The potential partnership would combine the district’s performing arts center project, which was approved by voters in the 2023 bond program, with the city of Frisco’s plans for a performing arts center. The potential partnership was presented during a Prosper ISD board meeting on Oct. 21 and no official plans have been approved.
Frisco officials have discussed the project for years. Frisco voters approved a bond item for a performing arts facility in 2015 and a feasibility study from 2018 ended with Frisco City Council members stating they would wait for a private partner before they began developing the center.
“It’s an exciting possibility,” Deputy Superintendent Greg Bradley said during the board meeting. “This is a potential awesome opportunity for our kids ... there’s no way that we could construct something like this on our own."
All plans are preliminary and nothing is official. District officials hope to sign a letter of intent with Frisco, which would be nonbinding, and pursue the idea further, Bradley said.
Sorting out details
The proposed Frisco-Prosper ISD 218,000-square-foot performing arts center would hold a large hall and a community hall.
The large hall would hold 2,800 seats capable of hosting national touring Broadway shows and large PISD events. The district would have access to national touring and venue management training professionals through the partnership, which would be a benefit to PISD students, Bradley said.
The community hall would be predominantly used by PISD year-round. The space would have flexible seating for approximately 400 seats and would be used for dance, music, cultural events, theater and lecture-style events. The hall could be rented by community groups when not being used by the district, Bradley said.
The center would be located within the 7.5 square miles of PISD and city of Frisco boundaries that overlap. Multiple sites are under evaluation with the expectation that the chosen site will be provided at no cost to PISD through the partnership, Bradley said.
The land use arrangement would ensure the district would not need to pay for any land and allow any PISD-owned properties to remain available for future educational purposes.
The cost
The $350 million price tag would be shared between the district and the city.
- $150 million from the city of Frisco
- $100 million from the Prosper ISD bond
- $100 million from the community through philanthropic efforts
Along with sharing construction costs, a possible advantage of the partnership would be sharing the operational costs as opposed to the district paying for all daily costs, Bradley said.
The background
The Frisco Center for the Arts was almost a Frisco ISD project.
An agreement to form a public-private partnership between the city, FISD and the Hall Group, the entity behind the Frisco mixed-use development Hall Park, was approved in June 2021. However, in August 2022, the city and the school district announced they were parting ways and canceling the joint project plans.
Conversations picked up again in 2023 when council members hired Theatre Project Consultants to create a business plan for the center.
The most recent update came during a Sept. 17 council meeting where council members confirmed they were still interested in the project and were on track to choose a location for the facility in January 2025 now that a Broadway touring partner has shown interest.
Frisco officials have access to $160 million that they could spend without raising property taxes for residents, according to a Sept. 17 Frisco council presentation.
Going forward
Bradley expects Frisco City Council to discuss the partnership at their next meeting, which is scheduled for Nov. 5.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify the plans were discussed at a Prosper ISD board meeting.
