The proposed center would include open space that provides entertainment opportunities. Rendering provided
Council to consider terminating deal
By Mary Hladky
The Center for Arts and Innovation has fallen far short of meeting its fundraising requirements, stunning Boca Raton officials and imperiling city support for the ambitious cultural arts center planned for Mizner Park.
As a result, the City Council, sitting as the Community Redevelopment Agency, will meet on Nov. 4 to consider terminating a 2022 project development agreement and the lease of city land to TCAI.
A fast-moving series of events that led to this point started on Oct. 21 when TCAI chief executive Andrea Virgin angered and frustrated council members and City Manager George
Brown when she told them that she would not raise the required amount by the next day’s deadline.
The center needed to raise about $50.8 million but donations totaled only $32 million. Furthermore, the amount of cash on hand stood at about $8 million, below the $12.8 million the center had one year ago when it issued its first fundraising report, which showed the center had met fundraising targets for that year.
Some council members accused Virgin of withholding information she must have had months earlier even as she led them to believe that all was well.
Their concerns were elevated when they learned Virgin had paused fundraising in September, an apparent sign that she knew she would not meet the targets.
“I was quite frankly shocked” by the shortfall, said Mayor Scott Singer.
“I am a little disappointed,” said Deputy Mayor Yvette Drucker. “To me the most important thing is, give me the facts, give me the truth. … When that fails, it becomes a real challenge to support a project.”
Council member Fran Nachlas faulted Virgin for not alerting the council much earlier and for meeting with her only two times in the last two years. “I feel I am being kept in the dark,” she said.
But the harshest critique came from Brown, who, while serving as deputy city manager, negotiated with center officials for two years to hammer out an agreement that allowed
TCAI to be built on city-owned land at the north end of Mizner Park.
That deal gave the center three years to raise 75% of the project’s hard construction costs and required its officials to also raise money for reserve and endowment funds and to meet other deadlines.
Brown said he met with center officials in early October and was not told of a likely funding shortfall.
“It was frankly very disturbing to me the way this has gone down, finding out really at the very last minute that the funding was not there,” Brown said. “It seems to me that the center must have known the funds would not be met many months before now.
“I am just disturbed by a lack of accountability, a lack of transparency, a lack of forthrightness and in this circumstance a lack of humility.”
Chief executive explains
In an interview with The Coastal Star, Virgin denied withholding information. “We gave the city information as soon as it was available to us,” she said.
She also denied making unequivocal promises that the fundraising target would be met, saying she told council members in September that she was “cautiously optimistic” about that.
In explaining to the council why fundraising has slowed, Virgin said she and other center officials have learned that donors “don’t appreciate being rushed into commitment,” and that pushing them reduces their trust and prompts them to lower their donation amounts.
“They want to give when they are ready,” she said, later adding, “We can’t control how donors make their decisions.”
Had she understood at the outset that donors can need five to seven years to finalize donation commitments, Virgin said she would have tried to negotiate a deal with the city allowing for that.
“This is not a setback and this is not a result of anyone’s missteps,” she said. “It is merely a reflection on what we have learned from our donors.”
Since center officials have not met the donation requirements, the city could terminate its deal with TCAI. But council members stopped short of that, instead giving Virgin until Jan. 7 to raise the money.
Council members also conditionally approved project plans that have been revised since TCAI selected renowned architectural firm Renzo Piano Building Workshop to create a final design. Had they not done so by Oct. 22, both the city and TCAI had the right to terminate the project development agreement and the lease of Mizner Park land.
Some potential donors wanted the project plans approved before they made a commitment. The approval also would allow TCAI to move ahead with project planning.
Council members relented a bit on demanding that Virgin tell them immediately the actual cost of building TCAI and submitting a budget. The most recent budget estimate was $140 million, but that was made well before Renzo Piano started work on a new design. Virgin was told to do so by Dec. 31.
Since then, however, TCAI rejected the extension to Jan. 7 to raise the money, saying in an Oct. 25 letter that it will not sign an agreement “that it knows cannot be achieved.”
Instead, TCAI proposed renegotiating the development agreement to revise fundraising deadlines and said it would submit its detailed proposal by Nov. 25.
But in an Oct. 28 letter to council members, Brown said that they had rejected the renegotiation during their previous meeting.
He also said that TCAI now is not in compliance with the fundraising deadline and that the council’s approval of the design plans no longer is in effect.
A TCAI official has since said that the organization wants to discuss new revisions to the development agreement on Nov. 4.
While all these matters that could doom the deal are expected to be revisited at that meeting, one possible project roadblock raised in September has been put to rest for now.
The council at the time delayed its vote on the new project design until a consultant was hired to evaluate the project’s feasibility.
The preliminary report by CBRE, a global real estate services and investment company, identified the same concerns raised by city staff about matters such as whether it was possible to build an underground parking garage at a reasonable cost in that location and the adequacy of a canopy over an outdoor piazza.
Yet the report concluded the project design “is an impactful and thoughtful concept package” and that the council can approve it, with any problems addressed before construction begins.
As now envisioned, the existing amphitheater would be demolished and its function incorporated into a main venue that would be fronted by the 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.
Supporters speak up
The missed fundraising deadline did not appear to dampen the enthusiasm of project supporters who urged the council on Oct. 21 to stay the course so that TCAI becomes reality.
Those asking for continued city support included state Rep. Mike Caruso, R-West Palm Beach; state Sen. Tina Polsky, D-Boca Raton; Irvin Lippman, executive director of the Boca Raton Museum of Art; Kelly Smallridge, president and CEO of the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County; and former Boca Raton Deputy Mayor Andrea O’Rourke.
“Today I ask you to be bold, to take the actions necessary to get this project done,” Caruso said.
“I want to make this happen,” Polsky said.
O’Rourke asked the council to “show the center some grace … please don’t let this golden opportunity slip away.”
Despite the criticisms and hurdles, Virgin has never wavered from voicing optimism that any problems can be resolved and TCAI will be built.
“Our commitment to finding a solution remains unwavering,” she told the council, adding, “I am confident as ever that all this can be accomplished.”
But she also has left open the door to moving ahead without city land or support.
“This project will happen,” she told The Coastal Star. “There is no doubt about that. It is not contingent on this agreement with the city of Boca Raton.”
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