PORT ANGELES – Contstruction could begin next summer on a  new performing arts center on the Port Angeles waterfront.

The center’s board of directors has acquired  land, selected the architect and contractors, and been fundraising since Donna Morris bequeathed a gift of over $9 million two years ago to build a performing arts center.

Since then, a 70,000 square foot property has been purchased at the west end of downtown, LMN Architects have produced a set of proposed drawings, Mortenson Construction has been chosen as the contractor and, as Board Chairman Brooke Taylor tells us, they’ve settled on a somewhat non-traditional method of going forward.

Taylor says they’ve ramped up fundraising this summer, meeting one-on-one or in small groups with people, looking for what he termed as “leadership gifts” for the project. He says the public fundraising campaign will start sometime after the first of the year.

Taylor says they hope to complete permitting early next summer and break ground in August or September.