Construction is slated to begin next week on Beaverton’s Patricia Reser Center for the Arts, which supporters envision as the future arts and cultural hub of the westside suburbs and which presents numerous possibilities for a Portland-area arts scene cramped for space.

Reser, chairman of the board at Beaverton-based Reser’s Fine Foods, joined in a groundbreaking Wednesday for the $51 million, 43,000-square-foot center in downtown Beaverton. A longtime theater fan, she has pledged $13 million through the Reser Family Foundation toward the center’s construction costs, making her the major private donor to the project.

As of Wednesday, 96% of the construction costs has been covered through a public-private partnership, said Lani Faith, executive director of the Beaverton Arts Foundation, which is serving as the center’s fundraising partner. She expects the center to open by the summer of 2021.

“This has been a long-held dream,” Faith said. “The time is now.”

In an interview, Reser called the groundbreaking “almost surreal,” coming as it did after decades of dreaming and years of planning. One reason for the center’s long gestation, she said, was that she and Beaverton Mayor Denny Doyle, another key supporter, “waited until the timing was right and it could be embraced by the entire community, and it has been.”

Patricia Reser, who’s donated $13 million to construct an arts center in Beaverton that will bear her name, prepares for the ceremonial groundbreaking with her own shovel, decorated with the color of the day, purple.Amy Wang/Staff

The road to the arts center hasn’t been entirely smooth.

When the city in 2016 announced it was enacting a 4% lodging tax to help pay for the center, local hotel operators pushed back unsuccessfully, saying that the rate, the highest in Washington County, would put them at a competitive disadvantage.

In October, after learning that the center’s original $46 million construction estimate had increased by $5 million due to rising labor and material costs, the Beaverton City Council voted to issue $21 million in revenue bonds. The revenue to support the bonds will come from the lodging tax, which the city has linked to the center by saying tax proceeds will be used “to promote tourism in connection with” the center.

Other major funding includes a $1.5 million state legislative grant drawn from Oregon Lottery money and $1 million each from Gene and Linda Biggi of Beaverton Foods and The Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation.

The center’s operating costs will be supported by continued fundraising, ongoing revenue from the lodging tax, and earned income such as ticket sales, concessions and rentals, Faith said. “We also are planning to secure about a $2.5 million endowment to get started,” she said. The center’s annual operating budget is projected to be approximately $3 million, she said.

The center will be built alongside The Round between Southwest Cedar Hills and Hall boulevards on a .86-acre parcel donated by the city of Beaverton. Renderings by Opsis Architecture show a 550-seat theater, an outdoor plaza and lobby each capable of hosting events, and spaces for rehearsals, workshops and meetings. The center will also include an art gallery.

Visitors to the center will be able to either ride MAX’s Blue Line, which stops nearby, or park in an adjacent 350-space garage that the city of Beaverton plans to build with urban renewal funds. City Councilor Mark San Soucie commented at Wednesday’s groundbreaking that the city had pledged not to use urban renewal funds for construction of public buildings – but that “the Patricia Reser Center for the Arts comes with a fabulous addition: a parking garage. We made sure that the urban redevelopment agency could fund parking garages.”

Breaking ground for the future Patricia Reser Center for the Arts are (from left) Chris Ayzoukian, the center's general manager; Beaverton Mayor Denny Doyle; Reser; and Lani Faith, executive director of the Beaverton Arts Foundation.Tom Cook

The new theater will fill a much-needed niche between the large downtown Portland venues and the small theaters surrounding downtown. The only theaters of comparable size are Portland Center Stage’s 590-seat theater at The Armory in the Pearl District and Portland State University’s 465-seat theater in Lincoln Hall.

“We’re not a Keller, we’re not a Schnitzer,” Reser said, referring to Keller Auditorium and Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, which each have nearly 3,000 seats. “We have 550 seats, which is a sweet spot for so many artists. There’s an intimacy there in that size. It’s an opportunity for the audience to feel connected to the performers and vice versa.”

Reser said the vision for the center includes presenting “world-renowned” artistic talent, providing a place for emerging artists “to hone their craft,” offering space for established small arts organizations, and exposing students and young people to the arts through education outreach.

To execute that vision, the center hired as its general manager Chris Ayzoukian, who previously spent 17 years with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, rising to vice president for philharmonic and production, according to his LinkedIn profile.

“For the last year and a half he has been making direct contact with (arts) groups in Portland,” Reser said, “and talking about the possibility of having one of their performances in the season” in Beaverton. For Portland arts organizations, performing at the center would open the door to developing more supporters and donors in Washington County, Reser said.

That was evident at Wednesday’s groundbreaking, when for a while Beaverton looked like the center of Oregon’s cultural universe. Thomas Lauderdale, leader of Portland band Pink Martini, was there. So was singer Marilyn Keller, a Jazz Society of Oregon Hall of Famer. Oregon’s poet laureate, Kim Stafford, who’d written and recited a poem for the occasion, joined the rest of the audience in standing and swaying to the beat as Lauderdale, Keller and singers from a half-dozen local choirs performed “All You Need is Love.”

As The Beatles song soared over the crowd, the sun, which had been lurking behind the clouds all morning, suddenly burst through.