Miami’s New PAC Costing Millions

The Carnival Center in Miami is $3 million in the red five months after opening rather than a projected $150,000.

Ticket sales are 40 percent less than projected, Center administrators told the Miami Herald, while security, maintenance and utilities are twice as expensive as was budgeted.

"Quite honestly, they budgeted it wrong," assistant county manager Alex Munoz told the paper. The county owns the $446 million facility and its 2,200-seat Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, but the Center is operated by an independent trust and its budget does not require county approval, the Herald said.

A consulting firm, AMS Planning and Research, originally projected the performing arts center would cost $7.66 per square foot, based on budgets and costs of other PACs, but the Carnival Center is costing $15.40 per square foot, the paper said.