Kimmel Center to Philly Pops: Pay $500K or get out

The Kimmel Center is threatening to evict one of its own resident companies.

Philadelphia’s major arts center has told the Philly Pops that unless it immediately comes up with rent from its just-finished holiday run, as well as advance payments for concerts in February, the Pops will have to vacate the Kimmel and will no longer be allowed to perform there.

The Pops’ status as a resident company has already been suspended, an official from the Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center Inc. told the Pops in a letter dated Jan. 17.

» READ MORE: Philly Pops is launching a plan for survival

The letter said the Pops had until the next day to pay the Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center Inc. $523,643.25, and until Feb. 1 to pay estimated advance fees of $82,815. Or it would face eviction.

The deadline for the first amount was subsequently extended to Friday at noon.

“We don’t have $600,000 or $500,000. We just don’t have it. They know we don’t have it,” said Pops president Frank Giordano in an interview.

“We’ve long viewed the Kimmel Center as our partner and we assumed we were still working toward the same goal, and we were confused by this demand,” said Pops chief operating officer Karen Corbin. “Because in the context of our ongoing discussions, Philadelphia Orchestra Kimmel Center Inc. was well aware that we would not pay this entire amount. And the only course of action available to us, so that we can pay them, and which aligns with satisfying our obligation to our many enthusiastic patrons, is to do these [upcoming] shows. And we still see a path forward.”

But the Kimmel says the clock has run out.

“We have been working with the Philly Pops for a very long time on payment plans to help them meet their obligations. Unfortunately, the debts have reached a point when we can no longer be accommodating,” said Matías Tarnopolsky, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center Inc.

Pops leaders announced in November that poor ticket sales had forced the decision to fold after the end of the 2022-23 season. But the public responded with cries of support, and ticket sales for the Pops’ holiday concerts were strong. The group then announced a “save the pops” campaign to raise about $2 million to pay off debt and to help finance its continued operations.

Tarnopolsky said the “save the pops” campaign doesn’t change the Kimmel’s position.

“There haven’t been any payments to the Kimmel Center as a result of that campaign,” he said.

The Pops has already raised “well north” of $200,000, said Corbin, “and that is the patron response we were hoping for.”

Fund-raising continues, she said.

“We are in conversations with foundations, we have pending grants, we have contracts where the money is secured,” said Corbin, “and we are confused about this coming on the heels of the announcement of the ‘save the pops’ campaign, which is designed to meet all of our obligations and which has been shared with them.”

When the Kimmel opened in 2001, the aim was to provide an acoustically superior concert hall for the orchestra, a more visible home for some of the city’s most active arts groups, and to host touring productions and artists.

The Kimmel and Philadelphia Orchestra announced a merger in June 2021 — a move portrayed as a way to streamline fund-raising as well as to ease scheduling and other operational challenges causing friction between the arts center and its resident companies.

If the Kimmel payment deadlines aren’t met, all remaining Pops events will be canceled, references to Philly Pops performances will be removed from the Kimmel website, and the Pops will have to remove any property stored at the Kimmel Center, the letter to the Pops stated.

Giordano said that the current dispute amounted to a question of timing and that the community was rallying behind the Pops.

“There has been a general sentiment of ‘Let’s save the Pops. What does it take to save the Pops?’ It’s not going to happen overnight, but we expect to raise this money and to pay the Kimmel the money we owe them.”