Cerritos : Ceremony to Mark Start of $41-Million Arts Center

About 400 guests have been invited to a ceremony Saturday to mark the start of construction on the $41-million Community Arts Center being built by Cerritos in its newest redevelopment area alongside the 91 Freeway at Bloomfield Avenue.

The 125,000-square-foot glass and granite edifice in the Towne Center redevelopment site will take three years to complete. Billed as the ultimate in high-tech, multipurpose buildings, the Arts Center will have movable walls, seats and stages so that it can accommodate everything from a senior citizen luncheon to a symphony orchestra performance.

It is the most expensive public building Cerritos has ever built. The contractor is Continental Heller Corp. of Long Beach. The architects are Barton Myers Associates of Los Angeles.

Music, food and entertainment will be featured at the festivities, which will begin at 11:30 a.m. In addition to the Arts Center, the city will dedicate the new interior streets in the Towne Center development and the freeway off-ramp that leads into the area.