In another life I was editor of The Allen American, then a semiweekly covering that city north of Plano that some of you probably don’t even realize you’re buzzing through when speeding north up U.S. 75.  Among the first issues I covered during my time there was the planned creation of the Arts of Collin County performance hall, a four-city partnership that quickly became a three-city partnership when McKinney voters opted not to pony up the $19 million membership fee. Which is to say, the project was troubled from the start. Then a weakening economy slowed fundraising.
It’s been moribund for awhile now, but only this week have the the owner cities – Allen, Frisco, and Plano – decided it’s time to divvy up the corpse.
The project had donated land to build upon, and $57 million in bond commitments, plus another $10 million or so of funds raised. Yet the job couldn’t get done. If it didn’t happen after that much of the groundwork was laid, how long will it be before any of these cities will be interested in trying again?
And did they blow their big chance last year, when they decided to rebrand the effort and chose to call it “Arts Center of North Texas?” As one of our commenters suggested, in such a bastion of Republicanism, a name like “Ronald Reagan Center for Free Enterprise American Arts” might have saved the thing.
