Couple Pledge $500,000 to Civic Arts Plaza : Donation: Gift is third largest to endowment fund for the center, which will open Oct. 21. It puts the fund about $1 million away from spring goal.

A Thousand Oaks auto dealer announced Thursday that he is pledging $500,000 to the Civic Arts Plaza, the second major private donation to the complex in little over a week.

The gift from longtime Conejo Valley resident Gary Nesen and his wife Karla is the third largest gift to date to the endowment fund for the $64-million arts center.

In recognition of the donation to the Alliance for the Arts, the reflecting pool outside the plaza’s Charles Probst Performing Arts Center will be named for the Nesens.

Probst announced last week that he will give $2 million to the alliance.

Arts officials praised the Nesens’ gift, saying they are elated to edge even closer to the $10 million they had hoped to raise by spring.

The Nesens’ gift brings the total raised for the alliance to about $9 million, officials said.

“I think it’s wonderful that Karla and Gary decided to make this donation,” said Richard Johnson, campaign director for the alliance.

“The Nesens have already been very involved in our efforts leading up to the grand opening,” he said. “This contribution just adds to that involvement.”

The $500,000 pledge will include cash and other gifts to the center that will be announced later, according to John Mooers, the Nesens’ spokesman.

*

The Nesens also agreed to sponsor a series of events for the plaza, including fund-raisers, special concerts and sales promotions in conjunction with Gary Nesen’s Thousand Oaks car dealerships.

Mooers said the Nesens timed the announcement to help build public confidence in the plaza as the Oct. 21 grand opening draws near.

“They wanted to draw more attention to the fact that this center, which everyone has been waiting for, is now about to be reality,” Mooers said. “The success of the plaza is something the Nesens have been committed to for a long time.”

Gary Nesen could not be reached for comment Thursday, but he said in a prepared statement that he hoped to give back to the community where he grew up.

“Our love for the arts and our community has prompted this involvement,” he said. “Everyone in the Conejo Valley can be proud of this state-of-the-art facility.”

Nesen is the son of Ambassador Robert Nesen, who moved to Ventura County in 1947. In 1986, Gary Nesen became president of the Thousand Oaks car dealership that his father started in Oxnard and built to prominence in the 1950s.

He is a member of the arts plaza’s Founder’s Circle, which had raised more than $8.6 million before Thursday’s announcement, Johnson said.

Since fund-raising began, major gifts to the plaza have included Probst, $2 million in cash; the Los Angeles Times, $1 million in cash and advertising; Gary and Karla Nesen, $500,000 in cash and gifts, and the Janss family, $270,000 in cash, according to the alliance.