The foundation pushing the project anticipated an answer on Monday. They’ll be waiting a bit longer.
By Gretchen Cochran
Original Air Date: March 19, 2025
Host: On Monday, the Sarasota City Commissioners decided not to decide whether to go ahead with construction of a new Performing Arts Center. Not yet. Gretchen Cochran explains.
Rendering of the space between the large theater building (right) and the lobby building. Courtesy PACF
Gretchen Cochran: The Sarasota Performing Arts Foundation folks put on a masterful production Monday at city hall, complete with a one-handed violinist, an artist in residence in Newtown, and even costumed testimonials about the importance of the arts. Still, the city commissioners said “Not Yet!”
After four hours of hearing a supporting cast with just a few naysayers, the commissioners in essence sent the foundation back to the drawing board. Actually, most had been there five hours before, waiting to comment on the now over $400 million performing arts center some said would strain the city’s budget.
Afterward, a deflated group of at least 25 weary castmates stood together outside the council chambers. Tania Castroverde Moskalenko, foundation CEO, thanked them for their help.
“We’ll just do it again,” one of them said. Their next performance will be sometime before May 1.
Location of the planned performing arts center. Courtesy PACF
Here’s a little background: The SPAC, as it is called, would be added to the Bay Park, a project started 10 years ago, to remodel the 53-acre area holding the Van Wezel Hall and its sprawling parking lot stretching north to the boat ramp. Five years ago, the city and county formed a tax increment financing district, referred to as a TIF, to help pay for it. In such a district, the property taxes raised in it are earmarked for improvements in that district. How much that will raise varies, with some speculating $200 million over 30 years. But computing that amount has been a bone of contention.
Kathy Kelley Ohlrich.
In what is called a 50-50 agreement, the Foundation would cover half the costs raised from donors.
Throughout Monday’s hearing, Commissioner Kyle Battie and Mayor Liz Alpert said little. Vice Mayor Debbie Trice spoke first. Then, Commissioners Jen Ahearn-Koch and Kathy Kelley Ohlrich added concerns.
Debbie Trice addresses a crowd at Overtown Square in Sarasota.
Debbie Trice: I felt that the commissioners really didn’t get regular information on what was going on. I agree with what Commissioner Ohlrich was saying. Let’s add a lot of these things project management-wise and accountability-wise to the agreement.
GC: The pressure was on to sign a conditional agreement, but the commissioners refused to budge.
DT: We don’t have to approve it today. There’s no timeline to my approval. That gives me comfort because I have a lot of unanswered questions. I know there’s risk at this point, and many questions will remain unanswered. I have big-picture questions that have to do with the Purple Ribbon Committee’s recommendations, that have to do with cost and options for parking—those kind of things. That’s the way I think. Until I can see the big picture, it’s difficult for me to get into those silos that we’re in right now.
GC: The theatre’s site is not yet set. One drawing shows the SPAC north of the former port basin. Another one shows it south. Appeasing boaters who want to keep their launch site has become an issue, as has retaining the sightlines of the various condos and apartments nearby. The main theatre has grown to 2,700 seats, 1,000 more than the Van Wezel.
The Renzo Piano Building Workshop, selected to design the center, has explained that in this design phase, it is common to have shifting parameters.
“We are listening and taking note,” Moskalenko said. But as the various design specs shift, so does the dollar amount.
According to the 50-50 city/county financing agreement, either can pull out. The county’s participation is worrisome but still supportive of the Bay Park project, Bill Wadill, consultant to The Bay, told the commissioners.
Curiously, Mary Bensel, the CEO of the Van Wezel, did not speak although she was there. But she had already done her job March 13 at the Purple Ribbon Committee meeting, charged with evaluating the future use of the “hall,” as it is called.
Mary Bensel: I will tell you I absolutely recommend a new performing arts hall. I am a person of the arts, as you know. I’m also a person that has my secondary education degree, and I think about the future and kids and things like that, and I think we need the very best in Sarasota.
GC: Various staff members went on to describe in detail the damage of Hurricane Milton and the difficulty of managing a hurricane-damaged and aging theatre. Some residents have felt the SPAC money should be invested instead in the 55-year-old Van Wezel.
This is Gretchen Cochran reporting for WSLR.
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