- November 23, 2024
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It’s an unlikely location, but this 15-acre prime bayfront property that is home to the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens downtown campus was left in the care of executors of its namesake to create a unique botanical research garden.
What could have been sold in parcels by its board of trustees for high-density residential towers at the entrance to the Hudson Bayou neighborhood is instead being preserved in perpetuity as a botanical garden, thanks to a master plan, campaign and expansion befitting what is touted as the home of the “world's best scientifically documented collections of orchids and bromeliads.”
That’s a title that Selby Gardens takes seriously, so much so that among the new buildings under construction in the master plan is a research center that will house all of its science activities and collections, including a herbarium, laboratory and library.
It’s all part of the first of three phases of a $72 million reimagining that will increase the capacity and enhance the visitor experience and education Selby Gardens offers. The gardens currently attract approximately 230,000 visitors per year
Selby Gardens President and CEO Jennifer Rominiecki calls the master plan and campaign a gift to the city. The only public funding for the project is a $1.1 million appropriation from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity.
“The economic impact is expected to be more than $78 million and it will create and support nearly 3,000 jobs,” Rominiecki said. “That's really why the state supported it, but the rest of the funding is private, and so this is really a gift to our community. At the same time, it will help make our region an international leader in sustainability.”
That sustainability comes in the form of an 84-by-40-foot storm water vault buried beneath the site, built below the temporary visitor parking lot when construction began in early 2022. The vault will collect all water running onto the site and filter out impurities before being emptied into Sarasota Bay.
A solar array will make Selby Gardens the first net-positive energy botanical garden complex in the world, generating more electricity than it consumes. The new restaurant will also be net-positive energy, and it will have an edible rooftop garden that will help supply foods for the kitchen.
The Palm Avenue vehicle entrance will become a pedestrian boulevard, removing traffic from the center of the complex. Vehicles will enter the new 450-space parking deck off either Orange Avenue or U.S. 41. The parking structure will be topped with a 50,000-square-foot solar array, providing the added benefit of covered parking on the top level. Visitors will enter a new open-air welcome center for ticketing. From there they can visit a new welcome theater, or the restaurant and gift shop on the ground level of the LEAF before touring the gardens.
Even the parking structure will be green. Called the Living Energy Access Facility, or LEAF, it will be lined with cables to support vines that will completely cover the outside of the structure when mature. Other first phase improvements include a publicly accessible multi-use recreation trail, which opened December 2022, and off-site roadway improvements.
Old homes of no historical significance along Orange Avenue that were used for Selby Gardens office space were demolished to make way for the LEAF. New office space will be located in the research center building.
All Phase 1 construction is scheduled to be completed by October 2023. Meanwhile, fundraising continues for the remaining phases, and planning for Phase 2 is underway. Of the $92 million capital campaign goal, $20 million is earmarked for endowment. Of the nearly $57 million raised to date, $51.6 million is budgeted for Phase 1.
“Phase 2 is really about new glass houses for living collections as well as an indoor-outdoor learning pavilion for our education programs for children and adults,” Rominiecki said. “Phase 3 is really about unifying the pathways throughout the whole footprint, fixing our dockage and seawalls and doing a full historic renovation of the Payne Mansion, which is our museum building. The project was very much front loaded, and we did that because of the urgency of our needs for resiliency. Having the world's best scientifically documented collections of orchids and bromeliads, we need to shore them up, get them out of the flood zone and safeguard them.”
The Campaign Capping Challenge was launched in October 2021 with pledges from a group of loyal Selby Gardens supporters to help secure the funds needed to complete the initial phase. With that goal now in sight, project manager Willis A. Smith Construction of Sarasota has pledged to triple all new gifts of up to $250,000, for a total of $750,000.
“Gifts to our Master Plan at all levels are welcome, and naming opportunities continue to be available,” said Rominiecki. A gift of $2,500, for example, will secure naming rights on a solar panel. “This project will transform not only Selby Gardens but also the Sarasota community and beyond.”
More details about the Selby Gardens downtown campus, master plan and campaign are available at Selby.org.
