter.


I think the concerns shared by some of our Park Board members is that its a very ambitious program, at a time when other sizable players, such as the Fox Theater and the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, also are competing for donations, he says.


What were looking for is an explanation. Were just looking for revisions to that business plan that make it more realistic, possibly more conservative, given the financial resources of our community, Halstead says.


He says a strong desire to see a science center developed here was one of the reasons he joined the Park Board. Also, he notes that when the Park Board bought the land on the north bank of the Spokane River with 1999 bond proceeds, it was with a science center in mind.


Were very supportive of the science center, he says, but he adds, We just have questions about its viability at this point on park property.


Given the current strong real estate market, if a science center didnt move forward on that site, the Park Board likely would consider development options that would create revenue to support Riverfront Park, he says.


Stromberg says, though, that he expects the project to proceed there.


Our group has committed significant resources, time, and money, and we have fulfilled all our promises, he says. The experience of opening up Mobius Kids, which is off to a promising start, has been a good interim step for us.