Final draft of recommendations for Sarasota City Commission on agenda for June 30 meeting
During their penultimate meeting, held on June 17, two of the six members of the City of Sarasota’s Ad Hoc Van Wezel Purple Ribbon Committee made it clear that they believe the city’s 55-year-old performing arts hall is doomed because of its close proximity to Sarasota Bay, given the threat of storm surge, as seen during the 2024 storm season.
They see no place for it within the city’s 53-acre Bay Park on the waterfront.
The structure suffered about $10 million in damage last year from the effects of Hurricane Milton, city staff has reported.
Yet, other committee members on June 17 stressed the potential for future uses of the so-called “Purple Cow.” (Jane Kirschner, mother of past Sarasota Mayor Kelly Kirschner, has urged city leaders, “Don’t even think of COWDOZING Sarasota’s icon,” as noted by city resident Kelly Franklin. Over the past few years, Franklin has secured the signatures of 3,000 Sarasotans who want to see the Van Wezel protected, Franklin has reported.)
As part of one June 17 exchange, committee member Bob Bunting noted, “There hasn’t been a single point of interest in [the Van Wezel’s potential reuse]” during the two years that the committee has been meeting.
David Rovine countered that that was no surprise, because the focus has been on the Van Wezel’s remaining a performing arts hall “for an indefinite period of time” until a new venue could take its place.
Everyone would suffer, Rovine added, if the Van Wezel were not available until what has been referred to as the Sarasota Performing Arts Center (SPAC) could be built.
(The Sarasota City Commission held meetings this spring with representatives of the SPAC project team; however, no timeline has been announced for the next discussion, which would be expected to lead to a commission vote on how to proceed with plans for the SPAC. On June 26, Jan Thornburg, general manager of the city’s Communications Department, confirmed that lack of a date for the News Leader.)
Rovine reminded his colleagues, “We have articulated that [the Van Wezel] has to be fortified; it has to be maintained; it has to continue until a new performing arts hall [takes its place].”
Bunting was correct in his assertion about the lack of interest, Rovine said, but Rovine asked the rhetorical question: “Is [the Van Wezel] going to be destroyed this summer [by a storm],” or in the summer of 2027? “Hopefully, not.”
Rovine also asked, with emphasis, why any businessperson would have made a pitch to the committee about the building’s potential reuse, plus hire architects to work on a design, and then proceed with planning, with the knowledge that he or she could not “set foot in [the structure] for five, seven, eight, nine years?”
At 5:30 p.m. on June 30, in the City Commission Chambers of City Hall, the Purple Ribbon committee members are scheduled to hold their final discussion, though they have the option of yet another meeting in early July, their facilitator, Jim Shirley pointed out. The committee sunsets on July 17, he added.
Shirley led the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County for many years before his retirement.
‘Minimizing the potential’
On June 17, the members spent much of their time debating language in the set of recommendations that they will make to the City Commission.
One of the sections that Chair Charles Cosler had proposed sparked more debate than the rest. It said, “Should the proposed PAC [performing arts center] progress, the reuse of the VWPH [Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall] is impractical due to risks … (especially the very real possibility of the interaction of storm surge and the west wall of the building and on-going water intrusion), the low demand from local area arts groups, and the fungibility of the existing parking lot. Further, competing with the new PAC is not advised and a financially viable business case for reuse has not been made by anyone.”
Rovine told his colleagues that he did not believe that section should be included in the final report. Since the committee’s mission “was to consider repurposing [the Van Wezel],” he added, “having [that in the document] kind of obliterates the whole concept.”
Committee member Morris “Marty” Hylton III reminded his colleagues that the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County “did a tremendous job of reaching out to local arts groups,” to try to ascertain whether any would have an interest in using the Van Wezel after the SPAC were built. None did, he acknowledged. However, “To really understand [the potential for] any use, arts or otherwise,” Hylton continued, a formal Request for Proposals (RFP) should be issued.
Chair Cosler pointed out to Hylton, “We’ve discussed RFPS several times … We don’t have the authority [to issue them.”
“RFPs are very important to have,” Rovine agreed with Hylton. If the committee members believe that the only possible future use of the Van Wezel is for arts groups, he pointed out, “We’re minimizing the potential of grandeur and more exciting development and bringing in new ideas.”
“We can’t just limit [the focus] to Sarasota [organizations],” Rovine further noted. “Ultimately, an RFP is going to be critical.”
“In the absence of the climate threat,” Bunting replied, “I think everything you said is pretty good.”
“And I understand the climate threat is absolutely real,” Rovine assured him.
When the committee members began their work, Bunting continued, no major storm had damaged the Van Wezel. In 2024, he added, “It did happen. [That fact] is the biggest piece … of new information that we have since [the committee was established in 2023].”
Cosler noted that the committee members also had talked about the need to remove the Van Wezel from The Bay Park as soon as a new SPAC was completed, so the park would not be “negatively impacted by the interaction of storm surge and erosion made worse” because of the building’s continued presence. The concern, Cosler continued, is that keeping the Van Wezel in place could result in damage to that portion of the park.
