Sarasota Orchestra buys 32 acres to build new music center (Fruitville: storage, stores)

[wondermint2]

https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/...e/70159986007/

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.”

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.

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.