After years of planning, two multimillion-dollar cultural arts projects — at the heart of Ventura's efforts to become "California's New Arts City" and spark downtown investment — are headed in different directions.

Moving forward is Working Artists Ventura, a $57 million development that would include affordable live-work spaces and galleries for artists and housing for the homeless trying to get on track.

The already-approved project amassed a perfect score on its application for $19 million in state tax credits, which are expected to be awarded next month and represent the final piece of the project's financing plan.

The four-story center at Thompson Boulevard and Ventura Avenue could break ground this year.

A proposal for a downtown cultural center by the nonprofit San Buenaventura Foundation of the Arts is taking a different path.

The foundation has had exclusive rights since 2004 to a cluster of city-owned parking lots near the San Buenaventura Mission to develop a "cultural arts village" — a $35 million development featuring galleries, classrooms and a 400- to 600-seat theater.

Although the concept garnered public support, the foundation quietly struggled to raise private money, overcome parking issues, account for rising construction costs and recognize a changing local arts scene.

The foundation informed officials last week that it plans to dissolve its city contract and move in a new direction. It has held preliminary talks with a developer in control of a spacious garage building on Chestnut Street that possibly could be turned into a 200- to 300-seat theater.

"This project is not going to die," said Betsy Blanchard Chess, the foundation's board president. "And frankly, I think it will end up being a better project."

Creating a destination

Building a cultural hub downtown has been a longtime goal for the city as it promotes itself as a cultural destination and seeks to increase cultural tourism. The city has adopted the marketing motto of "California's New Arts City."

In March, the City Council adopted a detailed vision for downtown that focuses on making it active day and night, with its own identity — not a forced extension of Santa Barbara or Los Angeles.

The arts village was billed as a vital "catalyst" to ongoing downtown revitalization — a place to improve public access to art and lure visitors.

Besides traditional fundraising efforts, the foundation had hoped to forge partnerships with downtown developers, particularly adjacent property owners. None worked out, Chess said.

Arts organizations expected to benefit from the village concept when it first surfaced nearly a decade ago have since grown and evolved. For instance, the Rubicon Theatre Company once rented its theater space but now owns its own home and is pursuing a second theater in Camarillo. New facilities, such as the Bell Arts Factory, with its artist studios, gallery and community space, have emerged.

"The foundation did everything we asked of them," city Cultural Affairs Manager Kerry Adams Hapner said. "But these projects are incredibly complex."

Various funding sources

The Working Artists Ventura project is a good example of that. Its tax credits account for about a third of the project's overall cost but are only one component in a laundry list of financial commitments, from millions in state and federal affordable housing dollars down to personal checks. The project's market-rate condos with ocean views will lure higher-income households and help subsidize its affordable housing.

"We have 13 mortgages," said Chris Velasco, president of the nonprofit organization People Linking Arts, Culture & Environment Inc., the project's applicant. "This is the most complicated project I have ever worked on."

Multipurpose project

With 54 affordable units for artists to live and work, high-end condos and 6,000 square feet of stores, coffeehouses and galleries, it is one of the most prominent projects to be approved downtown.

The development is designed with green building technology, including recycled building materials, water conservation, solar panels and a car-sharing program, Velasco said.

"This proposal is incredibly unique," said Amanda Rose of the California Housing Finance Agency, which awarded the project $1.5 million in low-interest loans to develop low-income housing.

Project Understanding, a Ventura-based social service provider, will coordinate on-site case management and a referral service for the homeless living there.

Once the tax credits are secured, the organization has 150 days to break ground.

"There is no room for slippage," Velasco said. "We wanted to do the best possible project we could. Now we want to do this as soon as we can. This community has waited a long time for this project."