December 20, 2013 The Dispatch/Maryland Coast Dispatch Page 3 Performing Arts Center Opening Event Set For Holiday Weekend By JOANNE SHRINER STAFF WRITER OCEAN CITY – The new Performing Arts Center at the convention center is right on schedule with a kickoff performance in the works to celebrate the auditorium’s grand opening. At Monday evening’s Mayor and City Council meeting, Tourism Commission Chair Councilwoman Mary Knight reported during a Tourism Commission meeting earlier in the month Roland E. Powell Convention Center Director Larry Noccolino announced Phase II of the convention center expansion, which is the construction of a Performing Arts Center (PAC), will be completed in November of 2014. Knight furthered, Noccolino is in the process of working with a current promoter in Ocean City to set up a kickoff performance in the new PAC on Saturday, Nov. 29, 2014. “That will be extremely exciting because that will be Thanksgiving weekend, folks are always in town, and it will be something new, and an extremely exciting event to kick of the PAC,” Knight said. The state-of-the-art, 1,200-seat, two-tiered performing arts center inside the convention center is on pace to meet the aggressive target completion date set for November 2014, and Noccolino is already planning for future shows and events for the new facility with an aggressive booking plan running concurrently with the construction schedule. Noccolino could not give specifics on the kickoff event as of Wednesday. However, he was able to speak of another major signature groundbreaking event for early 2015. He said plans are in the works to bring the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra and Conductor Julien Benichou to the new PAC with the first performance to be held on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2015, which would also fall on the Martin Luther King holiday weekend, one of the highlights of the slowest month in Ocean City from a business perspective. “Our priorities are offering dates to our existing clients first, show promoters second and city-sponsored events third,” he said. While Noccolino would not release details on other events in the works, he said many of the convention center’s existing clients have inquired and asked for date holds in 2015 to utilize the new auditorium in conjunction with their annual conSEE PAGE 4 MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE STAFF AT THE PEPPER SHACK • FREE SAMPLES • GREAT GIFT IDEAS • STOCKING STUFFERS AND GIFT BOXES • CAMO SHIRTS AND HATS AND MUCH MORE NEXT TO PEPPERS TAVERN WEST OC OPEN DAILY AT 7 A .M. FOR BREAKFAST • WEST OC-ROUTE 611 • 443-664-6712 • WWW.OCPEPPERSTAVERN.COM