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Broward Center Upcoming Event Dates & Tickets
About this Venue
In an effort to address the changing needs of an expanding South Florida cultural community and invigorate the downtown business district, a consortium of civic leaders, private citizens, and government entities came together in the 1980s to secure the funding necessary to build the world class theater complex that was to become the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. The Florida legislature in 1984 established the Performing Arts Center Authority (PACA) to oversee construction, then policy making, at the Broward Center. The Downtown Development Authority, along with civic-minded citizens, private sources and the Broward Performing Arts Foundation worked together to raise the funding required to build the theater complex.
By the end of 1987, initial fundraising goals had been met and with supplementary grant monies from city, county, state and national sources secured, the project went out to bid. The acclaimed Cambridge, Massachusetts architecture firm of Benjamin Thompson and Associates, Inc was selected to design the facility. A groundbreaking ceremony was held in May 1988 to initiate the building phase.
By early 1991 the 224,500-square-foot (20,860 m2) facility was completed at a cost of $54 million. The doors officially opened on February 26, 1991 with the first national tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera. The tenth anniversary of the Broward Center was marked by retiring the entire building mortgage, 11 years ahead of schedule.
