Thanks to a gift from the Dr. Phillips Charities, the arts complex planned for downtown will be the Dr. P. Phillips Orlando Performing Arts Center.
The $25 million from the Orlando-based charitable group boosts the amount raised privately for the center to $45.5 million -- almost halfway toward the stated goal of $100 million.
"We're just hardly breathing, we're so excited," said Rita Bornstein, president emerita of Rollins College and chair of the center's fundraising committee.
"I can't think of a better fit -- the name of this legendary pioneer on this forward-looking facility."
Dr. Phillips Charities, the umbrella name for the Dr. P. Phillips Foundation and Dr. Phillips Inc., is named for Philip Phillips, better known as Doc, a native of Memphis, Tenn., who came to Central Florida in 1894 and became the owner of a citrus empire.
"We're so proud to have them be the naming entity because they have such a great reputation in Central Florida for doing things well and doing them right," said Jim Pugh, president of the Orlando Performing Arts Center board.
Jim Hinson, president of Dr. Phillips Inc. and the Dr. P. Phillips Foundation, said it was the Phillips family's love for the performing arts that brought the gift about. The family used to entertain artists in its house on Lucerne Circle, he said. Doc Phillips loved music, his wife, Della, was an accomplished pianist, and their son Howard was a big opera fan.
"We think it's a huge opportunity for us," Hinson said. "To preserve the name of the Phillips family...it's just something that fits very well."
The project, planned for a 9-acre site across Orange Avenue from City Hall, is projected by city staffers to cost about $389 million. Of that amount, about $314 million would come from a variety of public sources, including county tourist-tax revenues, state sales-tax revenues and downtown-Orlando property taxes.
The OPAC board's commitment to raise $100 million includes $25 million for an endowment that, when invested, would raise funds to help pay for the center's operations.
The Phillips gift means a major shot in the arm for OPAC's fundraising efforts, which began publicly in November. The group already has announced a $10 million gift from the Orlando Magic; $7.5 million from Pugh and his wife, Alexis; and $1 million each from Harriett Lake, Richard Kessler and Bank of America.
"I think it's dazzling," said Larry Goldman, president of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark and a frequent consultant on the Orlando project. "There isn't an arts center in the country in that stage of their development that isn't green with envy. This is a booster rocket for OPAC."
A joint effort of the private OPAC organization, the city of Orlando and Orange County, the project depends on continuing cooperation among the three entities. The city and county are drawing up an "interlocal" agreement to specify each government's role in the process.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty were enthusiastic about the major gift.
"That certainly adds to the momentum," Dyer said. "I think people now believe we're going to build a performing-arts center, and they're lining up to support it."
Crotty called the gift "eye-popping," and he praised the fact that it comes from a local organization.
"It speaks a lot of the local commitment," he said. "We didn't go to Wall Street for this gift. That's an exclamation point that we can do it locally."
Bornstein of the fundraising committee said she hoped the Dr. Phillips contribution would spur others to step up and get their names on the list.
"I think people are going to want to participate early because they want the opportunity to name the important halls," she said. The arts center is expected to contain a 2,800-seat hall for Broadway tours and other amplified entertainment as well as an 1,800-seat hall for acoustical performances such as the symphony, opera and ballet, and a 300-seat theater.
Indeed, the OPAC board's Pugh said he expects several additional gifts soon.
"We're meeting with a couple of other prospects," he said. "We will be well over $50 million by the end of the year."
Here are the gifts that Orlando Performing Arts Center has received so far toward the $100 million it hopes to raise from private sources:
- Dr. Phillips Charities.....$25 million
- Orlando Magic..............$10 million
- Jim and Alexis Pugh.......$7.5 million
- Richard Kessler.............$1 million
- Harriett Lake...............$1 million
- Bank of America.............$1 million
Total so far.............$45.5 million
Legendary Central Florida philanthropist Dr. Philip Phillips, better known as Doc, was a native of Memphis, Tenn., who came to Central Florida in 1894 with plans to become a cattle rancher. Instead he became a citrus baron, whose groves eventually spanned a half-dozen counties. He has long been credited as the first to convince doctors that drinking orange juice was healthy and the first to successfully can it. The family foundation helped fund the Orlando Science Center and Florida Symphony Orchestra (forerunner to the Orlando Philharmonic) and supported the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, among other local organizations.< .
Dr. Phillips Charities is a combination of two separate nonprofit groups: Dr. Phillips Inc., which owns and leases commercial properties in Central Florida, and the Dr. P. Phillips Foundation, which supports charitable causes in the area.
Cultural groups the charities have supported in recent years include the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orlando Museum of Art, the Orlando Ballet, the Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival and the Orange County Regional History Center.
Other gifts have included $1 million to the University of Central Florida (as part of a promised $2.5 million), $250,000 to Rollins College, $250,000 to the Jewish Community Center and millions more to hospitals, educational institutions, social services and other groups.
The Dr. Phillips Center for Performing Arts on Lake Ivanhoe -- a converted power plant that serves as office and rehearsal space for the Orlando Opera and the Orlando Ballet -- received its name because of a $1 million grant from the Dr. P. Phillips Foundation in 1989.