Disney Hall Seeks Funds as Deadlines Draw Closer

Just over six months remain until July 1, 1997--when fund-raisers for the stalled Walt Disney Concert Hall must come up with donations of at least $50 million to meet a deadline laid down by Los Angeles County.

The $50 million is the first benchmark toward closing the whopping $150-million funding gap faced by the project, which is slated to occupy land atop a $100-million underground parking garage, already constructed at Los Angeles County expense at the corner of 1st Street and Grand Avenue.

While rumors abound about donor prospects, Music Center Chairwoman Andrea Van de Kamp said that while “five or six” major donors have shown positive response to her solicitations, no formal agreements have been reached, and no major donor has stepped forward publicly.

The Parsons Foundation pledged $2 million in early 1995, and the Times Mirror Foundation is finalizing a five-year, $5-million donation, but the much-needed mega-donors remain elusive.

This summer, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and millionaire developer Eli Broad joined the fund-raising effort, and Broad said at a recent Music Center board meeting that he intended to raise $100 million by July 1. A spokeswoman for Broad said he has committed to no personal donations. According to a spokeswoman for Riordan, neither has the mayor, although she said Riordan--a venture capitalist with personal assets worth an estimated $100 million--might make a personal donation “at an appropriate time.”

Broad’s representative would not comment on whether he has reached informal agreements with any major donors.

Despite the looming deadline, there are no apparent signs of panic from Disney Hall officials, who remain confident that the fund-raising effort launched in June will result in just such a donor well within the county benchmark requirements. “I would say it’s going to be in the not-too-distant future,” Van de Kamp said.

Nor do county officials seem overly concerned, even though they threatened to scuttle the project in early 1995 because of construction delays and spiraling cost estimates. But the county granted an extension after requesting and receiving a fund-raising plan for the estimated $264.9 million needed to build the hall.

That plan requires Disney Hall leaders to meet these fund-raising goals: July 1, 1997, $52 million; December 1997, $89 million; December 1998, $142 million.

While then-county Chief Administrative Officer Sally Reed called those deadlines absolute, her successor, David Janssen, said recently he had attended too few sessions regarding Disney Hall to offer a fair response on whether the county would consider further extensions. Janssen added he is unaware of any alternative plans for the land.

“On July 1 of next year, [the county] will start paying a debt service on the garage, $4 million, that will generate a rethinking of what’s going on,” Janssen said. “I’m an eternal optimist--from what I can tell, the project would be a great asset to Los Angeles. It’s a matter of finding the first person to step forward toward a significant contribution. There are certainly plenty of people that have money--it’s a matter of hitting the right person at the right time.”

Nicholas T. Goldsborough, chief operating officer of the Music Center--where Disney Hall would join the Ahmanson Theatre, Mark Taper Forum and Dorothy Chandler Pavilion as the newest tenant on Bunker Hill--said Disney Hall fund-raisers expect not only to come up with a $50-million donor by July 1, but also strive to have $100 million pledged by that date in order to proceed with a planned construction start date of June 1998. If construction begins on schedule, the hall will be completed in 2001.

“In January, we may be able to give more of a story on the progress that we’re making,” Goldsborough said in a recent interview. “We’ve been moving ahead, lining up the leadership and coming up with a very tight business plan for the [fund-raising] campaign that is being firmed up right now. We’ve been pretty clear about what we’ve been doing, and we’re really quite happy with the schedule.”

Goldsborough, who heads up the Music Center Inc. Unified Fund drive, which supports the center’s resident companies and its education division, said Music Center Inc. will play a greater role in the fund-raising effort than it has in the past, at the request of Harry Hufford, chief executive of the Disney Hall oversight committee, which is known as “Disney 1.” While Van de Kamp and Goldsborough will become more involved in the effort, Disney 1 maintains the financial responsibility for Disney Hall.

Formerly, Music Center Inc. stayed out of the Disney Hall fund-raising picture to concentrate on its own struggling fund-raising efforts. Music Center Inc. missed its 1995-96 fund-raising goal of $9.6 million by $1.5 million. But Goldsborough said fund-raising for the 1996-97 goal of $9 million is on track, so the Music Center can lend an unofficial hand to Disney Hall.

In another development, Suzanne Marx, hired by Walt Disney’s daughter Diane Disney Miller as vice president of development for the concert hall fund-raising effort, will leave the post Jan. 1. Marx was hired in early 1994 to represent the Disney family as part of Miller’s personal effort to revive the project, which has faced troubles since it was initiated by a $50-million gift from Walt Disney’s widow, Lillian, in 1987. Miller said Marx, whom she described as “one of my oldest friends,” is leaving because the family is stepping back from active involvement in fund-raising. Marx’s position is being eliminated.

“She’s really made a difference, but that is as far as we [the Disney family] can go now--it’s been two years, we’ve done all we can do,” she said. “I think the interest has been generated.” Marx, formerly finance director for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, could not be reached for comment.

Goldsborough said approximately 30 individuals, corporations and foundations have been approached with direct solicitations or briefing meetings expected to lead to solicitations. “These are not casual meetings,” he said. Goldsborough added that a larger list of potential givers includes the board members of Music Center Inc. and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, business leaders, and various studios and entertainment companies. The Walt Disney Co. is on the list for solicitation along with other studios, Goldsborough said.

Goldsborough said the next 18 months represent crucial phases of fund-raising. “All of our [building cost] estimates are based on a June 1998 construction start-up; this time next year, we’ve got to have more than $90 million. Clearly, in 1997 we’ve got to do it.

“I think there has been more emphasis on discussions with individuals at this point; as in any campaign, it is individual philanthropy that makes the difference,” Goldsborough added. “And if we have one or two lead corporate gifts, how can we use those gifts to leverage corporate gifts, in Los Angeles and beyond California? Those are all the questions we’re sorting out right now. And they are exciting questions.”