Dr. Phillips Center hits record guest number
The Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts welcomed a record-setting 634,000 guests in its 2017-18 fiscal year — a year that also saw more shows than ever at the downtown Orlando venue and higher operating revenue.
“This is an encouraging sign of more success to come,” wrote chairman Jim Pugh in the center’s just-released annual report.
Steinmetz Hall, the venue’s third theater, and the Green Room, a smaller performance space, are scheduled for completion in 2020.
The Steinmetz is being built with Orlando Ballet, Opera Orlando and the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra in mind, but community groups already use the center’s Walt Disney and Pugh theaters, which opened in 2014. Center President Kathy Ramsberger said more than 100 local productions took place in the 2017-18 year. In all, the center hosted 440 performances.
In July, the arts center was awarded a venue excellence award from the International Association of Venue Managers, a trade group of more than 130 per-
forming-arts centers.
Ramsberger said operating revenue — money from ticket sales, concessions, rentals and some contributions — is up 48 percent since the center’s opening and is $704,000 in the black for the center’s fiscal year, which ended in June.
Operating revenue provides a sense of the center’s financial health when considered separately from the overall picture of income and expenses — which includes the cost of running the center as well as the cost of constructing Steinmetz Hall. In total, the center took in $42.8 million in 2017-18, while spending $37.7 million.
Another positive sign for the center’s long-term viability: It’s earning more of that operating revenue than expected. Since opening, only 15 percent of the center’s funds have come from contributions, beating expectations that the center would rely on donations for 40 percent of its revenue.
Paying its own way is important because the center funds all its programs. The city owns the land and building, contributing about $500,000 annually for maintenance. Orange County contributes to construction through the tourist development tax. But the Dr. Phillips Center is not a government entity and operates the business as a nonprofit.
The center tried to make that more clear in the past year by amending its bylaws to refer to itself as a private nonprofit — different from a public, taxpayer-funded institution. That modification doesn’t change anything in terms of the center’s requirements for providing financial reports to the IRS and the city, said Christopher P. McCullion, Orlando’s chief financial officer.
“They’re still a nonprofit,” said McCullion, who sits on the board of directors as a city representative. “Every dollar of ‘profit’ they make is funneled back into the mission.”
That bylaw change was among several administrative adjustments made, such as changing the need for a unanimous vote on certain decisions to a simple majority. Thomas Roehlk, a board member who is also chief legal officer at Tupperware Corp, led the bylaw review.
Board members’ terms were also addressed. “Everybody’s term is a year now,” Ramsberger said.
Many in the philanthropic community were surprised last year when more than a dozen well-known board members lost their seats — among them former Orlando Mayor Bill Frederick and former Orange County Mayor Linda Chapin, who had both championed the project for years.
Ramsberger said many of the board members’ terms had expired, but they had stayed on to see the groundbreaking for Steinmetz Hall.
After the bylaws were overhauled, many of the displaced board members — including Frederick and Chapin — were invited to return.
The board’s evolution comes as the organization shifts its focus from fundraising and construction to operating, Ramsberger said. Not that the fundraising is completely done. About $10 million more is needed to complete Steinmetz Hall, she said.
McCullion said the good financial news from the center’s current theaters bodes well for the Steinmetz.
“If it’s anything like the first phase” of development, he said, “it’s going to be successful.”