Sarasota Performing Arts Foundation leaders want Implementation Agreement signed before end of March
At the end of slightly more than four hours of discussion on Feb. 11, regarding the latest information available about the proposal for a new City of Sarasota performing arts center on the bayfront, Commissioner Kathy Kelley Ohlrich said she wanted to “address the elephant in the room that we’ve sort of talked about today, and that is the cost.”
Indicating that that is the primary concern for many city residents, Ohlrich told the representatives of the Sarasota Performing Arts Foundation and the other project team members, “I really encourage you to sharpen your pencils as best you can, so that we get the lowest and best cost projections we can.”
Even though the design team had revised its proposal since September 2024 from four buildings to two — with the potential for a third — the total project cost was put at $365 million. That includes $250 million for the buildings themselves, plus the architectural services; furniture, fixtures and furnishings; project management, insurance, renderings and models; and a total contingency fee of $15.9 million.
However, with in a 4% annual inflation rate factored in through 2028, the total rose to $407 million.
“Time matters in this case,” Cortez Crosby of the Paratus Group — one of the consulting firms assisting the Foundation — stressed of the fact that the estimate is based on 2024 dollars.
Add in an estimated $31 million in expenses for the extra parking needed for what is being called the Sarasota Performing Arts Center (SPAC), plus as much as $10 million from the city to cover its obligation for preparing the site for the construction of the SPAC, the maximum total share of the city’s 50% share of the expense was calculated at $222,500,000.
Just before Ohlrich made her comment to the Foundation group, Mayor Liz Alpert reminded her colleagues, “We do have a Partnership Agreement with the Performing Arts Foundation to build a new performing arts center, so we want to make sure that we are working in good faith toward that, because we do have a contractual obligation to make a good-faith effort …” Alpert emphasized. “That doesn’t change every time the make-up of the City Commission changes.”
Neither Ohlrich nor Vice Mayor Debbie Trice was a member of the board when the Partnership Agreement with the Foundation won City Commission approval in early April 2022.
Before the 3-2 vote on that document, Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch asked City Attorney Robert Fournier whether approving the Partnership Agreement would bind the commission to working with the Foundation even if the city had difficulty raising its share of the expense of the SPAC.
“Well, certainly there’s an obligation of good faith,” Fournier told her, “as there is in any agreement.” He reminded her that the Foundation representatives had committed — at that time — to coming back to the commission in a year with a formal Implementation Agreement that would include the cost determined by an architect, based on the Foundation’s final decisions about the size of the new venue and other facets of construction.
Moreover, Fournier pointed out that day, the commissioners are “in control of the total project cost,” as an attorney for the Foundation had told the board members. As he understood that statement, Fournier continued, it meant that the commissioners could insist on a smaller project that they felt the city could afford.
Then-Mayor Erik Arroyo joined Ahearn-Koch in opposing the Partnership Agreement, with Arroyo, too, citing concerns about the total expense of the proposal.
Alpert noted at the end of the Feb. 11 discussion that the Foundation representatives plan to provide the proposed Implementation Agreement to the commissioners during the commission’s regular meeting on March 3. However, no such item is on that agenda.
In November 2024, the commissioners agreed to allow an extension until the end of March of this year for the document to be considered for approval. That was partly because the community dealt with extensive storm damage last summer and fall and partly because it took the Foundation longer to hire the architect, which is Genoa, Italy-based Renzo Piano Building Workshop.
The Sarasota firm Sweet Sparkman Architecture is the local group that Renzo Piano selected to assist with the initiative.
Foundation CEO Tania Castroverde Moskalenko pointed out during the Feb. 11 workshop that the commission’s approval of the Implementation Agreement will enable the Foundation to launch its capital campaign.
Bonds, TIF money and Surtax revenue
A portion of the Feb. 11 discussion did focus on the use of bonds to enable the city to pay its share of the expense.
However, one concern that arose is the fact that if all of the remaining funds that the city expects to receive over the 30-year life of a tax-increment financing (TIF) agreement between the city and the Sarasota County Commission were committed to paying for the SPAC, no money would be left to cover the costs of Phases 3 and 4 of the development of the downtown Bay Park, which will involve the Cultural District and the Canal District.
The County Commission seated in 2020 agreed with the City Commission on the need to ensure that the district from which the TIF revenue would flow would encompass not just the 53-acre park but areas around it.
Jan. 1, 2019 was set as the base year for the TIF. For every year in which the property tax revenue from the district is higher than it was the prior year, the lower of the two local governments’ millage rates is applied to the total, with the resulting revenue set aside in a trust fund for the Bay Park instead of going into each local government’s General Fund, which covers many annual budget expenses. For the city, the Sarasota Police Department funding annually wins the largest share of money from the General Fund.
Kelly Strickland, the city’s finance director, pointed out on Feb. 11 that the city’s 3-mill rate had applied most recently to the TIF revenue.
