BOCA RATON, Fla. — Boca Raton city council listened to a proposal Tuesday to build a new performing arts center at Mizner Park.
City council member Andy Thomson said the center, to be named Boca Raton Center for Arts and Innovation, would be privately financed.
Andrea Virgin, with the Boca Raton Arts District Exploratory Corporation, said her group wants to enter a long-term lease with the city of Boca Raton. The group would invest $126 million dollars to build the center.
"Where the money is coming from, it's a combination of public and private sources. Predominantly private sources, public sources we're looking at federal, state, county," Virgin said.
Thomson said for any partnership to happen he wants the city to have partial control over the amphitheater and its programming.
Thomson adds, "There's not going to be a cash consideration paid to them to do it. If they can raise the money God bless them, go ahead and do it."
Over the summer the city approved a separate project, the Boca Ice and Fine Arts Center, that would be built near the Interstate 95 and Congress Avenue interchange.
