Temecula Entertainment Center Gets OK : Election: The $60-million, nostalgia-themed project wins by 46 votes.

Voters have approved a $60-million, nostalgia-themed performing arts, rodeo and entertainment center by a margin of 46 votes out of 8,146 cast, election officials said Thursday.

Broadway producer-turned-developer Zev Buffman said that despite the slim margin, “a win is a win. Super Bowls can be won by one point.”

He said most of the complex--to be built in Temecula’s historic Old Town by the Irvine-based Fluor Daniel construction and engineering firm--will open in August, 1996.

A 2,200-seat opera house will open in December of that year with “The Nutcracker,” he said.

Buffman’s 30-year Broadway career included recruiting Elizabeth Taylor for his 1982 revival of “The Little Foxes” and reuniting Taylor and Richard Burton in 1984 for “Private Lives.” While his productions have received 27 Tony award nominations, he called his proposed Old Town Entertainment Center the “project of my life.”

He has invested nearly $1 million toward the project, and moved from Aspen, Colo., to Temecula to oversee it. But he watched it almost slip through his fingers with an aggressive, grass-roots opposition movement.

The opponents argued that the complex would bring crime, traffic and pollution to Temecula and upset the town’s quiet ambience. But Buffman’s supporters--including the City Council and virtually every civic organization in town--said the project would bring jobs and millions of dollars to the local economy.

Besides the opera house, the project will feature 900-seat and 600-seat cabarets, two virtual reality pavilions, a 4,800-seat outdoor arena for rodeos and a revival of Buffalo Bill’s historic Wild West Show, and street entertainers.

Buffman said the cultural theme of the center would change every month or so, highlighting a different decade of the 20th Century with apropos Broadway shows, music, costuming and art. Buffman has built a string of performing arts centers and outdoor amphitheaters nationwide in recent years--including, most recently, the Glen Helen Blockbuster Pavilion near San Bernardino.