The long-time vision of bringing a performing arts center to Frisco is finally coming to fruition.
After almost 15 years of discussion, a performing arts center designed with a "students first focus" will be built in Frisco at the Hall Park Business Center as part of a public-private partnership.
The Frisco ISD Board of Trustees voted to approve a development agreement with developer Craig Hall and his real estate firm, Hall Group Tuesday.
“We’re excited students will have a state-of-the-art place to perform, hone their
skills and grow their passion for arts,” Frisco Mayor Jeff Cheney said in a press release. “An arts facility has been a community dream in the making for more than a decade. We’re so grateful for the leadership and commitment of FISD and
Craig Hall to making such a gathering place a reality.”
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The performing arts center, which will be publicly owned, includes a main performance hall owned by Frisco ISD that seats up to 1,500 people. A smaller venue owned by the city of Frisco will seat a maximum of 300 people.
The city said the total budgeted cost of the project, which also includes a garage and nearby park, is $130 million.
According to a city press release, the city of Frisco and the Frisco Community Development Corporation, which also voted to approve the agreement, are contributing $62 million. Frisco ISD is contributing $43 million coming from voter-approved bonds in 2018.
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Hall and Hall Park is contributing $25 million, $15 million of which is for the park, which Hall will gift to Frisco once park construction is complete, the city said.
The five-acre park will feature open lawn spaces and a children's playground as well as an art pavilion.
“This facility will be a home for thousands of Frisco ISD students who participate in the visual and performing arts,” said Frisco ISD School Board President René Archambault in a press release.
The Frisco City Council unanimously approved the partnership June 1 and approved a refined agreement June 22, which comes after the Star in Frisco resulted from another public-private partnership with the Dallas Cowboys in 2016.
Design for the project is slated to begin Jan. 3, 2022, according to the agreement.
In 2011, the city of Frisco pulled out of a joint arts hall project with Plano and Allen after voters voted against funding the now-defunct project, the Dallas Morning News reported.
