Spokane-based Garco Construction Inc. has been awarded a $24.2 million contract to construct a performing arts and events center for the city of Federal Way, Wash., says Theresa Yvonne, the center’s executive director.

Yvonne says the city has issued a notice for Garco to proceed with the project.

“Hopefully, they will be on site with big dirt movers by midmonth, and we’ll see some major construction happening,” she says.

The venue is expected to open in summer 2017.

The 41,000-square-foot, two-tier events center will have an auditorium with seating capacity of slightly more than 700 people, Yvonne says. It also will have a publicly accessible lobby, an outdoor public plaza, a catering kitchen, and other support facilities.

The center will serve as a multipurpose venue for community performance companies and touring acts, she says. The auditorium and an 8,000-square-foot event facility that will be in the same building also will accommodate conferences, seminars, meetings, and other events.

LMN Architects, of Seattle, designed the project, and Lorax Partners LLC, also of Seattle, is the city’s project manager for the development.

Most of the project funding has been committed through city funds and federal, state, and King County grants. Other ongoing and anticipated funding sources include community fundraising, the selling of naming rights, and the planned sale of adjacent land for an envisioned 125-room hotel.

Federal Way is in the south Puget Sound area, between Tacoma at its south edge and Kent at its north edge.

Garco, which has a satellite office in Tacoma, submitted the lowest bid among seven other general contractors competing for the project.

The events center will be the city’s centerpiece for its envisioned Town Center master development, Federal Way’s website shows. A new city park is scheduled to open south of the venue next summer, and the city envisions an 8-acre multiuse master development east of it.