Bank of America to Give $5 Million for Disney Hall

Bank of America is expected to announce today a gift of $5 million to Walt Disney Concert Hall, sources close to the project said Tuesday.

The gift is the bank’s largest single charitable donation and will be announced along with an unrelated $5 million in smaller gifts for economic development and education initiatives for Los Angeles and surrounding communities.

This latest in a string of recent gifts of $5 million or more to the Disney Hall project brings the fund-raising total for new gifts to $57.3 million, with $112.7 million still needed to construct the hall. The hall’s total cost was estimated at $265 million in 1995, although the project’s volunteer leaders, SunAmerica chairman and chief executive Eli Broad and Mayor Richard Riordan, say the cost will be closer to $220 million.

Bank of America’s gift follows a March 10 donation of $15 million from Ralphs/Food 4 Less Foundation and Ron Burkle, one of its executives. That gift allowed project leaders to beat a June 30 deadline for $52.3 million imposed by Los Angeles County, owner of the land on which the hall will be built at 1st Street and Grand Avenue. Planned as the new home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Music Center, the project was halted in 1995 after spiraling cost estimates.

The Ralphs/Food 4 Less donation followed a $5-million gift from Times Mirror Foundation (affiliated with Times Mirror Co., parent company of The Times); personal gifts of $5 million each from Broad and Riordan; $10 million from the Arco Foundation, a $7.5 million anonymous gift and other smaller gifts.

Other Bank of America gifts to be announced include $1 million for the construction of child-care facilities; $1 million for permanent housing for the homeless and $1 million to support elementary school class-size reduction through teacher education at USC’s School of Education.

Smaller amounts will also be distributed, including $200,000 to the Watts-Willowbrook Boys and Girls Club; $150,000 to the Puente Learning Center; $100,000 to Chrysalis, a job opportunities program; and $250,000 in small grants to yet-to-be-named grass-roots nonprofits.

In 1994 and 1995, Bank of America and its charitable foundation made annual contributions of about $4.2 million to charitable causes.