Task force advises Sarasota to keep Van Wezel running optimally

Just after the Purple Ribbon Committee had embarked headlong into its second year of work to recommend a future use of the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, the final act of Hurricane Helene and the curtain call of Hurricane Milton changed everything.

Crashing waves hurled boulders onto the shoreline of Sarasota Bay as water rushed into the building via the bay-facing doors, flooding in feet-deep water the basement, kitchen, orchestra pit and the Grand Foyer, causing cancellation of half the 2024-25 performance season and leaving $10 million worth of damage.

That brought the committee to the conclusion that, given the location of Sarasota's signature performance venue just a few dozen yards from the bay and the recently increasing intensity of hurricane seasons, the best use of the Van Wezel is to keep it operating as optimally as possible until — or if — the city moves forward with a new Sarasota Performing Arts Center.

After two years of work, the Purple Ribbon Committee conveyed that message to the Sarasota City Commission, presenting its findings and recommendations at the commission’s Aug. 18 meeting.

“The 2024 hurricanes were game-changing for the committee's work, and with the impact on the Van Wezel we came to realize that the Van Wezel’s location was so vulnerable to storms that the liability to the building, plus the findings of obsolescence and deferred maintenance of building, could lead to more disruptions of presentations, or with unrecoverable storm damage, no presentations,” said Charles Cosler, who chaired the committee following the resignation of Lee En Chung in December 2024. 

During the first 18 months of its work, the committee focused mostly on receiving reports from various arts, tourism, convention, exhibit and other entities to entertain ideas of possible reuses of the Van Wezel. Those ranged from hybrid exhibit hall/performance spaces, interactive museum installations and even e-sports. None of those organizations or groups, though, possessed the wherewithal, nor the appetite, to take over and operate such a massive structure, committee facilitator Jim Shirley told commissioners.

“I thought it was interesting that you were unable to find anybody willing to take over the building and be able to use it,” said Mayor Liz Alpert.

“It was not that they were not willing, but if you look at the cost of running that building, almost nobody else could do that,” Shirley said. “Honestly, it's just way beyond their means of being able to pay the bills to run something like that.”

Photo by Andrew Warfield

Should the new Performing Arts Center be built nearby, given the lack of a qualified suitor for the building, the committee’s conclusion was that the Van Wezel be storm-proofed as recommended in both the 2021 and 2024 city-commissioned Karins Engineering reports and only critical maintenance be applied. After that, barring further developments, the site is best suited to be incorporated into The Bay park, which is being developed around the building.

The 12-point list of recommendations include:

• Keep the Van Wezel operating optimally as the community performing arts hall until a new PAC is completed and fully operational.
• Immediately begin efforts to dry-proof the building per the 2025 Karins Van Wezel Theater Building Evaluation Report.
• Accelerate the development of a new PAC to help lower the risk of interruption of performances from future storms.
• Prepare a contingency plan to equip alternate venues should a major storm damage the Van Wezel. 
• Hire a team of consultants to develop immediate and phased critical deferred maintenance on the building envelope, HVAC/electrical systems and theater equipment to keep the Van Wezel running for the next 5 to 7 years. 
• Move the existing scale model of the Van Wezel to a temporary location that is safe from hurricanes and tropical storms.
• Refurbish the scale model of the Van Wezel and find a suitable permanent public display location to honor its legacy.
• Future use of the Van Wezel is contingent upon increasing the storm resilience, effectiveness of climate-proofing, insurability, compliance to current building standards, progress of a new PAC and alignment with The Bay park’s mission. 
• Should a National Register of Historic Places nomination be a consideration, prepare and submit appropriate documentation.
• The Van Wezel staff should continue to monitor and assess how well the hall withstands the environmental challenges and report findings to help make more informed final decisions on the reuse of the building. 
• Consider trends of successful ventures centered on shared experience, virtual reality and catering to a wide demographic lacking in the greater Sarasota area.
• Should the Van Wezel sustain unrecoverable storm damage, it would seem prudent to clear and incorporate the site into The Bay park.

That last recommendation caught the attention of Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch.

“What is unrecoverable storm damage?” she asked. “Is there a number? Is there a threshold? Who makes the determination? That's a big thing to determine, and it's very subjective.”

“We would think that the city would ask an engineer to look at the building and say, ‘Can we recover and how much is it going to cost?'” Cosler replied.

“Anything can be recovered and rebuilt,” Ahern-Koch responded. “For me, that word is really important. That recommendation is pretty serious, and the determining word is very flexible and subjective.”

Despite that concern, the commission unanimously approved Vice Mayor Debbie Trice’s motion to accept and receive the Purple Ribbon Committee’s report and another motion to instruct interim City Manager Dave Bullock to consider the recommendations from the report and develop an action plan for review and consideration by the City Commission.