The Wizard of Hennepin

There’s no telling what Hennepin Avenue would look like today if Tom Hoch hadn’t come along. Hoch, president of Hennepin Theatre Trust, the organization that owns the State, Orpheum, and Pantages theaters, has been one of the strongest guiding forces behind the transformation of downtown Hennepin from one of the seediest sections of the city to its current incarnation as the “Theatre District,” arguably the most vibrant stretch of real estate in town.

Virtually any day of the week Minnesotans can now venture to the stretch of Hennepin between 5th Street and 10th Street to see Broadway shows, big-name concerts, nationally acclaimed comedians, best-selling authors, and plenty of other programming that can’t be seen anywhere else in town.

Hoch also led an initiative among property owners to beautify Hennepin, lay new sidewalks, and improve the lighting. He even ran the contest to paint those clever utility art boxes downtown. Hoch’s efforts are a big part of why the upscale Chambers hotel decided to open across the street from the Orpheum and why the swank eatery Solera continues to thrive next door. Soon he plans to create a Minnesota Walk of Fame, patterned after the one in Hollywood. Hoch, it is no stretch to say, has literally reinvented Hennepin Avenue.

Reinvention— of the world and himself—is in Hoch’s blood. He will be the first to tell you that his path has been a strange one. Before coming to HTT, he was an elementary school teacher, then he got his law degree and became an attorney, after which he worked for the city of Minneapolis, which became the steppingstone to his current position.

“There are few people I respect as much as Tom,” says Minneapolis city councilperson Lisa Goodman. “I’m blown away by him. One day I called him just to brainstorm about Minneapolis Beautiful [the utility box project] and the next thing I know he was off and running with it. Others point fingers and say what should be done. Tom is always willing to take the initiative.”

“He has a passion for Hennepin Avenue,” says Kim Motes, executive director of the Minnesota Shubert Performing Arts and Education Center (which includes the Hennepin Center for the Arts). “He takes on the hard issues—safety and perceptions—and he makes things happen.”

In the mid-1980s, Hoch was working for the Minneapolis Community Development Agency, having landed the job because of his various volunteer efforts on behalf of the city. Developers planned to demolish the State Theatre as part of the LaSalle Plaza project and, to save it, the city reclaimed the theater. “The city wanted to restore the State, but there was no one to do it, so my boss turned to me and said, ‘Why don’t you do it?’ ” Hoch says. “I learned quickly about theater restoration.”

While the restoration of the State was still in process, the opportunity to buy the Orpheum presented itself. Hoch pushed the city to undertake that project as well, even though it was not always clear whether the theaters would ever be successful from a business standpoint. In those early days, it wasn’t out of the ordinary to find Hoch cleaning toilets or selling pop. “I’d advocated restoring these theaters,” says Hoch of his willingness to get his hands dirty. “My credibility was on the line!”

A shakeup at the MCDA in 1990 led to a six-year hiatus from the theaters during which Hoch was appointed deputy executive director of the Public Housing Authority, where he learned even more about the art of renovation. “It was a great experience. We renovated a lot of the public high rises,” he says. “In the last year I was there, we spent $88 million in renovations.”

Hoch returned to the Hennepin theaters in 1996 as manager, in what turned out to be a baptism by fire. On his very first day, an application was made to demolish the Mann movie theater. “I endeavored to save that too,” Hoch says, proudly. “The city was not sympathetic to our involvement, but I convinced them to put up the $9.8 million to restore it.” (The theater reopened as the Pantages in 2002.)

Before Hoch became manager, the city contracted with the nonprofit Theatre Live to present Broadway shows, but this was at best an interim arrangement because the city was not interested in being a permanent landlord. “The city is not a good entity to house an entrepreneurial enterprise, which all theaters are,” says Hoch. So in 2000, Hoch created the Hennepin Theatre Trust, a nonprofit organization with a broader mission than Theatre Live’s: to assure the long-term viability of the theaters.

In 2003, Hoch arranged for Hennepin Theatre Trust to purchase the theaters from the city. HTT has a financing lease, essentially a contract for deed, and is servicing $21 million in bonds that were put up to finance the restorations. The city no longer has any financial outlay for the theaters, and HTT’s for-profit subsidiary, Historic Theatre Group, continues to manage box office, concessions, and facilities.

To Hoch, the difference between Hennepin Theatre Trust and the Historic Theatre Group is that, as a nonprofit, HTT’s mission is more important than the money. “We want to demonstrate business savvy,” he says, “but we are not driven by return on investment.”

HTG maintains the calendar, but gives booking priority to HTT for scheduling Broadway shows. “We’d hate to have a one-night event prevent booking a five-week run,” Hoch explains. “But otherwise, we are just another tenant. First come, first serve. And we pay the same amount of rent as any other user.”

Hoch says the role of artistic director of all three theaters—a job that entails a monumental amount of programming—is a collaborative effort. In November alone, ten different shows will appear on HTT’s three stages, including the return of the Broadway hit Wicked, concerts by Joan Baez, Brian Wilson, and Leo Kottke for the boomer set, shows by Government Mule, Kings of Leon, Ingrid Michaelson, Matt Nathanson, and Susan Tedeschi for the young and hip crowd, and the annual run of A Don’t Hug Me Christmas Carol, a show that appeals to just about everyone. It’s an eclectic mix that rather ingeniously lures people from every demographic to downtown.

According to Ordway CEO and president Patricia Mitchell, Hoch is doing an exceptional job. “He has three theaters going with wonderfully creative programming,” she demurs. “He has a lot of plates spinning and I don’t hear the sound of any breaking crockery.”

These days, however, it’s not Broadway shows and rock concerts that Hoch is most passionate about. In his heart, he is still a teacher, so it’s the rest of HTT’s programming that really motivates him, including the National Geographic speaker series, the new Literary Legends Series, and a soon-to-be-launched jazz series. Revenue from Broadway shows makes these programs possible, as well as the ever-expanding educational programs, including SpotLight Musical Theatre, which works with twenty-five high schools throughout the year; the Critical View student review program, which pairs student journalists with professional critics; and free student matinees to the National Geographic series and others.

“Those are the programs that make my heart beat fastest,” Hoch admits. Looking to the future, he says he wants to expand the educational programming even further and, if possible, reinvent the Hennepin Stages space, a theater still owned by the city of Minneapolis. “I prevailed upon the city to keep it as an affordable space for small arts,” says Hoch. “My dream is for HTT to own it and use it for stronger arts education programming, utilizing the nearby InterDistrict downtown school.”