NEW DETAILS: Up to $1.2M in private funds to aid Kettering Rosewood Arts Centre project

The foundation grant, which is approaching $1 million in private donations, will also go toward interior renovation of the theater space, Kettering Parks Recreation & Cultural Arts Director Mary Beth O’Dell.

“When this project is finished it will truly be one of the best arts education centers in the Dayton region,” O’Dell told city officials.

The foundation money will be distributed on a reimbursement basis, city Community Information Manager Mary Azbill said.

And if the foundation raises $800,000 for example, parks and recreation “can’t spend any more than $800,000 on those purchases,” she said.

The budget for the Rosewood project, which the city increased to $4.8 million earlier this year, did not include furniture fixtures and equipment in the cost, Azbill said.

A $450,000 grant from the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission is part of the renovation budget, O’Dell said.

Work on the 56-year-old former elementary school is a multiyear, phased project of a facility that serves more than 80,000 people annually in the Dayton area through a variety of visual and performing arts, according to the city.

“While we’ve been in an old school building for quite some time, we’re really moving forward with this renovation and thinking of it as we are a community arts center — no longer a school building full of the arts,” Rosewood Manager Shayna McConville said.

A new logo has been developed in association with the renovation, she said.

Rosewood has provided arts programming — including more than 400 educational programs and classes each year — in addition to artist studio spaces, exhibitions, performances and special events, according to the city.

The first phase is expected to cost about to $2.4 million, about $700,000 more than originally projected.

The higher cost is related to including work in Phase I that had been planned in future phases, city records show.

The renovation is targeted for completion in 2023, officials said. The work includes mechanical, electrical and plumbing upgrades, as well as the creation of more efficient and customized learning environments for various artistic disciplines, the city said.

No significant structural or interior changes have occurred at the Olson Drive site since 1985, a year after it closed when Kettering City Schools consolidated buildings, officials have said.