Boca Raton’s Center for Arts and Innovation falls behind on its fundraising goals

Organizers revealed Monday that Boca Raton’s Center for Arts and Innovation — a planned arts-oriented destination featuring many attractions — is millions of dollars behind in fundraising, drawing criticism from city officials.

The center, which is intended to be an extensive performing arts center at the north end of Mizner Park, was supposed to have raised more than $50 million by now, in order to be on track, according to city documents.

But during a public meeting on Monday afternoon, CEO Andrea Virgin told City Council members that about $32 million has been raised in “documented pledges” from donors, with about $8 million of that in “cash-on-hand” funds.

Virgin said “key donors” needed more time, explaining why the fundraising goal hadn’t been met. “This is not a setback, and this is not a result of anyone’s missteps,” she said. “It is merely a reflection on what we have learned from our donors.”

As Virgin has provided period updates on the center — such as the unveiling of the center’s design plans in April and the architect announcement in September of 2023 — discussions of finances have been kept confidential. So Monday’s meeting was a rather rare public discussion of specific finances.

The frustration was palpable. Deputy Mayor Yvette Drucker called out Virgin for telling city officials that the center’s fundraising was “on target.”

“I’m disappointed because I did not have the facts,” Drucker said.

Council member Marc Wigder called the update a “significant departure.”

“There’s been really not a lot of correspondence and not a lot of transparency from the center,” Wigder said.

Virgin said donors don’t appreciate being rushed, and some expressed a desire for further approval before feeling comfortable with giving funds.

“We are doing everything we possibly can to move as fast as we can,” she said. “One thing I cannot control, and they say to ‘control the controllables,’ with the way that donors make their decisions, I simply can only relate the message that they have to share.”

Earlier in the October, Virgin had presented “landlord plans” to city officials, as Boca Raton serves as the center’s landlord. Wary of perceived operational issues with the plans, council members postponed landlord-plan approval and decided to seek an outside consultant to further vet the project.

Despite the center’s hurdles, several people, including state Rep. Mike Caruso and Sen. Tina Polsky, came forward on Monday in support of the center, citing Boca Raton’s need for an arts-focused hub.

“A city without the arts is just a bunch of concrete buildings,” Caruso said during Monday’s meeting.

Though the agreement between the city and the center allows for the city to terminate the center’s use of the land at Mizner Park because it did not meet the fundraising goals, City Council members expressed a desire to move forward with the project. They didn’t want to let the money and time invested into the project go to waste.

Council members voted 4-1 to allow the center’s team an extension until Jan. 7 to meet the fundraising goals. If all else goes as planned, Virgin said the plan would be set for the groundbreaking to begin in 2028.

City Manager George Brown called the process “very disturbing.”

“I’m just disturbed by a lack of accountability, a lack of transparency, a lack of forthrightness and, in this circumstance, a lack of humility,” he said.