EDMONDS – The Edmonds Center for the Arts appears ready to move from concept to concert hall.
After three years of preparatory work and fundraising, a date to begin building is set: Sept. 16.
“We’re excited to finally get going. It’s been a long time and a lot of work and it’s fun to finally see it here,” said Terry Vehrs, president of the board of the Edmonds Public Facilities District, which is managing the project.
The $18.5 million plan involves tearing out and rebuilding much of the interior of the former Puget Sound Christian College building at 401 Fourth Ave. N.
The result will be a 700-seat, state-of-the-art performance hall. Work is expected to be done by October 2006.
The PFD bought the college building, part of which was built in 1909 as the original Edmonds High School, in 2002 for $4 million. The original plan was to start construction in mid-2003 and finish this year.
Although the PFD received money for the project from a variety of public and private sources, it remains $4 million short of the total needed. In June, the city agreed to back a loan of up to $7 million in case the PFD needs it.
“We can borrow against it for what we need to get started,” Vehrs said. “We wanted to get as much of the money in as possible” before beginning construction, he said.
The PFD will keep trying to raise the remaining $4 million through private contributions, Vehrs said.
“The $64,000 question is when the fundraising will be completed,” said Dan Clements, Edmonds finance director.
The city and the PFD agree the loan was a way to get the project started before inflation continued to run the costs up. The original estimate was $16 million.
“We were fighting the escalating cost battle,” Vehrs said.
The work will be done by Sellen Construction of Seattle.
In addition to refurbishing the auditorium, which was added to the building in 1939, work will involve creating a new entryway and lobby, rebuilding the interior to create support facilities and tearing down other buildings to make room for parking and a meeting room-banquet hall. Meeting rooms upstairs will be available for community use.
A building at the north end will be replaced with a parking structure and meeting room.
Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.
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