The plan includes an 1,800-seat concert hall, a 2,800 seat opera house, a 300-seat studio theater, an outdoor performances space, offices, classrooms, and rehearsal space. The new center would house the Orlando Philharmonic, Orlando Opera, Orlando Ballet, and other groups.

Barton Myers Associates of Los Angeles was named the center's architect in January, but an architectural plan will not be completed until funding is confirmed. According to the Sentinel, planners will ask for $300 million in public funds and will aim to raise the remaining $76 million from private donors. They hope to begin construction next year and complete the center itself in 2010. A surrounding development of offices, hotels, and other businesses would be completed in 2012.

Orlando officials have considered building a center for a decade, but the idea was not pursued seriously until current mayor Buddy Dyer assembled a group of community leaders to form an Orlando Performing Arts Center board last fall.