Could park amenity plans return at Premier in Lakewood Ranch?

When plans for building a 190,000-square-foot ice rink at the Premier Sports Campus North in Lakewood Ranch died Sept. 1 at the Manatee County Commission meeting, some residents made sure commissioners knew what they wanted instead.

A park — or at least some park amenities.

Actually, the request was more of a reminder than a suggestion.

When Manatee County bought the land that makes up Premier Sports Campus North in two separate purchases from Schroeder-Manatee Ranch in 2017 and 2018, residents were told that among other services, such as a library, the land would deliver amenities such as softball and baseball fields, a dog park, an amphitheater, and more.

While the library is open and a swim and pickleball complex is due to open by the end of the year, many of the amenities suggested to the taxpayers have not come to fruitition.

Lorraine Lakes’ Rosella Stromberg brought a rendering of a fictitious park to the Sept. 1 meeting. The name, “Kruse-McCann Park,” garnered a hearty laugh from both commissioners and residents. 

Of course, Stromberg was having a little fun with Commissioners George Kruse and Bob McCann.

Although nobody else brought visual aids, Stromberg’s sentiment was repeated in several other comments. 

Solera’s Tom Hirt noted that Elliott Falcione, the director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, had previously “specified that Premier Sports Campus South would be for economic development, and Premier Sports Campus North would be for the community.” 

Hirt asked commissioners to put that vision back in place.

Photo by Lesley Dwyer

Solera’s Nicholas Keen noted that people move to Lakewood Ranch because it “respects aesthetics.” 

“There’s added value in terms of tax revenue to people wanting to live in a place that’s nice to look at and is pleasant to live in — that’s what Lakewood Ranch is all about,” Keen said. “There are houses in Lakewood Ranch that sell for considerably more money than an equivalent house elsewhere in Manatee County. Precisely for that reason, Lakewood Ranch is an aspirational community.” 

Because Lakewood Ranch is situated in both Manatee County and Sarasota County, Keen compared the two. He told Manatee commissioners to look at the good job Sarasota County has done in approving all SMR's development at Waterside Place. He warned Manatee Commissioners that they are headed in a direction that is not compatible with Lakewood Ranch is they continue to go in their current direction. 

“Boring as walking trails and trees might be, people like green space,” Keen said. “They like intelligent development, and that’s what Lakewood Ranch has come to represent.”

Residents have been concerned the emphasis has been placed on economic impact generators and not resident amenities. Those concerns fueled protests about the ice rink project, which melted on Sept. 1.

Discussions between Manatee County and Icemann Development LLC about building the rink were no longer suspended. They were finished. 

“It’s completely over,” Commissioner Bob McCann said following the Sept. 1 meeting. “The project is gone.” 

More than 50 red-clad Lakewood Ranch residents attended the meeting with plans to speak out against the project, named Project Grace, but in the end, most declined to say anything because there was no need to do so.

It was clear commissioners were leaning against the staff’s proposed motion to “resume previous discussions … as originally approved June 16.” 

Commissioner George Kruse questioned why the item was even on the agenda when the staff didn’t bring forth any new information. 

In one of several heated moments during the discussion, McCann had the clerk read back the prior motion made at the July 28 meeting. 

The motion was “to direct staff to suspend all offers to Project Grace and instead bring back to the board a presentation addressing all the concerns raised by the board and the public at today’s meeting and relocate to a different location than currently proposed.” 

Location, location, location

Director of Development Services Nicole Knapp said only alternative locations within Premier were assessed because Icemann’s CEO Gordie Zimmermann was not interested in an alternative site. 

“It wasn’t that we ignored the commissioners’ direction. He’s, frankly, just not interested,” Knapp said. “If the charge is to go somewhere else, we’ll have to wait for a different applicant.”

County-owned land on Lena Road had been proposed as an alternative location during the July 28 meeting. But when it was mentioned to Zimmermann during the Sept. 1 meeting, he asked, “Where’s that?” 

Zimmermann argued that Premier is the right location because “most of these facilities today are being built in neighborhoods.”

“An ice rink is just a soccer field with a roof on it,” he said. “I don’t understand the problem. These things belong in this type of development. It’s for the community.”

The residents who showed up to the meeting were adamant that they don’t want a multiplex in the middle of their community. The tagline on their protest signs read, “Good project, wrong place.” 

The general feeling was that something of that scale doesn’t belong in a residential neighborhood.

However, residents' strongest advocate on the board, Commissioner Jason Bearden, didn’t care about the location. 

Photo by Lesley Dwyer

“I was indifferent. Like I told (Zimmermann), wherever the community wanted it, that’s fine,” Bearden said. “My main focus was on the financial piece of it, whether or not the taxpayers were going to be on the hook for the next however many years if (Icemann) happened to go bankrupt.”

Bearden peppered Zimmermann with questions, such as: How is this facility going to make money? What year will you break even? If this is a money maker, why do you need the government involved? 

The project proposal included Manatee County leasing 22 acres to Icemann for $1 a year and a county contribution of $5 million toward a five-story parking garage. The $5 million would have been paid for using tourist development tax funds. 

Zimmermann initially answered Bearden's questions by pointing to his 30 years of experience and a “proven concept” based off rinks he built in Wesley Chapel and Brandon. 

After Bearden continued to press for more concrete answers, Zimmermann said the multiplex would bring in between $17 million and $20 million a year and break even in Year Three.

Bearden wasn't satisfied.

“I want to see the business plan,” he said. “I want what your analysis says. That’s what I want.”

Falcione said that information would have been presented with the land lease.

More to come at Premier

The battle over keeping the “megaplex” out of Premier has been won by those who didn't want it, but the red-clad Lakewood Ranch residents are not done watching over Premier because something will be built in the ice rink’s place.

“In a nutshell, we’re very pleased the vote went the way it did today,” Keen said. “But as far as we’re concerned it’s not over because the same commercial pressures will continue to apply. Moving forward, we need the county to be much more communicative and enlightened in the way they look at this.” 

Commissioners have differing views of how to move forward. 

Commission Chair Tal Siddique’s hope is that a community workshop will be held. Siddique represents District 3, where Manatee County bought the site of the historic Seafood Shack in Cortez after Hurricane Helene caused irreparable damage.

Siddique pushed for community input, and the county held five workshops. The information gathered from those workshops not only allows Siddique and county staff to see what residents want built on the nine-acre site, but also where the input came from. 

Photo by Lesley Dwyer

“At the end of the day, Premier is an asset for the entire county, but we need to start with Lakewood Ranch,” Siddique said. “If residents hate it and don’t use what’s built, we’ve failed.” 

But Siddique noted that he won't be pushing for a workshop about Premier because it’s out of his district. 

And McCann, the sitting District 5 commissioner representing the Lakewood Ranch area, doesn’t want to hold a workshop. He sees no point when he said county staff members aren’t listening and the public is putting forth too many different ideas. 

He wants to see Falcione and the Sports and Leisure department come together to make a masterplan and have that presented to the public for input.

“I would like to see a finished product, instead of (staff saying), ‘We’ll tell you as we go along,’” McCann said. “We need the information beforehand.”

While McCann wants to hold off on public input for now, he does share the same vision for Premier as residents. 

“It should be a public park for taxpayer use,” he said.