Arts Center Given Gift of $40 Million

The Orange County Performing Arts Center has landed a $40-million gift, the cornerstone of a $200-million campaign to expand it from a building with one large hall to a complex with three major stages.

Center officials said Wednesday they will identify the donor and reveal the name of the expansion wing at a news conference this morning in a lobby of the existing, 3,000-seat Segerstrom Hall in Costa Mesa.

The gift is one of the largest donations in Orange County history. It will bring to $65 million the amount raised so far for the project--a 2,000-seat concert hall and a 500-seat multipurpose theater across the street from the center, with a plaza connecting the two.

Some sources cited Henry Segerstrom, the developer and South Coast Plaza shopping center magnate who has been the center’s leading benefactor to date, as the new mega-donor.

Segerstrom and his family donated six acres valued at $16 million for the expansion. The Segerstroms also donated the land for the existing performing arts center, which opened in 1986, and $6 million to kick-start its $73.4-million construction campaign.