EASTON, Pa. — A planned ArtsQuest cultural center to replace the nonprofit’s Banana Factory arts complex in South Bethlehem has become slightly more expensive.
ArtsQuest President Kassie Hilgert told a Northampton County Council committee Thursday that the project has grown in cost from about $26 million to $32 million.
“The year you wait to start construction increases prices, I feel that we are in the Striking zone of what the final cost of this project will be.”Kassie Hilgert
“The year you wait to start construction increases prices,” Hilgert said. “I feel that we are in the Striking zone of what the final cost of this project will be.”
To that end, the County Council voted unanimously Thursday to help ArtsQuest pursue a grant from Local Share Account funding for the cultural center.
The increase in cost will not affect the timeline for construction, Hilgert said. Demolition of the Banana Factory is set to begin in early 2025, with work on the new building to begin in earnest a few months later.
If all goes according to plan, the cultural center will open to visitors in November 2026.
Some new additions
So far, ArtsQuest has raised more than $20 million of their now roughly $25 million pre-construction goal.
Every dollar the organization can raise will reduce the cost of borrowing money. Even commitments for future donations will boost the project by reassuring lenders, Hilgert said.
That will help close the gap between pre-construction fundraising and the cost of construction, she said.
The planned arts and cultural center will fill many of the same roles currently served by the aging Banana Factory with classrooms, artists studios, and office space.
There will also be some new additions, including a black box theater that will host the Lehigh Valley’s first comedy club, an expanded hot glass studio, a digital media lab, an audio recording studio and “maker space” serving both students and adults.
Plus, “It is ArtsQuest, so we will have a bar,” Hilgert said.
