GRANT OFFER SPURS CENTER FUND DRIVE

Bolstered by a James Irvine Foundation grant offer, the Orange County Performing Arts Center has launched a drive to raise the last $5 million needed to pay the $70.7-million cost of the main theater, center officials said Friday.

To date, more than $65 million has been raised in pledges and gifts for constructing the 3,000-seat multipurpose theater that opens in Costa Mesa on Sept. 29 with a performance by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Zubin Mehta conducting.

Under the foundation’s matching-grant terms, the Center has to raise $2 million from other sources to receive $2 million from the San Francisco-based foundation. The foundation’s total donation to the Orange County Center is $5 million so far, the largest amount the foundation has given to any arts organization. Incorporated in 1937, the James Irvine Foundation is a leading benefactor to educational, social services and health care programs, as well as to cultural groups.

“By issuing this challenge, we hope to make Orange County residents and businesses aware that the center is for everyone, and that all contributions, whatever the amount, are needed,” said Dennis Collins, president of the Foundation.

This is the second “challenge” grant awarded the Center this year. On July 8, Center officials reported raising more than $3 million in new donations as a result of a $1-million matching-fund offer from builder William Lyon and his wife, Willa Dean.

The largest donation is $6 million from C.J. Segerstrom & Sons Inc., which also gave a five-acre site in the firm’s South Coast Plaza office and shopping district for the arts complex.

The $70.7-million cost to construct the main theater is $13.4-million higher than the 1983 estimate. Rising interest costs, as well as revised designing and other construction costs have contributed to the increase.

The center board also said it was committed to building a 1,000-seat second theater, estimated to cost about $10 million. However, decisions on completing the design and starting construction on this theater have been shelved until the main hall is opened and paid for, officials said.

In a separate fund-raising effort, the center reported more than $64 million in “deferred commitments” for an endowment fund to underwrite operating, maintenance and programming costs. Donations to this fund are mostly in the form of charitable trusts, life-estate agreements and will bequests, officials said.