Frisco could be a step closer to a new world-class arts and cultural center pending voter approval of a $160 million bond in May.
The Frisco City Council ordered a special election May 3 for the bond to develop the Frisco Center for the Arts project during its Tuesday evening meeting in a 5-1 vote.
"This is a huge investment for our city and the voters deserve to have that conversation and be a part of that," said Council member Laura Rummel, one of the five votes in favor of the bond measure.
The project budget is estimated to be in the range of $300-340 million. The proposed location for the facility is just south of US-380 and west of the Dallas North Tollway in an overlapping section of Prosper and Frisco ISDs.
The center would offer space for both large- and small-scale local and regional productions, performances, and visual arts exhibitions, according to a project update presented during the Frisco City Council’s Winter Work Session. It would include a 2,800-seat performance hall to accommodate Broadway performances and a 300-400-seat community hall.
The city of Frisco would own the center, with Prosper ISD as an educational partner and Broadway Across America and Broadway Dallas as Broadway presenters. They were still in negotiations with a venue operator as of late January.
Planning for the center began in 2023 as an answer to growing demand for arts and entertainment in Frisco, but the push for an arts center in the city go back much further.
Frisco voters approved a $267.825 million bond in 2015 that included $10 million for a performing arts center. Voters later approved a $691 million Frisco ISD bond in 2018, which set aside $43 million for a visual and performing arts center.
The Frisco Center for the Arts was initially slated to be built in Hall Park and planned as a partnership between the city and Frisco ISD. But both the city and school district announced in 2022 that they would move in different directions for two separate performing arts facilities.
A joint release from the city and school district cited unique priorities and responsibility to stakeholders and cost concerns as reasons they stopped moving forward on the joint project.
Some residents, including City Council candidate Jared Elad, spoke in opposition to the proposed Frisco Center for the Arts, referencing the 2018 bond and questioning why the city needed two arts centers.
"With all with all due respect to my friends in in Prosper, why is the city pursuing a project that primarily benefits Prosper ISD students and families when the city was unable to reach an agreement on a joint venture with Frisco?" Elad said. "It seems to me that this project could have been reworked to serve better the Frisco residents."
Frisco Mayor Jeff Cheney said Frisco ISD's facility would be an "incredible asset" for the community and helps the city move forward with its vision.
Cheney added that just as other school districts share city recourses like The Star in Frisco or Toyota Stadium, he expects that Frisco ISD will also partner with the city to utilize the arts center.
"We fully expect Frisco ISD to come on at some level and a partner in this facility as well, and be able to share in the student opportunities that this project will bring them," Cheney said.
In the years since the pandemic, arts and culture facilities have struggled to regain footing. North Texas was not spared from the pandemic's repercussions, with the Dallas Theater Center laying off staff in 2023 amid low attendance numbers.
But some venues in the suburbs, like the Coppell Arts Center, have seen an increase in attendance and ticket sale revenue.
Now whether Frisco is the next community to see that success will be up to residents — and while council member Brian Livingston said he was in support of the center going to the voters to decide, his "no" vote was to show he was not in support of the project.
"I hear about several of these centers having trouble across the country, across the state," he said. "I have concerns that while we are a fast growing great city, that there may not be the support to achieve the fundraising."
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