Parking garage's fate remains uncertain

Every day, downtown Sarasota competes with shopping districts and malls that aren’t even built yet, according to Downtown Improvement District (DID) Chairman Ernie Ritz.

Ritz told those in attendance at a June 12 DID board of directors meeting there’s only one thing separating downtown’s shopping district from the other shopping areas in the area: parking.

“In two years, we will have huge competition with Wal-Mart (a supercenter is in the process of being permitted in the Ringling Plaza space) and Benderson’s (University Town mall) project out east,” Ritz said. “I can tell you that people are already actively recruiting some of our downtown tenants and asking them what it would take to move them out of downtown.”

Ritz, who along with the rest of the DID board of directors supported a motion to move forward with the process of building a State Street parking garage, said those 300-plus parking spaces downtown will make all the difference during season and will attract more high-profile retail tenants to the downtown core.

“The only thing they have that we don’t is parking,” Ritz said. “That’s why we need to build the new parking garage now.”

The conversation was put on the agenda because some Sarasota city commissioners are questioning whether it’s the right time to build the garage.

Commissioners Terry Turner and Shannon Snyder have pointed to a 10% average usage rate in the Palm Avenue parking garage as a reason they believe the city doesn’t need another parking garage.

The only problem is, an agreement the city reached with Pineapple Square in 2010, when it acquired the 43,700-square-foot lot, requires the city to build at least a 300-space parking garage on the site within four years. The city must have the garage built by February 2015 and has $7.29 million already set aside to do so.

The city’s parking master plan in 2005 also identified the State Street lot as a priority designation for a garage. The site is currently home to a 139-parking space lot.

City attorney Bob Fournier told the Sarasota Observer that if commissioners decided not to build the garage, the city would be breaking a development agreement that would most likely prompt Pineapple Square developer John Simon to seek damages against the city.

“Mr. Simon is of the opinion the garage needs to be built when I discussed it with him,” Fournier said. “It’s clear that damages could flow if the garage wasn’t built.”

Fournier said city staff instructed Fournier to cease discussions about a possible extension of the development timeline, after staff suggested it’s not in the city’s best interest to do so because construction costs will only rise as the economy recovers.

Fournier said the city could consider selling the property, though, which would give Pineapple Square officials the opportunity to acquire the property back from the city because of a right of first refusal addendum in the agreement.

Simon continues to stand firm on his belief the garage will attract more retail and more people during the busy shopping season.

“The city’s obligated to build the garage and it has the money,” Simon. “It needs to be built.”

To have the garage built in time, senior city planner Steve Stancel told the DID board that the city must start its two-phase process of selecting a design-build firm no later than October.

Stancel said city staff recommends a firm be selected to build the garage and tenants can vie for the first-floor retail space while the project is being constructed as part of the second phase of the project. Commissioners, however, have also expressed the space should be leased before construction begins so the retail space doesn’t sit empty for years like the Palm Avenue parking garage retail space did.

Ritz said it’s no secret that a drugstore chain has expressed interest in the first-floor space.

“It’s been a goal of our economic development director to get a drugstore downtown,” Ritz said. “We seem to have that shored up. Let’s build the thing.”

Stancel also suggested it’s time to move forward.

“To quibble about the process is damaging this project,” Stancel said.

The DID board agreed, unanimously, approving a motion that a letter be drafted to the Sarasota City Commission to move forward with going out to bid to select a design-build team in October.

The commission is expected to discuss the State Street garage again at upcoming workshops on capital-improvement projects and overall strategic plans for the city. The garage is listed in both categories.

“It’s obvious commissioners have to make a decision on the State Street garage soon,” Stancel said.