Idaho PAC Opening Postponed

The opening of Idaho State University’s $35 million performing arts center has been pushed to April 1st due to construction delays.

The L.E. and Thelma E. Stephens Performing Arts Center’s originally scheduled December opening was postponed to January but officials said even that date was too optimistic.

“We were supposed to have construction completed by January 21st, but that doesn’t look likely to me,” ISU College of Arts and Sciences Interim Dean John Kijinski said.

The center has been under construction since October 2000. Several portions are finished and have been in use, but its largest venue, the 1,200-seat Jensen Grand Concert Hall, has yet to be completed.

Remaining work includes seating, carpeting and the stage floor.

Kijinski told The Idaho State Journal of Pocatello the concert hall expects to host classical, jazz, pop and maybe folk music, but he isn’t ruling out rock and hip-hop acts either.