City Auditorium: Renovate or Demolish?
On July 11 a Blue Ribbon Committee has its final meeting to formulate a recommendation for the Ocala City Council regarding the fate of the Ocala City Auditorium (836 N.E. Sanchez Ave.).
The City Auditorium is 70 years old and the site of many memorable events for Ocala citizens and others. The facility is losing about $61,000 a year; is in need of at least $400,000 in repairs and even that will not bring it up to code. To bring it up to code will require an additional nearly $2.0 million. Importantly, it may not even fit in the city’s longer range plans for development, has possibly outlived its usefulness and could be demolished to make way for green space in Tuscawilla Park.
What do you think? Is the City Auditorium worth saving or should it go the way of “progress”?
posted by Blog Master @ 9:49 AM
23 Comments:
Tear it down. Use some of the school facilities and CFCC to conduct activities done at the Civic Auditorium.
I thought the City Council had already voted to raze the City Auditorium?
It's not as easy as saying "use school facilities and CFCC". There's a serious lack of venues in this town for any kind of event. CFCC and the schools are always booked up, and they also cost about $1,000 a night minimum.
We need some kind of venue around here that doesn't cost an arm and a leg to use.
I don't think there was ever a vote. But the consensus seemed to be 3-2 not to keep operating the Auditorium.
They should tear it down and use that space for the skating rink that used to be downtown during the holidays. Perfect spot; still close to downtown.
Seems strange that it would cost $2 million or more to rehab the auditorium when it only cost $100,000 to build in the first oplace and has had two face lifts through the years.
As for operating copsts, I know a little bit about that. I think the city now charges something like $450 for the auditorium, and out iof that c omes the utilties for the event and the cleanup -- probably something like $300 between them.
You dont make any money on properties like this, but they do serve a valuable community purpose. -- pwf
I'd vote for renovate, but with a plan to increase the use of the Auditorium and introduce some ways to improve the fee generation to help offset expenses of operating it...without putting fees out of the realm of reality for those using the facilities.
Personally I'd like to see them renovate it and turn it into more of a cultural center. You could fit a small theater, a dance studio, and an art gallery in there and still have some room left over for the skating rink.
There's plenty of groups in town looking for a place to rent that won't cost an arm and a leg.
I read today that the County Tourism Council might be interested in the City Auditorium as a location for a Convention Center. Not sure if that would be a good location but might be worth considering.
Maybe the blue ribbon committee should slow down its decision making until the tourism group has a chance to look at the auditorium situation.
They would be better off putting a convention center near 200 instead of downtown where it will destroy what little traffic freedom we have.
PWF: The "facelifts" they did were just superficial. Had they actually kept up with the repairs every year, this wouldn't be an issue.
The "facelifts" at the timewere complete redos, including plumbing and electrical and roof. But remember that structure is a WPA project, and I can tell you from personal experience us WPA projects have some mileage on us!!!
It's like the "new" 1963 courthosue cost $1.3 million to build and they renovated it 15 or so years later for $4.5 million.
--pwf
Does anyone really use the City Auditorium? Or is it like some of the City parks, nice to have but never used?
Someone enlighten me on who uses it.
The auditorium has pretty good usage, rented out for amny events, craft shows, train shows, people events like reunions etc. I have not seen the list in several years but the last time I looked, it was used pretty regularly.
Not sure which city parks you are looking at but I am adjacent to Jervey Gantt every day, and the usage starts at 5 or 5:30 am and goes until dark. I am a member of the Marion-Dunn Masonic Lodge adjacent to the park, and I see extensive usage. During the summer, literally thousands use it. During the fall, thousands use it every week.
The usage is so great that I successfully presented my Lodge with a proposal that we lease out excess property to the city to allow for the overfill of Jervey Gantt. We host soccor, little league football, cheerleaders, a drum and bugle corp drill team, and other groups.
Parks are one of the great services government can provide at little expense, and the open land is vital to any good community. --pwf
Building a convention center really seems premature to me. I’d think the county should be sure that all opportunities for tourist development have been maximized before spending millions on a convention center. If one is built, the chamber of commerce better have a big fund raiser to contribute. No way should it be totally on the back of taxpayers!
Don't think we need a city auditorium and a convention center. One or the other but not both.
Repair and Renovate: NO
Raze and Rebuild: YES
Voice of Reason says......
Why does the County need a building at all? Anything that the county builds will just compete with privately owned space elsewhere. If there is a need for the space, the market will fill that need.
Some private businessperson rocket scientist built a kid's fun center at the corner of Silver Springs Boulevard and NE 7th (near the Alethea and Ocala Municipal Golf Course). The thing was a terrible idea from the start, made no money, and went out of business. The point is that the government could have easily come-up with that idea (i.e. our great children need a world class fun park). The county would then waste taxpayer's money on the idea.
It will be the same for a convention center or other meeting hall.
The school system has thousands of kids sitting on their butts eating Hot Pockets and playing video games this Summer. Why not get a thousand of them to work on the old auditorium and fix it up. They could learn a trade, get out of the house or the Mall, and serve their county/city.
VoR
TODAY WAS THE BLUE RIBBON PANEL MEETING. ANYONE HEAR WHAT HAPPENED?
The panel said mothball the auditorium for two years and do a study of developing the area around the auditorium. Keep maintaining it but don't schedule any activities.
Mid-August, city council will discuss. Kent Guinn thinks it can be renovated for much less than $2.5 million. Charlie Ruse seems much less positive about it.
A bad suggestion by the panel (IMO). I say tear the sucker down and then decide what to do with the area. That building is not worth saving.
August 7 is the date the City Council will discuss the recomendations by the Blue Ribbon Panel.
Who is on this "blue ribbon panel" making the recommendation to the City Council?
I attended the meeting tonight and the council asked the city manager to research outside consultants to explore uses and marketing approaches to make the auditorium fiscally sound to maintain (not their words but my interpretation). There was a lot of support for keeping the building.
If we as a community want to keep this building, we MUST help with solutions to its problems: repairs, uses, marketing, and productivity. We can't keep tearing things down and then spending today's inflated dollars to build a new version of what we already have.
Let's get a community committee together to keep the auditorium alive.
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