Sarasota Players may face fight to use Payne Park Auditorium

A proposed project that would create a new 300-seat theater and event center for The Sarasota Players and other community groups at the City of Sarasota’s Payne Park Auditorium has been revised in response to questions and requests from city staff in the last few months.

But The Stage at Payne Park project may face competition for the auditorium, as the latest plans have drawn resistance from some community members who say it takes up too much park space in ways that are not consistent with the creation of Payne Park itself or what was originally pitched to the City Commission.

The downtown land was left to the city in 1925 in a bequest from Calvin and Martha Payne for a “park, playground and kindred uses and for no other use or purpose.”

In 2019, the City Commission rejected the Sarasota Orchestra’s proposal to build a new music center in a different part of Payne Park.

The city has been in discussions with The Stage, a limited liability corporation established last summer by the board of the Sarasota Players to oversee the development of a multipurpose facility, raise money for it and operate the venue.

Commissioners, who had earlier rejected the theater company’s proposal to move operations to the larger Sarasota Municipal Auditorium, expressed a desire to keep the theater in the city and began discussions for turning the Payne Park site into a performance venue. Officials have discussed a 30-year lease with The Stage paying about $100 per year and $1 from each ticket sold.

Brian McCarthy, CEO of The Stage, said the revised plans submitted to city staff call for renovating the existing auditorium and adding a nearly 17,000-square-foot building that would house the theater space, offices, rehearsal halls and banquet facilities. He said The Stage has a letter of intent from the city and that commissioners “have encouraged us to go forward” with the design process. “Our design proposal is a response to the city telling us to move forward.”

Kelly Franklin, an advocate for city parks who has led opposition to other projects in Sarasota, distributed an email urging officials to “not let this pre-application to gut Payne Park to build a new indoor anything go anywhere. At some point, someone there needs to say ‘enough’ with using this city’s public spaces as dirt for private gain – particularly our parks. And most particularly Payne Park.” She said the revised plans go beyond the original proposal to renovate and expand the auditorium building.

Another option for a Payne Park venue

Now, city officials are hearing about a new proposal for the facility that would not require expanding the footprint of the venue into the park.

Kelly Kirschner, chair of the board of UnidosNow, which works to enhance the life of the area’s growing Latino/Hispanic community, has reached out to City Manager Marlon Brown about using Payne Park Auditorium as a base of operations for its many community programs. He said the organization would also partner with cultural arts group CreArte Latino, which he said is losing its lease at the Airport Mall near Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport.

Kirschner, a former Sarasota City Commissioner, said the building is in a neighborhood with a large Latino population. “It’s one of the few places within walking distance of homes and one of the few affordable venues where you could do a quinceañera or a dance party or wedding reception.”

The idea has not yet been brought to the commission for consideration. Kirschner said his organization would need an assessment of the cost of enhancing the existing facility, but he said UnidosNow has shown an ability to raise money and its plans would not require expanding the existing 8,100-square-foot building.

"We have talked to Kelly Franklin and neighbors who surround the park," he said. "That’s what their desire is. They don’t want a dramatic expansion. They want the historic structure restored and have it be in active use.”

Sarasota Players needs a home

The Sarasota Players, the area’s oldest performing arts organization and the second-oldest community theater in Florida, has been searching for a permanent home for several years. In 2016, former leaders announced plans to move out of downtown Sarasota and build a multi-theater complex in the Waterside neighborhood of Lakewood Ranch. But those plans were officially dropped in 2022.

The company sold its longtime home on U.S. 41 in 2018 for about $9.5 million and eventually transformed a former retail store into a theater venue in the Crossings at Siesta Key shopping center, where it has operated since 2021.

At the urging of then-City Commissioner Hagen Brody, who stressed wanting to keep the theater company in the city, the Players began discussing taking over management of the Sarasota Municipal Auditorium. However, the commission eventually favored plans by leaders of the Bay Park project to use the facility in conjunction with the park being developed around the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall.

McCarthy, a developer who built the Pickleball Club in Lakewood Ranch, said The Stage at Payne Park would become a home for the Sarasota Players and numerous other small community organizations that don’t have their own facilities and can’t afford to rent much bigger venues for their performances and programs. The Sarasota Jewish Theatre has performed in the current Players space.

“I’m so interested in developing a home for our community performing arts organizations. None of them are rolling in money,” he said.

The Stage hired Michael Ayres as executive director and vice president of advancement. He has worked for nearly 20 years as a fundraiser, grant writer and event planner.

McCarthy said the city approached the theater company about Payne Park. “The city needed somebody to come in and rehab the existing (Payne Park) auditorium. We’re sensitive to the park without disturbing the amenities that are there, like the tennis courts and walking paths,” he said.

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

Steven Butler leaves community theater: Third artistic director in three years departs Sarasota Players ahead of 95th season

The project, being designed by Fleischman Garcia Maslowski architects, would include 76 parking spaces (59 on property leased from the city), another 70 from a nearby church and access to 249 other spaces around the park.

The main auditorium, including a stage, would accommodate from 248 to 350 patrons depending on the seating arrangements, and 264 seats for banquets. Rehearsal halls would accommodate 64 to 96 seats for events. The Stage would work with other organizations using the facility for shared ticketing, marketing and technical support services.

The Sarasota Players board has committed $4 million toward the project. “We want people to know that the Players is backing this as a community performing arts center and the Players is a strong part of it,” McCarthy said. “It wouldn’t happen without their strong leadership.”

Ayres and McCarthy will lead the effort to raise the rest of the money. McCarthy estimated the total cost would be in the $15 million to $17 million range.

“We haven’t gone out to price it yet because we had to revise all the drawings. We could know the cost in the next 30-60 days,” he said. If the organization gets city approval by the summer, as he hopes, McCarthy said the project could be ready to open in the first quarter of 2026.

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: Competition revealed for use of Sarasota’s Payne Park Auditorium