NEW YORK, NY.- The New Jersey Symphony has long lacked a permanent home, performing in a variety of spaces across the state. But come 2026, that will change: The orchestra is getting a gleaming 550-seat theater in downtown Jersey City, the ensemble and the city announced Wednesday.

The new theater, to be called Symphony Center, is expected to become a hub for concerts, classes and other activities. While the New Jersey Symphony will continue to perform across the state, the theater will serve as its flagship location.

“We’ve always been in someone else’s house,” said Gabriel van Aalst, the orchestra’s president and chief executive. “This not only gives us an emotional home but the opportunity to reinvent, reexplore and reexamine our business model, and to look at ways to set the orchestra up for the future.”

The project is a coup for the New Jersey Symphony, which, like many arts organizations, is still grappling with the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Last year, the orchestra announced it was trimming its season and cutting its administrative staff by about 15%. To keep up with rising costs, the orchestra has dipped into its endowment: The fund is now valued at about $3 million, down from about $9 million in 2019.

Symphony Center was recently constructed for about $40 million, as part of a luxury housing development by homebuilder Toll Brothers. The space is owned by Jersey City, which will allow the symphony to use it under an initial 30-year lease agreement. The symphony plans to raise an additional $12 million to furnish the space and fine-tune its acoustics.

Steven Fulop, mayor of Jersey City, said the theater was part of the city’s efforts to become a cultural destination. He said it would help elevate the symphony’s profile and bring tens of thousands of people downtown each year.

“Jersey City is becoming more and more synonymous with arts, culture and nightlife,” he said. “This is just going to further cement our reputation in that space.”

The New Jersey Symphony expects the 44,000-square-foot space, which also includes administrative offices, to help increase revenue. The orchestra will be able to sell tickets for more performances, offer more music classes and rent out the space.

Symphony Center will gradually increase its offerings over a five-year period, starting with about 20 to 30 performances in the 2026-27 season and rising to about 150 to 200 performances in the 2030-31 season.

The programming at the theater is expected to be eclectic. Van Aalst said the possibilities include chamber music, world music, collaborations with dance companies and multimedia works.

“For the symphony,” he said, “it can be a space where we can explore and experiment in ways that we can’t now because it’s cost prohibitive on the main stage with a full symphony orchestra.”

The New Jersey Symphony said it would continue to perform across the state, including at Prudential Hall at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, which has more than 2,800 seats and has served as a base for the orchestra.

Symphony Center, at the corner of Provost Street and Morgan Street, is to be part of Jersey City’s Powerhouse Arts District, on the banks of the Hudson River. Over the past 20 years, the city has worked to turn old warehouses into theaters and office space for cultural organizations.

Some projects in the city have run into stumbling blocks. Plans to build an outpost of the Pompidou Center were recently put on hold after the state Legislature voted to rescind $24 million in funding for the Paris museum’s project.

Toll Brothers has developed several luxury buildings in the district. The company agreed to construct some public space in exchange for permission from the city to build.

The New Jersey Symphony, which has been led since 2016 by music director Xian Zhang, has in recent years tried to carve out its own identity rather than compete with its famous neighbors, the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

The pandemic dealt a serious blow to the symphony, which was already dealing with financial problems and a sharp decline in the number of subscribers, who once provided a lucrative source of revenue.

There have been some recent signs of strength. Attendance at concerts reached 72% this past season, compared with 59% before the pandemic. Fundraising increased to about $11 million last year, compared with about $8 million in 2019. And in the 2022-23 season, the orchestra hosted a glittering celebration of its centennial.

In the coming months, the ensemble faces another challenge: finding a replacement for van Aalst, who is departing in September to lead Dayton Live, a nonprofit performing arts presenter in Ohio.

Craig Silliman, a board chair who will serve as interim president and chief executive, said the symphony hoped to name a leader who could help bring the Jersey City project to fruition.

“It’s a great space, and the location is extraordinary,” he said. “As soon as you walk in, your mind just starts turning quickly on all the different possibilities.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.