Sarasota Orchestra closes deal on Fruitville Road site for new music center building

A little more than a year after it announced plans to build a new music center on a Fruitville Road site just west of Interstate 75, the Sarasota Orchestra this week closed on the property.

“This is a milestone for the Sarasota Orchestra and the Sarasota community,” said President and CEO Joseph McKenna. “We’ve been working on this for nearly two decades and to now have closed on the property and have a place where the vision can blossom into the future is really exciting.”

The Orchestra paid $14 million for the property to Wal-Mart Stores East LP, which McKenna described as an “outstanding value for a 32-acre property in an ideal location.”

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There are still many steps ahead before the music center will be designed and built, but the organization plans to create a 1,800-seat concert hall. It also hopes to have the money to add a 700-seat flexible-use performance venue, along with multiple rehearsal and practice rooms, music storage, and space for offices and education programs. There could be more than one building on the site. Orchestra leaders have been talking with numerous other arts groups about sharing the use of the facilities. the

McKenna said, “Buildings of this nature generally take two years to design and engineer and three years to build.”

But the organization is still working on a fundraising feasibility study, talking to donors, patrons, and foundations about potential fundraising goals before determining a design and setting a cost.

Determining fundraising potentials

The study will provide an understanding of the funding capacity of the community – how much the organization can expect to raise – and whether the project will be built in phases.

“It’s a wonderful tool to inform planning,” said McKenna, noting that the Sarasota Orchestra will mark its 75th anniversary next season.

“We have a long distinguished record of responsibility and prudence, while at the same time raising artistic standards and service to the community,” he said.

The Orchestra will be indirectly competing for fundraising dollars in the community with Mote Marine Laboratory, Selby Botanical Gardens, the Sarasota Performing Arts Center, and other nonprofits that have launched major construction projects.

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A community survey that generated thousands of responses last year indicated “great excitement about the orchestra and great interest in a new music center,” McKenna said. “There isn’t a purpose-built concert hall on the west coast of Florida. This will be an iconic building that will set a music standard and a high acoustic standard and a patron experience standard.”

Sound design will be of chief importance, he said.

“This is all about acoustics and creating a space where music can happen,” McKenna said. An acoustician will work with a theater planner before an architect is hired to “provide the personality to the design.”

The Orchestra announced in 2018 that it planned to move away from its current home in the Beatrice Friedman Symphony Center, which it leases from the city of Sarasota. It performs its Masterworks series concerts in the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall. The organization has cited a lack of control over its calendar based on the availability of the Van Wezel as a major reason to pursue its own facility. The Sarasota City Commission rejected the Orchestra’s initial proposal to build the music center near Payne Park after the plan generated broad opposition, particularly from supporters of the Payne Park tennis courts.

McKenna said the organization has been meeting with property owners surrounding the new site to earn their support.

“The need for a music center is existential,” board Chair Tom Koski said in a statement. “Like the great halls that have elevated orchestras around the world, Sarasota Orchestra’s Music Center and its acoustic concert hall are critical to the continued vitality and growth of our organization and furthering the performing arts brand of the region.”

New search for a music director

The closing of the sale comes as the organization also prepares to launch a new search for a music director with a series of guest conductors booked for next season. McKenna said the new music director will be a leading voice in the building project.

Some of guest conductors will be considered candidates for the job, though even those who may not have expressed interest could change their minds.

Bramwell Tovey was not an official candidate until after he visited Sarasota and led the orchestra. He was hired in August 2021 but died unexpectedly nearly a year later before he could launch the season schedule he had announced months earlier. Tovey was a favorite of the musicians and had experience leading fundraising and planning efforts for a music center in Vancouver, where he spent 18 years as music director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

“A music director is the most central piece of an orchestra,” McKenna said. “We believe the music director will be a champion for nurturing the orchestra and the institutional work and vision we have for the future.”

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota Orchestra buys land near I-75 for new music center venue