An update on the arts facility, which would bring Broadway, community and educational spaces underneath one roof, was presented to Frisco City Council members during a Jan. 31 winter work session.
The proposed site spans roughly 40 acres of land at the corner of Dallas Parkway and US 380. It is currently owned by the Frisco Economic Development Corporation and within the overlapping boundaries of the city of Frisco and Prosper ISD.
Allison Baker, a director at Turner Townsend & Heery and member of the Frisco Center for the Arts project management team, said she expects the facility itself would take up 6 acres of the EDC land.
The proposed site is also immediately adjacent to the incoming Firefly Park mixed-use development and a movie theatre.
“It’s a key corner,” Mayor Jeff Cheney said. “Another project like this, just further cements and guarantees that as that quarter is built out over the next 20 years that the higher value projects are going to want to be on the south side of 380 just for proximity of these types of amenities.”
The project
Funding for the project is currently expected to cost between $300 million-$340 million and can be broken up like a puzzle, Buhler said.
- Individual gifts: estimated $50 million-$60 million
- Corporate gifts: estimated $50 million-60 million
- Prosper ISD contribution: $100 million
- Frisco funding: not to exceed $160 million
Theatre Projects Inc. and Keen Independent, another company involved in what Buhler said was the team of experts working on the project, have been involved in the Frisco Center for the Arts Project since the first major work session presentation in 2023.
The “not to exceed” $160 million cost is subject to voter approval and will be included on Frisco voters’ May 3 ballot in the form of two items:
- Asking voters to authorize the EDC to use its funds for a Community Development Corporation project
- Asking voters to approve using those up to $160 million of those EDC funds for the Frisco Center for the Arts
The $160 million would come from sales tax revenue, not property taxes.
- $45 million from the CDC
- $75 million from the EDC
- $40 million from Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone 1
The setup
Members of PISD’s board of trustees discussed partnering with the city of Frisco for the performing arts center in October. The partnership would combine the district’s performing arts center, which was approved by voters in the 2023 bond program, with the city of Frisco’s plans. No official plans have been approved by the district.
PISD students would have access to the facility not just for student performances but to take advantage of learning various production roles first-hand. Those "observational spaces” will be kept in mind during construction and built into the facility, said Paul McGinley, a theatre consultant with Theatre Projects.
A letter of intent between Frisco and Broadway Across America was also approved in October.
What comes next
The Jan. 31 work session was one of several major decision deadlines for city officials to confirm they were interested in continuing with the project. The next will come in July, shortly after the May 3 election.
“We're four years into this process, if not longer, and every step of the way council's given the direction to get us to today, which is a recommendation of how we can potentially get this project to the finish line,” Cheney said.
