Out with the old: Auburndale will build new civic center at redesigned Lake Ariana Park

As a youngster in Auburndale, Doretha Taylor Bogert spent considerable time in the city-owned buildings stretching along West Park Street.

She checked out books from the library, in a building that now houses the Auburndale Senior Center. On summer breaks, she worked for the Parks and Recreation Department, and she recalls cleaning the department’s offices at 119 W. Park St.

Despite those nostalgic attachments, Bogert — now the city’s mayor — is ready to see the block of brick buildings disappear. That includes the Auburndale Civic Center, sandwiched between the Senior Center and the city’s Recreation Hall on the north side of the Downtown City Park.

Auburndale will soon embark on plans to construct a new civic center at Lake Ariana Park, replicating the city-owned venues to free up the downtown space for commercial redevelopment. The project will bring renovations and upgrades to Lake Ariana Park, known to longtime residents as Mac’s Beach.

“There's two-pronged reasons, in my mind, that I saw us doing this,” Bogert said. “One was to provide a better facility for our citizens to utilize. And the other one is to provide economic development downtown.”

A rejuvenated downtown

Bogert noted that most of Park Street on the north side of Downtown City Park now consists of city-owned buildings covering nearly three acres.

“I would love to see some development that brings in more commercial boutiques and small restaurants and coffee shops and things along that side of the park, to kind of match the other side of our park and bring people downtown,” she said.

Last week, Auburndale posted on its Facebook page that Lake Ariana Park will close April 29 for the construction of the new civic center and the replacement of other elements. The project is expected to take 15 months, finishing in summer 2025.

Fencing will go up at the park in late April, and demolition will begin in May, Assistant City Manager Amy Palmer said. Contractors will preserve as many trees as possible, and the city will replace any that have to be removed, she said.

The anticipated cost is $18.7 million, said Palmer, who is overseeing the project.

Bogert and her fellow city commissioners voted to sell the buildings on Park Street to the Auburndale Community Redevelopment Agency. Activities will continue at the government venues until the new civic center opens, while the CRA courts private developers interested in buying the sites for mixed-use development.

Such redevelopment would create new tax revenue for the fast-growing city.

“There’s certainly the tax increment,” Palmer said. “That's the whole point of the CRA, is to generate tax increment, but also to see additional activity on the park downtown. Right now, those buildings are only primarily used on the weekends as rentals. We would love to see more restaurants downtown, just more activity downtown. So this is a means to make that happen.”

The government buildings were constructed between 1946 and 1982, according to records with the Polk County Property Appraiser’s Office. Bogert said the structures are showing their age and require considerable maintenance.

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The owner of the adjacent Ariana Apartments, a former hotel built in 1916 at Park Street and Lake Avenue and currently vacant, plans to renovate the structure with commercial and residential spaces, Palmer said.

The new park and civic center

Auburndale hired The Lunz Group, based in Lakeland, as the architect, while SpringerVoss Construction of Lakeland will handle the construction. The project uses a design-build approach, in which a single contract covers design and construction. That will reduce costs, Palmer said.

Artist’s renderings show the new civic center, a white, multilayered structure, perched near the shore of Lake Ariana. The 30,000-square-foot structure will contain Richard Hamann Hall, named to honor Auburndale’s longest-serving city commissioner, who left office last year after 28 years on the board.

The hall will offer seating for 325 as a banquet facility, significantly more than the current civic center provides, Palmer said. The building will also hold a smaller event hall with seating for 150, comparable to the current Senior Center, along with a conference room on the second floor with the capacity for 30 to 40 people.

The 7-acre Lake Ariana Park now holds two small buildings, the Ariana Beach Yacht Club and Clubhouse, which are available for rentals. Those structures will be demolished for the renovation of the park, Palmer said. The modest playground will give way to more modern equipment, and the site will retain beach volleyball courts.

Artist’s renderings depict three small picnic pavilions near the lakefront, replacing the current shelters, now ragged with age. The park will feature improved restrooms, and a pergola will be installed near the civic center.

The design calls for a circular “great lawn” surrounded by a walkway that will provide room for food truck events. A T-shaped fishing pier will supplant the current structure, and contractors will build a new boat ramp. The existing boat ramp will remain open until the new one is completed, Palmer said.

“I think they're beautiful,” Bogert said of the renderings. “I love the fact that they really utilize our lake frontage there, and the beauty of our lake area. We will get to enjoy that while still maintaining areas in the green space, the open space, to utilize for anyone who wants to come down there.”

The Facebook post, which included artist renderings, had drawn more than 550 comments as of Monday, ranging from the enthusiastic to the dismissive.

Many commenters asked for a splash pad in the park, and one posted an altered version of a rendering that showed such a water zone. Others requested a shade structure for the playground, an idea that Bogert said the city might consider.

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Some commenters suggested that the money for the project could be better devoted to road repairs and improvements.

“I think it's an exciting venture for the citizens,” Bogert said. “I think it will bring great economic development downtown and will provide a place, I believe, that all the citizens can be proud of, on both spaces.”

Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on X @garywhite13.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Auburndale plans new civic center at redesigned Lake Ariana Park