Walnut : $1-Million Loan to College

The city’s Improvement Agency has agreed to lend Mt. San Antonio College $1 million to help fund construction of a $15-million Performing Arts Center on campus.

An agreement outlining the terms of the loan has been signed by the city and awaits approval by the college’s board of trustees.

The city won’t hand over the money until Mt. San Antonio College collects $660,000 in donations and has a commitment from the state for 90% of the $13.4 million cost of the project.

The college, which asked the city for financial help earlier this year, will repay the loan by giving the city $1 for every ticket sold for all performances at the 66,700-square-foot center.

Payments will be made quarterly to the city for 20 years--longer if the $1 million has not been paid back by then.

However, the city estimates it could make a $26,000 profit over the 20-year term.

In addition, college officials will allow the city some free use of the arts center.

City officials say their use of those facilities over the next 20 years could be worth about $300,000.

When completed, the center will provide music, drama and dance students with lecture rooms, a 400-seat theater, a 250-seat recital hall, a 150-seat dance studio, offices, a rehearsal lab and a scene shop where props for theatrical productions can be assembled and stored.

The center would triple the amount of space the college has for performing arts. Existing music and drama facilities on campus were found in 1988 to be structurally unsound.

Those buildings, which date from 1957, will be razed next spring to make way for construction.