City Commission approves amount during May 5 vote
Although Sarasota city Commissioner Kathy Kelley Ohlrich first asked for a brief staff presentation on the matter, she and her colleagues voted unanimously on May 5 to pay the city’s share of the contract for the architectural services provided thus far by the Genoa, Italy-based firm that has been designing the proposed Sarasota Performing Arts Center (SPAC).
As Kelly Strickland, the city’s finance director pointed out, the commissioners already had approved the $36.9-million contract with the Renzo Piano Building Workshop. A formal vote was taken on May 20, 2024, with Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch in the minority.
The city’s 50% share of the Phase 1 expense is $966,936.95, which is for the concept design, as noted in the Agenda Request Form for the commission’s regular meeting this week. That is the amount the board members were asked to approve this week.
Last year, the two Sarasota County commissioners serving on what is called the Bay Park Improvement Board took the position that architectural services for the new performing arts venue should not be covered by revenue that both the city and the county are setting aside in a special fund to pay for amenities within The Bay Park on the city’s waterfront.
Thus, the Sarasota Performing Arts Foundation (SPAF) paid for the Renzo Piano Building Workshop contract upfront. In accord with a 2022 Partnership Agreement between the Foundation and the City Commission, the city is committed to paying for 50% of the expense of a new performing arts center, if that structure is built.
The $966,936.95 will come out of the city’s share of the revenue in The Bay Park Trust Fund, which derives from a tax-increment financing (TIF) district that encompasses not only the area of The Bay Park but also property around the park. Each year that the value of property in that district rises, the City and County commissions apply the lower of their two millage rates to the new value to determine how much each will place in the TIF fund for the park. The past two years, they have used the city’s rate of 3 mills, Strickland has reported.
The agreement, which is valid for up to 30 years, won the approval of the two commissions in November 2020. The baseline for the property values in the TIF district is Jan. 1, 2019.
That agreement also established the Bay Park Improvement Board, which has to approve the funding for any new proposed amenities within The Bay Park. That board comprises two city commissioners, two county commissioners and one member of the public. The current members are Mayor Liz Alpert, Vice Mayor Debbie Trice, County Commissioners Ron Cutsinger and Mark Smith, and Jon Thaxton, director of policy and advocacy for the Gulf Coast Community Foundation, which is based on Venice.
During the May 5 City Commission meeting, Strickland, the city’s director of financial administration, explained that the reimbursement to the Sarasota Performing Arts Foundation (SPAF) formally would be incorporated into the city’s 2025 budget.
Commissioner Kathy Kelley Ohlrich — who was not part of the commission that approved the Partnership Agreement — pulled the item from the city’s second Consent Agenda of routine business matters to ask questions about it.
Why was the staff proposing to make the payment now instead of later, she inquired of Strickland. The city has the money, Strickland replied. In addition, Strickland said, the city had received an invoice from the SPAF for the reimbursement.
Ohlrich is one of three city commissioners who has raised concerns about the estimated $407-million total expense of the planned new performing arts center — with the potential that inflation and other factors could raise that figure, as the construction timeline the Foundation presented to the board members this spring indicates the facilities would not be ready for use until early 2030.
Vice Mayor Debbie Trice and Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch are the other two.
At the end of a nearly four-hour-long discussion on Feb. 11 between the commissioners and Foundation representatives about the plans for the center, Ohlrich told the Foundation group, “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 Foundation has committed to raising private funds for its 50% share of the expense of the facility, the Partnership Agreement calls for the city to handle a number of other responsibilities linked to the Sarasota Performing Arts Center (SPAC), including providing all of the necessary infrastructure for it — such as water and sewer lines — and parking spaces.
After Ohlrich completed her exchange with Strickland, she made the motion to approve the budget amendment, and Commissioner Kyle Battie seconded it.
During the most recent discussion of the plans for the SPAC — which the city conducted with Foundation representatives on March 17 — Tania Castroverde Moskalenko, CEO of the Foundation, asked that the city commissioners plan on a vote no later than early May on the Implementation Agreement with the Foundation, which would clear the way for the new venue to be built and for the Foundation to begin its fundraising.
Part of that March 17 discussion focused on research that the project team had begun undertaking to try to adjust the location of the two buildings proposed, so both would be south of the 10th Street Boat Canal. During a Feb. 11 meeting between project team members and the City Commission, the team provided slides illustrating the planned 300-seat multi-purpose building at the head of the canal.
In response to a Sarasota News Leader inquiry on May 5, Jan Thornburg, general manager of the city’s Communications Department, wrote, “A meeting between the City Commission and SPAF has not been scheduled at this time” on the finalization of the Implementation Agreement.