City moves ahead with Players Centre negotiations

The City Commission isn’t committed to buying the Players Centre for Performing Arts property at 838 N. Tamiami Trail, but it at least wants to explore its options.

On Monday, the board voted unanimously to give City Manager Tom Barwin authority to negotiate a potential purchase agreement for the property, currently listed for $9.5 million. Any agreement would need to come back before the City Commission for final approval.

Barwin and other members of the Sarasota Bayfront Planning Organization, an independent group putting together a redevelopment plan for 42 acres of city-owned land surrounding the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, have keyed in on the Players Centre property as a potential asset. City staff has suggested the land could provide off-site parking for a redeveloped bayfront district.

Although the board expressed interest in the potential purchase, several commissioners wanted more information than what was provided at Monday’s meeting. Commissioner Hagen Brody asked how the city would pay for the property — which Barwin said staff would attempt to negotiate down from the asking price — and Mayor Shelli Freeland Eddie called for more thorough discussions before any sale could come to fruition.

Barwin said more information would be included with future updates. Before now, the city had not had the opportunity to seriously discuss a sale with Ian Black Real Estate, which is listing the property. Richard Hays, a facilitator working with the Sarasota Bayfront Planning Association, spoke at Monday’s meeting to encourage consideration of the potential purchase.

“We’re in the perfect phase of the development of the whole 42 acres to be looking at options,” Hays said.

Two other members of the public spoke against the potential purchase at Monday’s meeting. Joel Schleicher and Martin Hyde both said officials could not afford to spend millions of dollars on the land considering the other financial obligations the city faces.

“Why would we take a prime tax producing piece of property off the tax rolls?” Schleicher said. “This purchase is not visionary, but fiscally irresponsible.”

Even if the bayfront planning process doesn’t incorporate this piece of land, Barwin suggested it would benefit the city to have it in its portfolio of property. If the city doesn’t buy the land, he said it would probably contribute to the proliferation of high-rises that has frustrated some residents.

“We’re likely to see another 18-story condo,” Barwin said. “There’s a lot of 18-story condos underway and coming. This is a little hedge against a canyon of all 18-story condos, if we choose to go there.”