Yet, Shirley, the facilitator reminded Cosler, “The group did not agree on any of that at all.” As he recalled, Shirley said, that was just a point written for consideration.
“I agree,” committee member Selma Goker Wilson added.
It is possible, Goker Wilson continued, that in the future, the Sarasota Performing Arts Foundation — which has championed the new venue — might not see the need for a non-compete stipulation for the Van Wezel, in regard to the SPAC; instead, a desire might arise for collaboration between the two facilities.
“At this point,” she told her colleagues, “I think the whole exercise here is to talk about the [Van Wezel].” Steps could be taken, Goker Wilson added, to make reuse of the building practical. For example, she noted, the building’s walls could be removed, so it would be open.
“So you look in and see all the people sitting in there?” Cosler asked.
“If you presume it’s going to be a performing arts hall,” Goker Wilson replied.
“OK,” Cosler said.
Committee member Melissa K. Gissinger agreed with Goker Wilson about that potential for reuse.
“Precisely what our task is,” Goker Wilson pointed out.
As the discussion proceeded, Bunting kept emphasizing the storm threats. “One more hit and that building — it may be a very expensive piece of real estate that’s uninsurable,” he told his colleagues. “Why would anybody invest in it, given that?”
Conversely, he continued, “I could imagine if that building were someplace else, it could be used for a lot of things.”
Rovine did say he could not envision anyone being willing to invest a lot of money in the Van Wezel.
Bunting stressed that the Van Wezel is in the VE flood zone as determined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). “It’s in the worst designation.” (The Sarasota County website explains of the VE Zone that it encompasses areas within the floodplain that have a 1% annual chance of flooding, along with “additional hazards associated with storm waves. … Mandatory flood insurance purchase requirements apply.”
However, Rovine noted, “We don’t have to continually put all of Bob’s excellent scientific work into every single sentence that we write.” The storm concerns could be included in one sentence, he added.
Debate also focused on Cosler’s proposed line about the “fungibility of the existing parking lot.”
“I think the [Van Wezel] is absolutely separable from its parking lot,” Goker Wilson told her colleagues. “I don’t know why it would not be so.”
A new use of the building might not require as much parking, she added.
Ultimately, Cosler agreed to strike that section from the final recommendations he would draft.
‘Best use as a park’
Next, the committee members turned to Section 9 of Cosler’s recommendations. That said, “The VWPH’s site and parking lot is best used as a park. (e.g. A possible option for The Bay Park Conservancy could be the erection of a smaller, post supported, roof structure (the design of which could allude to the existing shell roof) that would provide shelter for a temporary, seasonal, stage or dance floor. The structure would permit views through to Sarasota Bay and the Ringling causeway, would have visually minimal impact on The Bay Park, and, would allow storm water to flow through. Electrical power in the roof would permit the seasonal hanging of lights and sound equipment. Citizens would bring their own lawn chairs and array them on the lawn north of the shell to enjoy entertainment under the stars.)”
The Bay Park Conservancy is the nonprofit organization that manages The Bay Park and raises private funding for it.
Rovine called for eliminating that section, as well, while Bunting expressed support for it.
Gissinger said, “I think a lot of it sounds like reuse,” so she recommended that the section would serve better as part of the committee’s report on potential options for the building.
Hylton objected to the proposal that the best use of the site of the Van Wezel would be as a park. That decision should be up to the City Commission, he pointed out.
As he saw it, Hylton continued, No. 9 is about replacing the Van Wezel, not reusing it, and the committee’s mission is to consider how the structure could be used in the future.
Goker Wilson suggested removing the word “best” and including the rest of No. 9 in the reuse options report.
“I think it is the best [use] because of the climate risk,” Bunting responded, referring to the Van Wezel’s site being transformed into parkland.
“I don’t subscribe [to that],” Goker Wilson told him.
“The threat level there is unprecedented,” Bunting maintained.
Cosler suggested a qualifier for the section, such as “Should the Van Wezel be destroyed by a storm …”
“There’s very differing opinions,” Gissinger noted, in regard to the top option for reuse of the Van Wezel.
At another point, Cosler pointed out that if it is very likely the Van Wezel will be destroyed by a hurricane, “Why are we talking about reuse options?”
Shirley, the facilitator, told the committee members, “When you started your journey two years ago, no one could have or would have predicted what happened [in 2024 would take place]. We’d gone 60-plus years with no damage to the building.” He added that storm damage could happen again.
Then Shirley said he believed all of the committee members had concurred that “a key priority is to keep Sarasota highly viable as the ‘Cultural Capital of Florida.’ ” The Van Wezel or a new SPAC “is essential to doing that.”
Later, Rovine told his colleagues he does not believe anyone on the committee had said that the Van Wezel “is going to be a performing arts hall forever. I think we all agree its future … is minimal to non-existent.”
However, he stressed, the hope is that it will last long enough for a SPAC to be constructed. The Van Wezel, Rovine emphasized, “has to be fortified in some way to make that happen.”
Rovine also said, “We can be more visionary.” That was why the City Commission appointed the members, with their various, relevant professional backgrounds, to the committee, he continued. Therefore, he added, they should use their creativity in preparing the final report for the City Commission. It should be a living document, he said.
