Estimate of Disney Concert Hall Cost Rises to $264.9 Million

Downtown Los Angeles’ long-delayed Disney Concert Hall, estimated to cost $200 million in March, is now predicted to cost $264.9 million, according to organizing group overseeing the project. There is currently a $149.5-million fund-raising gap that Disney Hall officials say will delay groundbreaking until June, 1998. The $200 million figure--double 1992 estimates--was based on a groundbreaking date of July 1, 1996.

The new cost figure was included in a fund-raising plan accepted Wednesday by county officials. According to the plan, Disney Hall officials must find a major donor or group of donors willing to give $50 million by June, 1997, in order to prevent the county from terminating the project--an amount equal to the original 1987 gift from Walt Disney’s widow, Lillian B. Disney, to build a new home for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The Frank O. Gehry-designed hall is scheduled to be built on county-owned land at 1st Street and Grand Avenue atop an already-completed parking garage funded by a county bond issue.