Numbers for SPAC are not adding up

At a recent Sarasota City Commission workshop, proponents for the Sarasota Performing Arts Center (SPAC) cited three arts centers as comparables. Two of these centers were noted in a recent editorial in the Observer. But the numbers aren’t all that comparable.

What’s more, of the three comparables presented at the City Commission workshop, one isn’t being built and the two that were built had unique funding sources that don’t apply to Sarasota.

First was the Steinmetz Hall in Orlando. The presenters boasted at the workshop that the SPAC will have a lower percentage of public funding than the Steinmetz Hall. 

However, the bulk of the public funding for that theater came from hotel taxes. The Orlando area receives 75 million annual visitors and has 130,000 hotel rooms. 

In fact, the local government kicked in only around $25 million for the Steinmetz Hall. The two million or so Orlando area residents paid little versus what is expected of city of Sarasota taxpayers for the SPAC — about 10 times what the Orlando area taxpayers paid in total.

Another theater was the new Tennessee Performing Arts Center in Nashville. However, Nashville and that arts center never signed an agreement because of a dispute over infrastructure costs.

The numbers for a theater that won’t get built aren’t terribly relevant. 

The third theater cited was the Perelman Performing Arts Center in Manhattan. That center had unusually high construction costs because of the use of translucent marble and its location by the World Trade Center Memorial. A couple New York billionaires (Ron Perelman and Mike Bloomberg) funded much of that project.

Now let’s look at some numbers that directly apply to Sarasota. 

The current Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall has 1,741 seats. The proposed SPAC will have a 3,000 seats. The new Sarasota Orchestra campus on Fruitville will have 2,500 seats. Building both the SPAC and Sarasota Orchestra campus will more than quadruple the seats available in a three-mile radius, an increase of 5,500 seats over the existing 1,741 seats. 

Even if the Van Wezel is torn down, the number of available seats will triple (an increase of 3,800 seats).

Also, note 1,000 seats are now available in the main ballroom of The Ora; 200 planned seats for the new Payne Park Auditorium; and Florida Studio Theater will also be expanding seating.

Demand for classical music, plays, traveling Broadway shows and variety acts simply won’t triple or quadruple just because you build the capacity. Already, the vast majority of the performances at the Van Wezel do not sell out. This town could be awash in a sea of empty seats.

The burden of overbuilding will fall largely on the shoulders of the city’s taxpayers. Sarasota County is now steering clear of the SPAC. In the proposed private/public partnership agreement, the city was hoping to contribute only 25% of the costs, with Sarasota County paying another 25%. Now, the city has to provide double that amount because of the county likely pulling out.

Someone needs to hit the pause button on the SPAC and figure out a way to coordinate with the Sarasota Orchestra and Sarasota County. 

The city can ill afford to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a new performance center when there could be a near duplicate facility 5 miles down Fruitville Road. 

Moreover, we should wait a few months for the Van Wezel Purple Ribbon Committee’s recommendations on the future use of that hall, which is less than 5 blocks from the proposed SPAC.

If we don’t wait, we may find out that the numbers don’t add up.

—Peter Blanton, Sarasota 

Correction: This letter has been updated to reflect that Orlando receives 75 million annual visitors.

What is the cost of Gulf of America? 

On Feb. 24, Gov. Ron DeSantis, in an effort to cut back Florida's spending, announced he signed an executive order to establish a state-level version of DOGE to eliminate wasteful government spending. 

Days later, Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, introduced Senate Bill 1058 that proposes to rename Tamiami Trail/U.S. 41 between State Road 60 and U.S. 1 in Miami-Dade, Collier, Lee, Charlotte, Sarasota, Manatee and Hillsborough counties as “Gulf of America Trail.”

What is the financial cost of the name change to government and business? 

How many street signs will need to be changed and at what cost to taxpayers in making the signs, removing the old signs, installing the new signs, disposing of the old signs, changing state maps and changing state brochures distributed through the state and in other states to attract visitors? 

How many businesses are along Tamiami Trail? What is the cost for the businesses to change their signage, menus, contracts/purchase orders, business cards, business displays, websites, etc.?

Tamiami Trail is a key 284-mile roadway in Southwest Florida. It has been in existence since 1928 and built through the Everglades as a way to remove the economic development barrier between Tampa and Miami. 

If we are looking at cutting back waste, why would our elected officials be in favor of the name change? Is not the current name descriptive of the great connector of the state?

— Beth Gotthelf, Longboat Key