APRIL FOOL: Developer, town work together on rec-center redo

A private contractor, working with Longboat Key leaders on plans to redevelop the Bayfront Park Recreation Center Building, proposes converting the aging, iconic facility from a dowdy community workhorse to a five-star site of fun and frivolity.

Among the most eye-popping features: a 20,000 square foot “multi-purpose room” designed to “host Scout meetings, art lessons, weddings, boat shows and more. “

“It will be the jewel of redeveloped, coastal, southwest Florida recreation centers,’’ said Whit Chuckall, a private builder and developer hired by the town to develop a proposal from concept to a turn-key product.

The proposal, obtained by the Longboat Observer, does not include price estimates, but a number of strategies to raise money were included.

Among them, sending a bill to Manatee County; a seasonal tourist tax levied on in-town purchases between Thanksgiving and Easter; parking passes for out-of-state registered vehicles; weekly casino gambling; and the use of lost-and-found credit cards turned in to the police station.

Among the amenities proposed:

• A fitness center with an indoor track, exercise equipment and a spinning room. Disgraced former cycling champion Lance Armstrong has expressed interest in serving as host.
• A card room.
• A reading room and library.
• A “world-class’’ kitchen and dining room.
• A climate-controlled covered overpass to Bayfront Park’s beach access.
• An indoor pickleball court.
• A water taxi system designed to deliver visitors from downtown Sarasota and St. Armands Key direct to Bayfront Park.

Resident group Consider Longboat A Special Spot (CLASS) president Ima Fungal embraced the proposal as “something we’ve needed on the island for quite some time.”

“A lot of our members have been asking where they can hold a 700-guest wedding or bar mitzvah,’’  Fungal said. “That place down the road will be built too small for us. 425 people? How nouveau riche. That’s not even my Christmas-card list.’’

As part of the proposal, an independent traffic study supplied by Chuckall’s company, WeBild2Big LLC indicates such a re-imagined recreation center of that size would gravitationally pull traffic off the roads.

“It's something to do with physics,’’ the report’s executive summary reads. "And, water taxis!"

Town officials have not spoken publicly about the proposal, and plans have not reached the level at which they’re considered public documents.

Though, included in the proposal was a coffee-stained memo from a town official, with the name smudged and illegible. It reads:  “Why should that guy from Orlando get all the business? We can be self-sufficient on this thing in five years from the word “Go.” We own the land, we can now borrow up to $5 million without the voters. We can zone this anyway we want. We ARE the zoning. Green light the thing and lets go.’’

Residents likewise expressed optimism that the new recreation center could be developed and built promptly.

“This is great,’’ said Hedda Indaclouds, a resident of Longboat Key for more than 20 years. “I can’t believe the town had to come up with an idea like this. Leave it to government to propose and pay for such a wonderful plan. Where is private industry when you need it?”