The Golisano Performing Arts Center was a proposed, future 3,000 seat performing arts center in the heart of downtown that would replace The Auditorium Theater as the home of the Rochester Broadway Theater League. Selected by the city in April of 2017, this theater would have been constructed on "parcel 5," the largest and most prominent undeveloped block in downtown Rochester, at the site of the old Midtown Plaza Mall. The theater was over two decades in the making, as head of the RBTL Arnie Rothschild first proposed a new performing arts center at the site of the McCurdy's Building at the same exact spot back in 1993.
In October 2018 the city announced that the project would be moved from Parcel 5 to the Rochester Riverside Hotel location, a larger site supporting two theaters as well as a hotel tower. In November Tom Golisano cancelled his $25M pledge, citing lack of progress, lack of evident community financial support, and announced changes to the nature of the project.
