But the historic performing arts center should stay in full service only for up to seven years, expert panel recommends.
By Gretchen Cochran
Original Air Date: August 20, 2025
Host: On Monday, the expert panel put in charge two years ago of figuring out the future of the historic Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall officially presented its recommendations to the City of Sarasota Commission. WSLR News reporter Gretchen Cochran was there.
Gretchen Cochran: Hurricane season is again upon us. Nearly a year after a monster storm slammed into Van Wezel Performing Arts Center, Sarasota is working on a plan to make it ready for the next one. Hopefully, it won’t be too late.
The Van Wezel sustained significant damage during 2024’s brutal storm season.
Armed now with the results of the two-year Purple Ribbon Committee’s study, the city commissioners Monday directed the interim city manager to present a plan to carry out the committee’s 10 recommendations. They hinge on the premise that Van Wezel will be a holding vessel for performing arts audiences while a new center is built. That new center’s location and ultimate cost are still to be determined, but recent estimates approach $200 million for the city’s share.
Commissioner Debbie Trice attended many of the Purple Ribbon Committee’s meetings. She offered the motion to accept the committee’s report to be followed by a mechanism for follow up.
Debbie Trice: We need to continue to listen to the management of the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall going into the future and helping the city decide where to invest money for the future.
If we do not have a performing arts hall handling Broadway-type theater, Sarasota will lose that audience, and we can’t afford to be not providing that service for audiences for any significant length of time.
I’m not going to say anything about exact dollar figures, but it’s in the budget.
The Van Wezel has a basement 6 feet below sea level at its lowest point. During Milton, it flooded, and the transformer there was submerged in water.
GC: We caught up with Commissioner Kyle Battie in the hallway after the Purple Ribbon Committee’s report had been accepted. He remembers how it was that last October night as the wind roared, driving salt water inland.
Kyle Battie: At 3:30 in the morning on October 10, I was biking City Hall up to my house, because I couldn’t get there by car, to see what the damage was. On my way back, I was like, “You know what? Let me stop by the Van Wezel and see what’s going on over there. That’s how I came by this.
GC: He flashes a photo of furniture floating in the performing arts center’s hallways.
KB: It all comes down to, “What do we foresee the future of the city to be?”
GC: Meanwhile, Mary Bensel, manager of the Van Wezel, says they have not just been twiddling their thumbs over there.
Mary Bensel: We have ordered these panels that are fabricated specifically for hurricanes. The thing is, because so many people have ordered them, there’s a backlog on them, so they’re not here yet. So what we did for that one very vulnerable door that has that direct down to the kitchen is we have fabricated something that we can stick in there right now, should something come before these panels arrive. Then, what we’re doing is working with Nik, the city engineer, talking about things like the bay hardening—it’s a softening, but—the riff-raff go through those huge rocks that you put, and they would go out there, and then we’ve got a whole list of things that we’re starting to work on.
GC: She refers to a grant from the state’s Environmental Protection Department that would repay it for certain efforts to protect the building some refer to as the Purple Cow. The $30 million grant would reimburse the city for things like Bensel mentioned as well as upgraded drainage and pumping systems and possibly the installation of a flood barrier around the building.
The commission also directed the interim city manager to create a plan to equip other venues to house performances should a major storm damage the Van Wezel. We have little information describing those other venues. But most importantly, he is to form a team of consultants. Their task: develop immediate and phased over two years deferred maintenance on the building envelope, HVAC/electrical systems, and the theater equipment in order to keep the Van Wezel running, optimally and sustainably, for the next five to seven years.
That number, “five to seven years,” is mentioned because the Purple Ribbon experts emphasized the need for a new performing arts center to be built by then. The city commission will soon be turning its attention to that proposal, seemingly stalled in financing and fundraising challenges and questions surrounding its proposed location.
For WSLR News, Gretchen Cochran.
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