The Center for Arts and Innovation had planned to replace Mizner Park's amphitheater and surrounding area with a performing arts complex, but it was not able to meet the fundraising commitments it had made with Boca Raton to be able to use the city-owned property. Rendering provided
By Mary Hladky
The Center for Arts and Innovation has terminated its deal with Boca Raton that would have brought a multimillion-dollar performing arts complex to Mizner Park.
Center officials announced their decision on Jan. 8 after notifying City Manager George Brown by letter.
“The Center made this decision to provide necessary time, space, and opportunity for both parties to potentially identify whether a new agreement can be reached in the future, one with new terms that can be agreeable to both the Center and the city,” officials said in their announcement. “At the same time, this allows the Center to begin analyzing alternative sites to ensure its transformative vision becomes a reality.”
In her letter to Brown, TCAI chief executive Andrea Virgin cited issues that led to the deal termination, including a fundraising requirement that proved unrealistically ambitious and deal terms that did not allow it to raise money from the state, county and other public agencies.
While Virgin did not close the door completely to building the complex on city-owned land in Mizner Park, she indicated doing so might be impossible.
“While we remain optimistic and hopeful about the potential to develop a new agreement that secures the Center’s home in downtown Boca, we recognize that the Center and Boca Raton may necessarily need to explore alternatives,” she wrote.
In a prepared statement, Mayor Scott Singer did not indicate that he would try to resurrect the deal between the city and the center.
“As Boca Raton is a haven for arts and culture, the City took pride in making the largest financial commitment for the bold vision for the Center for Arts and Innovation through the generous agreement for them to use publicly owned, prime downtown real estate,” Singer said. “Unfortunately, the Center did not reach the financial milestones that they had pledged to meet by the timeline needed for our residents. We appreciate their continuing efforts to enhance culture as they explore additional opportunities, as well as the commitment of many Boca Raton residents to our community's broad philanthropic pursuits.”
The deal termination comes just six days before the City Council was to consider Virgin’s November proposal to change its development agreement with the city that would push back its fundraising deadlines.
That proposal was made after Virgin stunned and angered City Council members in October when she told them that TCAI had fallen far short of its city-imposed fundraising requirements.
“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 at the time. “It seems to me that the center must have known the funds would not be met many months before now.”
TCAI met its fundraising requirements in 2023, but it needed to raise a total of $50.8 million by October. However, donations totaled only $32 million.
The group's proposed new fundraising deadlines almost certainly would have been a non-starter for the city. Center officials would not need to raise 100% of the project’s cost until 2032 when the center’s construction was to be completed.
The now-terminated deal with the city required TCAI to raise 75% of the project’s hard construction costs within three years.
The estimated cost was $101.6 million, but that is an imprecise figure because TCAI has not provided a project cost.
In explaining the fundraising shortfall, Virgin said that she had not realized that donors need five to seven years to finalize donation commitments. Had she known that, Virgin said she would have negotiated a different deal with the city.
The project, designed by the renowned architectural firm Renzo Piano Building Workshop, would have eliminated the city’s amphitheater. Its functions would have been included in a new main venue.
The project would have had a large piazza, a smaller theater, an education and innovation building, restaurant, lounge and a small building that would jut into the sky and offer 360-degree city views.
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