City commissioners call for more assurances in regard to complex’s financial sustainability
On a 4-1 vote this week, the Sarasota City Commission agreed to extend until March 31, 2025 the deadline for the Sarasota Performing Arts Foundation to provide the board members the formal Implementation Agreement that will include refined details about the plans for construction of a new performing arts venue as part of The Bay Park on the city’s 53-acre waterfront.
No later than the hearing on the adoption of the Implementation Agreement, Foundation representatives indicated that they would provide the commissioners the latest figures available regarding the expenses of operating and maintaining the facility. Vice Mayor Debbie Trice raised that issue during the commission’s Nov. 18 discussion.
Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch cast the “No” vote on the extension, having said, “I think there are more questions than answers at this point.”
“Not all questions can be answered definitively at this point in the process,” Mayor Liz Alpert emphasized. In fact, Alpert continued, the architects working on the design of the Sarasota Performing Arts Center (SPAC) have estimated that they will need two-and-a-half years to complete their work, which would enable the Foundation leaders to provide refined information about the costs expected for the facility’s maintenance and operations.
Alpert suggested that the commissioners “have to have the vision and the faith moving forward that we will come up with the answers …”
The Partnership Agreement the commissioner approved in April 2022 called for the Foundation to present the Implementation Agreement to the commissioners no later than a year after that vote. However, at the Foundation’s request in April 2023, the commissioners agreed to delay the due date for the document until Nov. 30 of this year.
Then, on Oct. 21, Foundation CEO Tania Castroverde Moskalenko requested that the discussion of the proposed Implementation Agreement be postponed until a future meeting. She cited the effects on the community of Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
During the Nov. 18 City Commission meeting, Foundation board Chair Jim Travers also noted that it took city staff longer than expected to negotiate the agreement with the architectural firm that had been chosen to design the new Sarasota Performing Arts Center (SPAC). That firm is Renzo Piano Building Workshop, which is based in Italy. Renzo Piano has chosen Sarasota architectural firm Sweet Sparkman to collaborate with it on the design.
During the Nov. 18 discussion, Vice Mayor Trice — who ended up seconding Commissioner Kyle Battie’s motion of approval for the extension — told the Foundation representatives early on, “We’re at the point now that I would hope that we would have some sort of proof on concept [that the new facility] would be financially, operationally stable in the future.” Yet, no such item was included in the list of deliverables for the formal Partnership Agreement with the Foundation that a different set of commissioners approved in April 2022.
“Could we add that [information to the Implementation Agreement]?” Trice asked Jennifer Jorgensen, director of governmental affairs for the city, as well as Castroverde Moskalenko, the Foundation CEO, and board Chair Travers.
Jorgensen pointed out that the earlier documents the commissioners had approved call for details about the operating and maintenance costs to be submitted to the city before construction begins. Yet, she added, she could discuss with the Foundation leaders the potential of making such information available sooner.
Trice indicated that, with both Castroverde Moskalenko and Travers present, it appeared that they could answer her question.
“I’ll be honest with you,” Trice continued: If the financial details were not provided to the city until just prior to the start of construction, “We will have spent, you know, two digits of millions of dollars by then. I don’t want to end up saying, ‘Oh, this isn’t going to work,’ ” and then halt the process.
‘A lot of holes’
Castroverde Moskalenko noted that the Foundation did submit to the city a business plan in preparation for a Sept. 30 workshop that was conducted with the City Commission. She added that the full Foundation board would have to vote on adding a more detailed plan to the Implementation Agreement.
Trice acknowledged that a second workshop on the new Sarasota Performing Arts Center (SPAC) had been planned before the city began dealing with the damage resulting from Hurricanes Helene, in late September, and Milton, in early October. “In my opinion,” Trice continued, “there were a lot of holes that you indicated [would] be filled” during that second discussion. “I want to at least see those holes filled before we agree to the implementation plan,” Trice said.
“And that is exactly why we’re asking for an extension” of the date for the Implementation Agreement to be considered, Castroverde Moskalenko replied.
If the commissioners approved the extension that day, Castroverde Moskalenko pointed out, the Foundation leaders would make a formal request for another workshop, which would include discussion of the business plan.
City Attorney Robert Fournier noted that when the City Commission approved the Partnership Agreement with the Foundation in 2022, he did not believe “it was even contemplated” that the operating agreement would be ready well before construction was to begin.
“I can’t believe that we have gone this far down the road without knowing money in, money out, operationally,” Trice said. “We don’t want to end up with a white elephant on The Bay Park,” she pointed out.
During the Sept. 30 workshop, Trice added, she recalled discussion of the fact that the Foundation has been providing the city $2 million a year to make the operations of the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall break even, and that the Foundation anticipates doubling that figure after the SPAC is open.
Fournier suggested that perhaps a more detailed business plan could be attached to the Implementation Agreement before the City Commission considers it.
“Certainly,” it’s a reasonable request,” Foundation board Chair Travers said. “Let us talk more with [Jorgensen]. … The team has done a lot of work on an operating model, as you might expect,” he added.
Commissioner Ahearn-Koch referenced comments from Martin Hyde — the only one of the three members of the public to speak during the hearing who was opposed to the SPAC — regarding people interested in making philanthropic contributions to the project but needing more information about the financial issues first.
Ahearn-Koch also stressed, “Maintenance is a huge responsibility for the city, going forward,” as the Partnership Agreement called for the city to handle that.
Newly elected Commissioner Kathy Kelley Ohlrich told the Foundation representatives that, as she was campaigning for the District 3 seat that she won on Nov. 5, she talked with many residents in the community, “and a number of people brought up [concerns about the financing of the SPAC].” Referencing Trice’s comments, Ohlrich added, “We need to assure [residents] that they’re not going to get stuck paying a lot of money for something they can’t afford to go to.”
Trice said she also would like more information about the pricing of the seats in the new venue, to ensure that a wide range of residents would be able to attend performances there.
Castroverde Moskalenko pointed out that she came to the United States as a political refugee from Cuba. “I grew up without access to the arts. So, for me, it is incredibly personal” that everyone be able to attend arts and cultural performances in the city, she added.
A focus on parking, too
Additionally, Ohlrich noted public worries about the parking arrangements for the new facility. People who live downtown, she said, “will be able to walk and Uber easily to whatever structure is there.” Yet, her District 3 constituents do not live within walking distance of the proposed site of the complex. “It would seem to me to be very appropriate,” Ohlrich continued, for the parking details to be worked out at the same time more refined operating and maintenance figures were being determined.
“Obviously,” Travers of the Foundation board responded, “we take that very seriously. … There are ways to get people from A to B,” without parking spaces being right next to a structure.
Jorgensen told Ohlrich that city staff members and the architects of the SPAC are working on the parking plans.
Commissioner Battie noted that parking for the primary performing arts centers in Orlando and Tampa are not immediately adjacent to those facilities. “I don’t see that as being, like, a clog in the wheel, if you will.”
Ohlrich suggested that it would be better for the Foundation to have as many details as possible available before the vote on the Implementation Agreement, even if that meant another delay behind March 31, 2025.
Ahearn-Koch concurred with Ohlrich.