STEVE REID
Editor & Publisher
sreid@lbknews.com
The 29-acre Payne Park located in the heart of Downtown Sarasota is under the threat, yet again, of development. This time from the Sarasota Players Theatre organization.
The Sarasota Players has increased its initial request to renovate an existing auditorium on Payne Park and now wants to lease 2.1 acres of the parkland at a cost of $100 per year and one dollar from each ticket sold. The outcry is growing.
Hundreds of City residents rallied in 2019 against the Sarasota Orchestra’s proposal to build a new music center where the existing tennis courts are located. The commission rejected that plan in part because in the deed that gave the property to the City in 1925 by Calvin and Martha Payne states that the land must be preserved and used for a “park, playground and kindred uses and for no other use or purpose.”
The City attorney at that time said a legal challenge for developing the site for entertainment could be viable. Neighborhood surrounding the park, which have expanded due to increasing residential development primarily to the east, told the commission then and have taken opposition to the current proposal by the Players by stating that open space and parks must be preserved in a City that has seen rapid expansion over the past decade.
The ask
The Players, dubbing the project ‘The Stage at Payne Park,’ want to add a nearly 17,000 square-foot building that would be used for theatre productions, offices as well as banquets. The Players is listed as a Limited Liability Corporation and has been operating out of a shopping center at The Crossings at Siesta Key since 2021.
The Players Theatre once owned prime real estate on U.S. 41 across from the Van Wezel, which it sold for condominium development in 2018 for more than $9 million. At that time it was planning to leave Downtown Sarasota and use the money along with fundraising to build a complex in Lakewood Ranch that never materialized.
Stage set for expansion
Sarasota City staff have been vetting over the last year a far more modest proposal that did not meet with community resistance since the integrity of the park was not significantly altered. But since then, City staff and the Players have hashed out the $100 per year lease idea and recently submitted the expanded plans. Park supporter and Sarasota resident Kelly Franklin has opposed the idea and distributed an email urging that the City Parks and Public Spaces should not be utilized for private gain and increased commercial activity. She lamented that the Players and the City are going down a path of expanding the scope of what initially was supposed to be a modest renovation and expansion of the existing auditorium.
The amended language that seeks to increase the scope and size of the project for the Players is on the July 15 meeting agenda which will be held at 9 a.m. in City Hall.
It is likely that representatives from the bordering Alta Vista neighborhood as well as the Coalition of City Neighborhood Associations members will voice their opposition.
A pattern continued?
Numerous residents have expressed dismay that the City is contemplating another lease of park and public space for development. Over the past five years, the City considered expanding and leasing the Lido Beach Pavilion to the owners of the Daiquiri Deck as well as rezoning St. Armands Circle and allowing a hotel on the Filmore Parking lot. Last year, The City considered leasing Ken Thompson Park on City Island to set up an entertainment venue to a private operator. In addition to the previous fight at Payne Park, some residents are urging the City will stop offering public space for increased development and intensive activities.
