Performing Arts Center agreement deadline extended

For the second time, the deadline for City Commission consideration of an implementation agreement regarding the proposed Sarasota Performing Arts Center has been extended.

At Monday’s commission meeting, the Sarasota Performing Arts Foundation won 4-1 approval, with Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch opposed, to extend the deadline to no later than March 31, 2025. This second amendment of the mutual partnership agreement between the city and the foundation extends that deadline from Nov. 30, 2024. 

The city and the foundation entered into a partnership agreement in April 2022 that deadlined an implemenation agreement one year later. The first amendment to that agreement executed in April 2023 extended the deadline to the end of this month. However, lingering questions of the commission that could not be addressed because a scheduled workshop was cancelled as a result of Hurricane Milton was a key factor in the foundation requesting the second extension.

“An extension will allow us to strengthen the implementation agreement by answering additional questions from the commission,” said SPAF CEO Tonia Castroverde Moskalenko. In addition, it will provide an opportunity to meet with new Commissioner Kathy Kelley Ohlrich, who has not been a party to prior discussions.

“We request a workshop with the commission so that we can take a deeper dive in the questions that you have and update the commission on changes to the design concept based on the feedback that we have received from the community since our town hall meetings," Castroverde Moskalenko said.

Those community meetings provided the public its first look at a preliminary design concept with architects from the Genoa, Italy-based firm Renzo Piano Building Workshop. SPAF Board Chairman Jim Travers added the protracted negotiations between Renzo Piano and the city compressed the time frame to produce a refined document for commission consideration.

“Obviously there were some things out of our control since the time we did the extension in 2023,” Travers said. “The architect wasn't selected at that point, and it did take longer to negotiate that contract. That was just something else that was out of our control that affected the timeline, let alone the hurricanes. With the depth of the information and the importance this project is to the city, we want to make sure that we inform each of the commissioners and the public.”

Some commissioners suggested that if it takes longer than the end of next March to bring a complete agreement to the city, so be it.

Vice Mayor Debbie Trice was joined by Ahearn-Koch and Ohlrich in their demand for more detailed financial figures with regard to operations and maintenance. Trice challenged whether the foundation will be able to double its contribution to balance the books, up from the $2 million it currently provides to offset losses by the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall to the projected $4 million for the new facility.

As for capital costs, the partnership agreement calls for equivalent cost-sharing with the city and county, balancing philanthropy with revenue generated by the tax increment financing district on the improved value of real estate in the immediate downtown area. Because it is within The Bay park, a new performing arts center is eligible to share in that revenue for capital investment.

Castroverde Moskalenko said further delay in securing the implementation agreement impacts the SPAF’S campaign to raise capital for construction and for establishing a foundation to help defray ongoing fiscal gaps.

Trice asked if the SPAF would be amenable to include a proof of concept with its implementation agreement proposal.

“The amount of money we both have spent to this point, and that we would spend up until the time of construction beginning, we will have spent two digits of millions of dollars by then,” Trice said. “I don't want to end up saying this isn't going to work. Let's stop $20 million, $30 million down the road, because we can’t sustain the building once it's built.”

Travers said that's possible, but it will be up to the SPAF board. City Attorney Robert Fournier said if that is to be included, it would have to be separate submission from the implementation agreement itself. 

With three commissioners pressing for more fiscal certainty, Mayor Liz Alpert capitulated that while questions remain, some can't be answered at the time of an implementation agreement. 

“At this point in the process, the architects estimate that they're going to need two-and-a-half years to come up with their final design. How do you know what the maintenance is going to be and what the actual cost is going to be until you have a final design?” Alpert said. “I am sure the commissioners who had the vision for the Van Wezel over 50 years ago didn't have all of the answers right at the very beginning of the process, so I think we need to take that into consideration.”