Mission Viejo City Council members are moving forward with plans to build a 300-seat performing arts theater — yet they’re unsure just where it will go and exactly how much it would cost.
Officials still need to find a building for the theater, in a city known for its athletics, especially its decades-long history of high-level swim and dive athletes in addition to the more than 100 Olympians that have trained in the city.
City officials are considering purchasing a building in the city’s Village Center to repurpose into a theater. Councilmembers have set their sights on a CVS building across the street from City Hall — it’s already listed for sale for $12.8 million with a lease set to expire in 2032.
Preliminary data estimates show it would cost the city between $8 and $12 million to turn the building into a community performing arts theater, but that isn’t counting the price of purchasing the building itself.
There’s still a long way to go until anyone can get on stage in the new facility.
A year ago, the city issued a $100,000 agreement with a theater consulting firm to explore different options for the potential project. That report found that building a large theater from scratch, based on community feedback and market analysis, would cost over $113 million.
City staff is instead considering purchasing an existing building in the Village Center to create a smaller theater and cut down on construction costs.
At the council’s March 26 meeting, council members took different actions to jumpstart this process.
The council voted 4-1 to direct the city manager to begin negotiations with the CVS property owner and the owner of a Big Lots property directly next door — which city staff said could be on the market soon — to see if Mission Viejo would be able to purchase one or both of those properties.
Councilmember Cynthia Vasquez voted against that motion because she said the city should instead put the theater in the city-owned Stein Mart building, which could cut down even more costs since the city has already purchased that building.
[Read: Mission Viejo Moves Ahead With Stein Mart Purchase, Locking In Millions Of Bond Debt]
The council also unanimously voted to direct staff to search for a contractor to complete a fundraising feasibility study and explore funding avenues for the city to pay for the project.
Some public commenters at the March 26 meeting were concerned that the council was discussing this project without first knowing how they would pay for it.
“The first step is, ‘Do we want a theater?’ It sounds like yes, we would love to have a theater,” Mission Viejo resident Cathy Palmer said during the meeting. “The second step is, ‘How do we fund it?’ not ‘Let’s buy a building and make plans for it and then figure out how to pay for it.’”
Councilmember Bob Ruesch said the only way to find out cost estimates is to take the first step.
“The concerns of ‘Can we afford it?’ — there’s only one way to find out, and that’s to pass the resolution to find out what it costs,” Ruesch said.
Councilmember Wendy Bucknum emphasized that the council isn’t making any final decisions until they see more information about cost.
“We’ve heard that people want to have a place where they can have performing arts,” Bucknum said. “We spent money on a study, which did provide us that good information, and it’s valuable. So now we have something to base some decisions on. Now we have to explore financial viability.”
John Huntington, a 38-year Mission Viejo resident and music teacher at Saddleback College, emphasized how his students and other local performers need more resources.
“This facility would add a bridge for young performers between their education and their pursuits of the professional world,” Huntington said at the meeting.
“We’ve been a little quieter — the performing arts — than the athletes,” he finished. “We need this space.”
The council meets next on April 9 at 5 p.m.
Angelina Hicks is a Voice of OC Tracy Wood Reporting Fellow. Contact her at ahicks@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @angelinahicks13.
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