PC Commission given recommendation to demolish Marina Civic Center, build amphitheater
PANAMA CITY — Despite months of conversations and public meetings, the existing Marina Civic Center simply might be too expensive for the city to keep.
In a Panama City Commission meeting on April 23, officials were presented a recommendation by city staff to demolish the center and replace it with a temporary outdoor amphitheater — one that the community could use while officials continue to explore ways for the city add a future performing arts and events facility.
The Civic Center has sat unused since it was heavily damaged in October 2018 by Category 5 Hurricane Michael.
Commissioners ultimately did not approve the recommendation. They instead decided to spend the next month looking into more private funding options to help them know if it will be easier to raise money for a project to demolish the center and build an amphitheater, or undertake a renovation of the existing facility.
"I feel the pain of the community in having to revisit this over and over again," Commissioner Josh Street said. "At this point, where I'm at with it is not necessarily ready to make a final decision to tear it down, but ... we can only do what we can do.
"I think the community as a whole wants to have a civic center. They want an indoor event space, but reality is that the city of Panama City can't solve that on its own."
Cost estimates for a renovation project on the existing Civic Center are between approximately $33 million and $70 million. It is slated to cost about $1 million to tear down the structure and build the temporary amphitheater, which the community could use while city officials work, for potentially several years, to raise funds for a new performing arts and events facility.
Street noted a renovation project is "outside the city's current revenues" without help from outside partners and donors.
"I think from the staff's perspective, they're tired of looking at it 1,000 different angles too," he said. "The simplest solution is just to tear it down because then it's done, and you've got a green space for the community to enjoy in the interim. I don't know that's the right decision. Of course, I don't know that it's the wrong decision either."
More on the center: Panama City to pay for needed ground-penetrating radar survey of Marina Civic Center
According to Commissioner Brian Grainger, some local residents fear that if the center is demolished, it will be forgotten, and a new performing arts and events center will never be built.
"It's not so much that people are married to the building," Grainger said. "It's more of that they're concerned that we'll move on. That we'll tear it down, move on and there will be nothing. ... It's one of those issues that if you asked 100 people, you're going to get 100 different answers, but ... the majority is not sold of this building, but they do want somewhere for performing arts."
This article originally appeared on The News Herald: PC Commission given recommendation to demolish Marina Civic Center
