Players Centre may get to turn Payne Park auditorium into a theater

The Players Centre, which has been looking for a permanent new home for several years, is now focused on a venue that will keep it within the city of Sarasota limits.

The Sarasota City Commission voted unanimously Monday for an early framework of a lease agreement that would allow the area’s oldest performing arts organization to transform the nearly 60-year-old Payne Park Auditorium into a new theater space. The company would pay the city $100 per year for 10 years (with at least two 10-year renewals possible) and $1 from every ticket sold would go to the city.

The Players would also offer the space for rentals to other nonprofit groups that don’t have venues of their own.

Arts Newsletter: Sign up to receive the latest news on the Sarasota area arts scene every Monday

Theatre, concerts, dance, art and more: 35-plus arts events to experience in May in Sarasota-Manatee area

A new season: Sarasota's Players Centre plans longer runs in 94th season of plays, small-scale musicals

The deal would bring some money to the city for the underutilized auditorium, which has been used as office space for the city’s parks and recreation department staff for the last few years. City Manager Marlon Brown told commissioners it was only occasionally rented for events before then.

Commissioners voted to move forward with negotiations, which Players CEO William Skaggs said would proceed into the summer.

Brown described it as a “game changer to have the Players occupy the space. I am looking forward to having a long-term relationship with the Players.”

For more than a year, commissioners have been looking at ways to keep the theater company in the city after it earlier rejected a proposal by the Sarasota Orchestra to move to a different part of Payne Park. The Orchestra recently closed on the purchase of a 32-acre site outside city limits just west of I-75 on Fruitville Road. Mote Marine Laboratory also is building a new home outside the city at the University Town Center.

“All I can say is I wish some of you had been on the commission when we were looking at the Orchestra,” said Commissioner Liz Alpert after hearing supportive comments from fellow commissioners. “This is another opportunity to help activate that park and keep this historic cultural asset here in our community. I think this is a great idea.”

Commissioner Jennifer Ahearn-Koch said the agreement “makes a lot of sense. This location, hopefully, it’s something that works out and leads to a good partnership between the city and the Players. We want to keep the Players here and we value what you have contributed to the community” over nearly a century.

After the meeting, Skaggs said the theater envisions creating a performance venue that could accommodate up to 300 patrons, depending on what type of production is being staged.

“I would say the most important thing is that it will be flexible,” he said. “It could be in the round. It could be a thrust stage. We could set it up in various ways, depending not only on our shows but the desires of other organizations.”

Steven Butler: Players Centre hires new artistic director

Recovering from Hurricane Ian: Venice Theatre rebuilding progress will take more time and delay mainstage reopening

Tree Fort Productions Projects: Actress and teacher Katherine Tanner launches new theater company in Sarasota

The company has been working on a new home since former leaders announced in 2016 that the players would build a three-theater complex in the Waterside development in Lakewood Ranch. Last winter, Lakewood Ranch developers canceled the agreement with the Players, which had indicated a desire to scale back the scope of the project. The theater sold its old building across from the Sarasota Municipal Auditorium in 2018 for $9.5 million. In 2020, the company turned a former Banana Republic store in the Crossings at Siesta Key shopping center into a theater space.

In the fall of 2021, at the encouragement of former City Commissioner Hagen Brody, the Players made a pitch to take over operations at the historic Sarasota Municipal Auditorium. The Players offered to spend millions of dollars to create a flexible theater space that could be folded away to allow the facility to still be used for coin shows, bazaars, community concerts, galas and other events.

But the proposal led to a battle for the building with the Bay Park Conservancy, which is creating a major park on the land surrounding the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall. Park leaders insisted that agreements with the city gave them control of the venue.

Commissioners never formally rejected the Players proposal, but encouraged the community theater to explore the use of Payne Park Auditorium, a much smaller event space, after reports that the roof of that building required repairs after Hurricane Ian, and that the timing might be advantageous to consider other uses for the facility.

Follow Jay Handelman on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Contact him at jay.handelman@heraldtribune.com. And please support local journalism by subscribing to the Herald-Tribune.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota commissioners support Players move to Payne Park auditorium