Van Wezel group shifts to discussion mode as sunset looms

For the past 14 months the city’s Purple Ribbon Committee has been listening to pitches for ideas regarding the future use of the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall. Shifting to discussion mode at its Nov, 25 meeting, the panel discovered is that it has much to talk about. 

The committee has until July 2025 to submit a report to the City Commission on its recommendations for repurposing the city’s primary performance venue should it be replaced by the proposed Sarasota Performing Arts Hall, a joint venture of the city and the Sarasota Performing Arts Foundation. It’s an ambitious schedule compounded by the loss of a month’s work because of Hurricane Milton, and now the loss of its chairperson, Lee-En Chung, who told the committee the Dec. 5 meeting will be her last.

“I have submitted my resignation as of last Friday to the city, and it is with sadness,” Chung said. “I have some personal and family concerns, issues and commitments coming up due to Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, and I must meet those responsibilities. These are unexpected conditions, and I have communicated with the city how proud I am to have served on this committee.”

Chung, who brought an engineer’s expertise to the committee, was scheduled to pass the gavel to the committee’s next chair on Dec. 5, and whether her seat on the panel will be filled for its duration was not determined. City-appointed facilitator Jim Shirley reminded the panel that, regardless of this new development, the committee has only a few more months to complete its task before it is sunsetted in July 2025.

“Our goal over the next three months, really four months at most, is going to be to get enough information to start coming up with potential solutions and figuring out what we need to know about those solutions, and then writing a report and presenting to the City Commission,” Shirley said. “We need to be ready to do that by June 30, so we've got a job in front of us.”

The purpose of the most recent meeting, Shirley said, was for the committee to request any additional information and sources it may need in order to begin to develop its suggestions on how to repurpose the Van Wezel. That ignited a banter between members over what precisely their mission entails — whether it should consider how the building could work in tandem with a new performing arts hall should one be built, how weatherproofing the Van Wezel can be coordinated with the continued development of the surrounding The Bay park, parking solutions and more.

Perhaps most vexing is whether it should consider short-term vs. long-term use of the Van Wezel as it is not certain at this time whether the city will move forward with the Sarasota Performing Arts Center.

"One thing that we have not talked about at all is the business of what goes on in the Van Wezel,” said the committee’s Charles Cosler. “We’ve not talked about what it costs to run the Van Wezel, occupied and unoccupied. And I think we need to know that in order to be able to adjudicate whether groups can use it or not.”

Robert Buntiing followed up Cosler’s remarks that making a recommendation without financial data will be difficult. Shirley replied the committee’s task is to provide the City Commission with ideas about how the Van Wezel can be repurposed, and that making a business plan to support that is beyond its scope of work.

"Your charge has not been to develop a business case, but it has been to look at as many facets as we can about the facts of the building today and looking to the future, and exploring what's happening around the country and marketplaces,” Shirley said. “We're not charged with writing a business plan.”

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Now at top of mind for committee members is the flooding of the Van Wezel brought by Hurricane Milton, which forced cancellation of the first half of its performance season with plans to complete restoration in time to resume shows on Jan. 2, 2025. Chung told them that, in her opinion as an engineer, flood-proofing the building will be cost prohibitive, especially for short-term use.

David Rovine, who brings expertise in the financial management of performing arts halls to the committee, said the bottom line is the Van Wezel will have to be fortified to some degree to continue operating as is, short-term or long-term, in order for Sarasota to remain competitive in the marketplace.

“You can't get out of the routing because once you're out, you're out,” Rovine said. “You might get back in after several years, but it's very expensive to run a performing arts center that's empty. You need to have events, shows, concerts, comedians and Broadway shows all the time.” 

And if the SPAC is built, Rovine added, the future use of the Van Wezel should be something other than a performance venue. “Assuming the new theater is going to open, I think it's going to absorb and take care of all the arts entities that exist in this community,” Rovine said.