Given the construction in the TIF district — especially in the Quay Sarasota — project team members emphasized that the trust fund was growing at a greater rate than initially anticipated.
In January, the city’s share of the TIF money through the 2049 fiscal year was projected at $146,249,492, as shown in a slide presented during the Feb. 11 workshop.
Concern also arose that the County Commission might not agree to allowing its share of the TIF revenue to be dedicated to the SPAC. Last year, county Commissioners Mark Smith and Ron Cutsinger — who represent the county on the trust fund board — objected to use of the TIF money for the Foundation’s hiring of Renzo Piano. No portion of the TIF money can be used for any project without final approval from both the County and City commissions.
Ultimately, the Foundation agreed to pay the $44 million for the architectural services as part of its 50-percent share of the SPAC.
As for bonds: Jennifer Jorgensen, the city’s director of governmental relations, explained on Feb. 11 that the city could issue special obligation bonds, which could be repaid by the TIF revenue, and the city could charge a $5 surcharge on SPAC tickets, which could be used to pay back revenue bonds that could be issued, as well.
Further, revenue bonds could be issued for a 600-space parking garage, to provide the extra spaces necessary to satisfy the expectations for public access to the SPAC, Jorgensen pointed out. Additionally, she said, the City Commission dedicated $6 million out of the city’s share from the county’s Surtax IV program— whose revenue derives from a 1-cent sales tax — for the SPAC plans.
Jorgensen estimated that the city would be able to pull together $152,249,492 for the project, which would leave a difference of up to $70,250,508. She indicated that a county contribution of TIF funds to the project would cover the total cost.
“There’s no way,” Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch said, that she would factor in any money from the county for the SPAC. Her view, she added, is that the City Commission should work on how the city could cover the entire expense.
More changes possible in regard to design and location
The Feb. 11 workshop made clear that a number of issues remain to be resolved, including the exact location of the structure with the large, 2,700-seat theater and lobby, as well as how the city staff would be able to cobble together the expected number of additional, off-site parking spaces for patrons.
The September plan called for a 2,500-seat main theater.
The second building would include a 300-seat multi-purpose room, space for educational programming and patron and support spaces.
The September 2024 concept encompassed the large theater, a separate building with the main lobby, a medium theater and a multi-purpose room.
Because of a “view corridor” issue,” members of the team explained, the height of the main theater would be limited to 90 feet in the earlier plan, based on the design flood elevation allowed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the affected area. Yet, that would put the lobby at about the same height as the lobby in the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall. The new proposal calls for the structure with the main theater to have a maximum height of 110 feet.
The view corridor easement, project team members said, was put in place to ensure that residents of two nearby condominium projects — the Renaissance and the Alinari — east of the park, would continue to have views of Sarasota Bay.
Mark Carroll of Renzo Piano noted that the team had moved the large theater building north of the 10th Street Canal, so it would be out of the view corridor. That freed up approximately 3.5 acres of extra green space for the Bay Park, within which the SPAC would stand, he added.
Jerry Sparkman of Sweet Sparkman also pointed out that, surprisingly, when it released its new flood zone maps in March 2024, FEMA lowered the base flood elevation from 14 feet to 10 feet in the area where the SPAC would be constructed.
However, the design team’s goal is to create structures that would be much more resilient to flooding and climate change, Sparkman said. Thus, plans call for the stage and lobby to be 31 feet, 6 inches above sea level, while the ground floor would be 9 feet, 6 inches above sea level.
The structure with the multi-purpose room would be built partly above the canal itself. Noting the expected views that room would offer to users, Kerry Joyce of Renzo Piano added, “This will be one of the most spectacular rooms in Sarasota.”
Still, Carroll of Renzo Piano talked of the fact that the project remains in the concept phase. “The building itself may change slightly,” he said of the structure with the large theater.
Yet, early on, Ohlrich pointed out that she had understood that the purpose of the discussion that day was for the commissioners to gain clarity about the SPAC proposal, so they would know how they felt they should proceed in addressing the Implementation Agreement when it comes before them.
“There are many unknowns,” she said, that make it “more difficult for decision makers …”
“What won’t change?” she asked.
“What will not change is our request next month for the approval of two buildings,” Foundation CEO Castroverde Moskalenko told Ohlrich: the 2,700-seat main theater structure and the building with the multi-purpose room. A medium-size theater could be added at some point in the future, the architects said. “It’s no promise at this time,” Castroverde Moskalenko added in response to a follow-up question from Ohlrich
Castroverde Moskalenko did acknowledge, “Locations could change.” She said that the team is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) on the plan for the multi-purpose building to stand over the canal.
In December 2024, AG Lafley, the founding CEO of the Bay Park Conservancy, which operates the Bay Park and is raising private funds for its facilities, told the County Commission that the Conservancy was still working with the USACE in an effort to get the necessary permit for the Sunset Pier that has been planned all along as a key feature of the park. Because of the delays with the permitting process, Lafley added, the Conservancy had moved the pier out of its projects for the second phase of the park, which is underway.