Expansion of the Performing Arts Center to Be Studied : Consultants Hired to Review County Needs

Long-term expansion needs for the Orange County Performing Arts Center will be explored in a study commissioned from the Harrison Price Co., Center officials announced Thursday.

The Torrance-based consulting firm, which conducted the original economic feasibility study of the Center in 1980, will undertake a marketing-needs study to determine the demand for a new facility or facilities over a 10-year period.

The study will identify needs of regional groups, survey county residents for programming preferences and recommend additional facilities, among other goals. Preliminary results are expected by Oct. 21, Center officials said.

Cost of the study was put at $62,100.

Original plans for the Center called for a three-theater complex, which evolved into one theater of 3,000 seats and a second of 1,000 seats.

“We have been criticized . . . for not being faithful to the original intent,” Henry T. Segerstrom, the Center’s chairman, said Thursday.

“That is not the case. The commitment is there, but we have to be very careful not to build a mistake. We are committed to a second theater. . . . (But) we are not going to jeopardize our success. . . . We don’t want to create something that is a financial liability in the community.”

Final results of the study are expected in January, 1989.

Other business announced during the board’s quarterly meeting Thursday:

--$3 million has been raised toward an operating reserve fund for next year. The target for this fund is between $4 million and $5 million.

--$300,000 has been raised toward a two-year goal of $5 million in new cash for the Center’s operating endowment.

--The election of Parker S. Kennedy, executive vice president of First American Title Insurance Co., to the board. With Kennedy’s appointment, membership of the board totals 50.