Meanwhile, we talk to an expert worried about rising sea levels and a new performing arts center.
By Gretchen Cochran
Original Air Date: July 2, 2025
Host: After two years, this was supposed to be the last meeting, advising Sarasota city commissioner what to do with the historic Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall. But the Purple Ribbon Committee will need another session to come up with a conclusive set of recommendations. In the meantime, Gretchen Cochran talked to a climate expert who worries about—literally—the road to a new performing arts center.
Photo by Harriet Thorpe via keepthevanwezel.com.
Gretchen Cochran: The Purple Ribbon Committee meeting on Monday was indeed colorful, but not with the hue we’d expected. A kerfuffle that had been building up for two years almost drowned out the small voice of reason that started the meeting when Tony Souza stepped to the conference table.
Souza is of some renown in historic preservation circles for his ability to pull varying sides together, particularly in New Bedford, Connecticut. That’s where he helped create a 13-block National Historical Park dedicated to the whaling community.
Here in Sarasota, he chairs the County Historic Preservation Board. Monday night, he spoke of a marriage joining the Van Wezel and a proposed new performing arts center currently suggested to be two buildings that would be built on Tamiami Trail.
Rendering of the proposed performing arts center.
Tony Souza: The new performing arts center can be big enough for Broadway shows, but instead of building the other smaller buildings, they would become part of the existing Van Wezel, changing it into a smaller 750-seat venue that is intimate, flexible, and perfect for performances and even films that do not belong in a 2700-seat hall.
GC: But committee members charged forth.
David Rovine, a former manager of numerous large entertainment venues, including the Baltimore Orioles stadium and the Mahaffey Theatre in St. Petersburg, planted his stake.
David Rovine: I think that is the single most critical thing we want to walk away with and we want to encourage city government to do, which is to maintain this building. It cannot—for all the theatrical, professional reasons—be out of the loop.
Map of the proposed performing arts center.
GC: It seemed all agreed until Bob Bunting, the climatologist, chimed in.
While they had decreed the terms “use” and “reuse” of Van Wezel would be the only points of their discussion, soon they were debating the role of parking and the building’s relationship to its surroundings.
We were reminded of comments from David Tomasko, director of the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program. He would advise the city commissioners, as they consider our performing arts future, to think broader.
Dave Tomasko: We have roads right now that flood when it rains on a high tide, and we have roads that flood just on a high tide in the summertime with the right [mood?/moon?]. I think that’s one of the things. This isn’t going to be just the building. How do you get to the building?
GC: We should be planning for two feet more sea level rise in 50 years, he said. We had seven-foot rise in Hurricane Helene. So add two feet. That means Tamiami Trail will be nine feet underwater 50 years from now.
Building a new structure requires long-range thinking, maybe 50 years. You dare not be using climate data of the past because change is happening more rapidly, he said.
Which brings us back to the Purple Ribbon Committee and its two-year-in-preparation-document nearly finished for presentation to the city commission August 4.
The commissioners will ponder future steps on the Van Wezel’s future, undoubtedly with public hearings when residents may make their wishes known. In late August, it will take another round of presentations from the new Performing Arts Center group.
This is Gretchen Cochran for WSLR.
WSLR News aims to keep the local community informed with our 1/2 hour local news show, quarterly newspaper and social media feeds. The local news broadcast airs on Wednesdays and Fridays at 6pm.