Andrea Virgin, chief executive of The Center for Arts and Innovation, listens intently with (l-r) Brian Hickey, the group's attorney; Derek Bellin, its development officer; and board member Glenn Kaufman on Nov. 4 as the City Council considers ending a deal to lease land at Mizner Park for a new performing arts center. Council members instead gave the group time to come up with a plan to raise adequate funds and will reconvene Jan. 7 to gauge their progress. Tim Stepien/Coastal Star
By Mary Hladky
The Boca Raton City Council has moved back from the brink, giving the Center for Arts and Innovation until Jan. 7 to come up with a revised fundraising schedule that the city can accept.
TCAI officials angered city leaders in October when they said that they had fallen far short of meeting city-imposed fundraising requirements, a failure that could have allowed the city to terminate a 2022 project development agreement and the lease of city land at Mizner Park to TCAI.
Council members and City Manager George Brown criticized TCAI officials for not divulging information that they must have had for months. They scheduled a special Nov. 4 meeting to consider killing the deal.
But at that meeting, all the council members said they wanted to give TCAI more time to find a solution and backed away from their earlier demand that the center make up an $18.8 million shortfall by Jan. 7.
“We have to allow you to find your footing again,” said Deputy Mayor Yvette Drucker, adding, “Whatever you come back with has to work for both parties.”
“I think it is the right thing to do to give grace,” said council member Andy Thomson.
Council member Fran Nachlas warned that the council wants full disclosure. “There has to be so much more transparency,” she said.
The council will consider what TCAI submits at its Jan. 13 meeting.
In explaining why they did not meet the fundraising deadline, TCAI officials said they now realize that donors don’t want to be pushed and often need five to seven years to finalize donation commitments.
TCAI needed to raise $50.8 million by Oct. 22, but donations totaled only $32 million. Cash on hand was about $8 million, well below the $12.8 million it had one year ago when the center surpassed its $25.4 million fundraising target by $1 million for that year. In other words, the group collected a net $5.6 million from donors in the last 12 months and had $4.8 million less on hand.
The new cultural arts complex would be built on city-owned land in at the north end of Mizner Park. As now envisioned, the existing amphitheater would be demolished and its function incorporated into a main venue that would be fronted by a large piazza, an education and innovation building, a covered public hall, an elevated building with 360-degree views of the city, and a restaurant and lounge.
TCAI must raise the entire amount needed to build the complex, but the cost is not yet known. City officials want to know that by Dec. 31.
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