Theater land lease approved
Filed Under Country Curtain | Posted on December 15, 2007
The Central Florida Community College Board of Trustees on Tuesday raised the curtain on Ocala Civic Theatre’s hopes of building a new 650-seat theater by voting unanimously to lease to the theater group 14 acres of land for 99 years at the Appleton Cultural Center.”During this 50th anniversary year, we have the opportunity to be a partner with the Ocala Civic Theatre to help them achieve their dream of building a new theater,” CFCC Board Chairman Frank Stafford said.The vote met with applause from the theater group.”We on the Ocala Civic Theatre board are both humbled and excited about the confidence that the CFCC Board of Trustees has placed in us with the donation of the land in the Appleton Cultural Center,” OCT president Tim Roberson told the college board. “It is our profound intent to be good stewards of this gift and to amplify the college’s investment in our community by creating a landmark that will serve the theater and the citizens of Marion County and Central Florida for decades to come.”The lease, which costs $10, gives CFCC some control over the design of the new theater and allows the college use of the building a couple of days a year, theater executive director Mary Britt said after the vote.It also contains a reverter clause that ensures the theater will have a building “substantially” under construction within 10 years or the property will be returned to the college. The value of the lease is about $2 million.Britt said the theater group will undertake two feasibility studies, one to outline what the programming needs are and another to determine the amount of money needed to be raised to build the new facility. That is expected to take four to six months to complete.”We outgrew our present facility probably eight or nine years ago and have been managing to squeeze more and more things in,” Britt said. “The big challenge will be to raise the money to build the facility.”The Marion Performing Ballet will continue to use the current facility, Britt said. Discussions are under way with the Central Florida Symphony to, perhaps, use the new theater, which would be adjacent to the current one.”They need to see how many seats it’s going to be to see if it will meet their needs,” Britt said of the symphony.As far as raising funds to build the theater, Britt said special events will be conducted, individuals will be approached, and grants will be sought.”It will really finish out that whole center as a center of cultural learning for our area,” CFCC President Charles Dassance said about the new theater.The Appleton Cultural Center, off East Silver Springs Boulevard, is home to the Appleton Museum of Art, the civic theater and the Pioneer Garden Club. The city of Ocala originally owned the center’s 44 acres, but donated the land in the 1980s to accommodate the Appleton Museum of Art, which was a gift from Arthur Appleton, his wife and sister and which houses Appleton’s art collection.The current theater, which is 14,400 square feet, seats 400 and sits on nine leased acres.”We paid off the debt we had within three years of moving into it, and we have had no debt since then,” Britt said about the private, nonprofit theater.Susan Latham Carr may be reached at 352-867-4156 or susan.carr@starbanner.com.
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