The Bay moves ahead with Phase 3 of park developments

As The Bay park is in the midst of its October-long, three-year anniversary celebration of the opening of Phase 1, work on Phase 2 and planning for Phase 3 remains ongoing.

With the Oct. 16 endorsement of the city-county Bay Park Improvement Board, the Sarasota City Commission and County Commission this week approved funding, but at different levels, for design and development of improvements to the Centennial Park boat launch and surrounding area, and for design and planning of the center of the park, which is now the parking lot of the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall.

On Oct. 20, the City Commission approved $20 million for Phase 3 work plus $1 million to begin design work for that third phase. On Oct. 21, though, the County Commission took a more cautious approach, holding off on the approval of issuing $20 million in debt — which is set against tax increment financing district tax revenues on properties immediately surrounding The Bay park — but approved the $1 million.

County commissioners cited uncertainty of the future of property tax in Florida, opting to await more clarity from the state legislature before considering the $20 million borrow. The Bay Park Conservancy proposed the city and county each provide one-third of the repayment from the TIF with the BPC covering the remainder.

The Bay Park Improvement Board is comprised of Sarasota Mayor Liz Alpert and Vice Mayor Debbie Trice, county commissioners Mark Smith and Ron Cutsinger, and at-large member Jon Thaxton.

Among the most significant changes made to the park's master plan since the last BPIB meeting is removal of restaurant sites in Centennial Park — moving them to elevated positions south of the 10th Street boat basin — plus the elimination of a brick-and-mortar bait shop in favor of a mobile vendor, elimination of the pedestrian bridge over the10th Street boat basin and a parking deck just south of Van Wezel Way. The first level of parking will flow beneath parkland covered by green space terraced to create the necessary elevation above the parking. 

Missing from the updated master plan is a Sarasota Performing Arts Center, only because, at the time, there is no set location other than south of the basin. 

“There's still three to four acres north of Municipal Auditorium between Van Wezel Way and North Tamiami Trail, and there are plenty of options for the Performing Arts Center in different configurations,” said A.G Lafley, CEO of the Bay Park Conservancy.

Like the rest of the park plans executed thus far, Lafley and Diana Shaheen, COO of The Bay, said they are adaptable to changing conditions.

The parking garage, Lafley said, can be unobtrusively designed at 750 spaces, but could hold as many as 900 if a fourth, more visible layer is added. 

Lafley would provide no details about the occupant of the first restaurant space, but said the architect and restaurateur are ready to move forward with design of the location that will stand atop the parking level. The restaurant’s primary location, he said, serves about 200,000 customers per year.

For now at least, the plan shows only three restaurants, two adjacent to the parking deck and a third along the south seawall of the boat basin.

“We had four, five and six restaurants ringing that boat basin, and it just doesn't work,” Lafley said. “We moved them south and they're actually in a better location. They're more resilient. We can build them for less. They'll last longer.”

That move made the pedestrian bridge expendable.

“It was a great design idea, but in the end, it became a bridge to nowhere when the restaurants moved south and we took out the Overlook,” Lafley said.