‘Time to act is now’: What’s next for $40M performing arts center plans in Rock Hill
As holiday season approaches, Todd Leahy is on the lookout for game-changing gifts. Gifts that will lead to a new present for all of Rock Hill, once the city opens it.
Leahy is executive director of The Arts Center at Fountain Park, a planned $40 million performing arts center downtown.
“Our goal, our vision,” he said, “is to be the premier destination for performing arts in this region in an active community space, that will inspire generations to come.”
Leahy’s group has a site. They have schematics. They have a working schedule that could have the 520-seat performing arts center operational by the 2026 holiday season.
“Ideally we would love to have shovels in the ground by the end of 2024,” Leahy said.
The biggest factor for when the new arts center will open, Leahy said, is the high-level “game-changing gifts” his group needs to secure as it moves from a quieter phase this year to a more public one in 2024. Leahy told the Rock Hill Economic Development Corporation board at its October meeting the arts center likely will receive state funding and individual support, but it also will rely on area business.
“These things do not happen without contributions from the business community,” Leahy said.
He said it’s too early to say what state funding might be available for the project, and didn’t note specific fundraising targets with the economic development group.
Arts Center at Fountain Park
Stand on the southern end of Fountain Park and look across Black Street. Properties there bounded by Black, Saluda Street, Elizabeth Lane and Flint Street make a block across from and about the size of Fountain Park itself. A smaller piece beyond Flint tapers to the intersection of Saluda and Elizabeth.
That’s the area where the new arts center will go.
The portion north of Flint is a mix of property owned by Comporium and the city of Rock Hill. Six properties combine for almost 2 acres. The smaller portion south of Flint includes two properties owned by Fountain Park Realty. That entity has the same business address as Comporium.
Leahy offers comparables like the Peace Center in Greenville or the Chapman Cultural Center in Spartanburg. The Peace Center redefined downtown Greenville decades ago and now gets 350,000 visitors per year, Leahy said, while pumping $120 million into its local economy.
Chapman Cultural Center opened in 2007 and gets 200,000 annual visitors, Leahy said, with a $32 million local impact.
Both projects received significant state funding to get started, Leahy said, and ongoing state funding in some cases. Leahy also looks north, not for the comparable but at the Blumenthal family of arts venues in Charlotte that bring in millions of dollars from York County guests.
“We’re hoping to keep some of that money right here,” Leahy said.
Leahy said the local arts community in York County is a roughly $27 million industry. There are symphony, blues and jazz festival, stage shows and other activities locally. The new performing arts center could become an economic engine for the community.
“Many people are moving to Charlotte,” Leahy said. “They’re choosing to live in Rock Hill.
“People want to move to this area, and they’re used to having these kinds of facilities where they’re moving from. They want that for Rock Hill, too.”
Leahy points to the more than 80,000 students from kindergarten to college on the South Carolina side of the state line.
“Many of those school groups have to go up to Charlotte to expose their students to the arts,” Leahy said. “We want to offer an opportunity right here in the local community to do that.”
The time to act
Planners recently completed a schematic phase for the new facility. The group recently issued a request for proposals to bring construction costs into better focus.
The vision is a theater that can have dance, symphony, concerts, a film series and other events.
“Everything that people go to Blumenthal for right now, will be here,” Leahy said.
A grand lobby also will serve as a public gathering space. Galas and events could be held there throughout the year. Green rooms and space for artists could double as space for business meetings during the day.
“We want this to be a thriving center at all times during the day,” Leahy said.
A venue on the scale of what Leahy pitches would draw considerable interest from artists, he said. Upcoming events at the Peace Center, for instance, range from LeAnn Rimes, Babyface, David Foster with Katharine McPhee, Sarah Brightman and Itzhak Perlman performances to plays, step shows, comedies and a presentation by Neil Degrasse Tyson.
“We will attract the very best to come to this community,” Leahy said.
The coming year will be big for planners as they spread the word about the major performing arts project. For a venue that will bring headlining plays to the area, Leahy gave the business community here a challenge.
“The time to act is now,” he said.
