Illustration courtesy Spokane Valley Performing Arts Center
A rendering shows what the new Spokane Valley Performing Arts Center may look like once the $36 million project is built.
Yvonne Johnson, executive artistic director for Spokane Valley Summer Theatre, and now the performing arts center, says the 59,000-square-foot establishment has been years in the making.
"It’s always been my dream to lead a regional performing arts center," Johnson says. "Over the past two years we’ve been in our silent phase, but now we’re so excited to go public with our vision."
The site for the new center is near the Tru by Hilton Hotel, at 13509 E. Mansfield Ave., and the group expects to break ground in 2022. The 5-acre site includes room for 300 parking spaces, which organizers say "will always be free to our patrons."
The performing arts center will house a roughly 500 seat main stage, a 200-seat flexible studio theater, an acting conservatory for area youth, and spaces for conferences, conventions and meetings.
Illustration courtesy Spokane Valley Performing Arts Center
The main stage inside the new Spokane Valley Performing Arts Center is planned to seat 500 people, while a smaller studio theater will seat 200. Another event space on the third floor will have room for about 400 people.
The building is also expected to have soundproofed practice rooms for music students, a catering kitchen, a hydraulic grid-system trap room beneath the main stage and many other amenities.
Construction for the project will be financed through State Bank Northwest, with a construction loan already approved for the project. Nearly one third of the total funds have been raised over the past two years by donors. Further donations to the project can be made at this link.
A groundbreaking ceremony is expected to be held in August of 2022 and construction will start in the fall. Johnson says she expects the performing arts center to be open for performances starting in February of 2024.
“A performing arts center of this magnitude is important for the community,” Johnson says. “It will be the jewel of Spokane Valley.”
