Whoops!

‘THIS WILL BRING MILLIONS INTO OUR DOWNTOWN’ 

Arts, Beats & Eats has a home in Royal Oak

By BILL LAITNER

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER 

Royal Oak officials, disap pointed after losing a broad cast chain’s New Year’s Eve celebration planned for their downtown, were all smiles Tuesday when it became offi cial the Arts, Beats & Eats fes tival is to relocate there in 2010.

The announcement at San gria’s restaurant in downtown Royal Oak was a blow for Pon tiac — host of the event from its start 12 years ago — but a boost for Royal Oak and its downtown, city officials and merchants said.

In Royal Oak, the event like ly will double in size from the estimated 225,000 in Pontiac this year, said Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patter son, founder of the festival that runs for four days each Labor Day weekend.

“You’re going to enjoy this with 450,000 of your close, personal friends,” Patterson told the crowd. Pontiac offi cials were “really crestfallen” to lose the event, he said, but were unreal istic in demanding $100,000 from the fes tival to host it in 2010.

The switch came after festival organiz er Jon Witz couldn’t reach a deal with fi nancially strapped Pontiac and ap proached Royal Oak, said Pronto restau rant co-owner Jim Domanski.

“This will bring millions into our downtown. This will take one of our slowest weekends and, overnight, turn it into one of our busiest,” Domanski said. The Royal Oak Downtown Development Authority is pay ing $100,000 to land the deal, “but we’ll get much more than that back,” said Sangria res taurant owner Luigi Cutraro, a member of the DDA.

Besides boosting revenues at downtown busi nesses, the deal will bring at least $30,000 each to charities that will operate beverage tents, and it will give downtown Royal Oak publicity worth more than $1 million a year, Witz said.

Pontiac Emergen cy Financial Manager Fred Leeb, appointed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm in March to oversee finances, said in a statement Wednes day: “We’d like to find a new promoter to help us develop a comprehensive plan for year around entertainment.”