Frustrated wannabe parking designers and anyone else with a thought regarding a Sarasota City parking garage on north Palm Avenue are invited to a meeting Thursday evening, April 30.
Vacant city property at 1289 N. Palm Ave. is to be transformed into a parking garage and retail space. The goal is to create about 700 parking spaces on upwards of five levels, with about 14,000 square feet of retail shops on the first floor.
"The meeting will include a presentation by city planning staff regarding the history of the project and the intended goals of the parking garage and accompanying retail space," according to city officials. On hand at the meeting will be an architect and the city’s parking manager.
The public is being asked to weigh in on the internal layout of the garage, the architectural design, green building techniques and retail use.
The city commissioners in February decided to use the property for a retail-parking facility. The decision ended years of squabbling regarding eventual use of the property. Public-private partnerships with at least four developers had been foisted on the development pole of projects for the site over the years. The city commissioners rejected eight applicants who called for a conference center, hotel and parking structure with city, Sarasota County or perhaps tourist development funding added to the mix, depending on the offer’s author. All such proposals were rejected.
The parking garage-retail structure on Palm Avenue could be completed within 15 months at a cost of less than $11 million, according to city estimates. Not all of the city’s 2.2 acres would be utilized by the structure; city officials indicated the sale of the remaining property might be in the offing, perhaps to a developer for construction of a hotel.
"I’ve supported a conference center all along," said Commissioner Fredd Atkins in February, "but I don’t see a conference center on Palm. It doesn’t fit with my vision of a conference center. We need mixed-use there, and perhaps sell the other part of the property to a hotel."
City Manager Robert Bartolotta has said spaces within the parking garage could be sold to downtown businesses for employee parking to alleviate street parking, thus freeing up downtown spaces for customers.
Comments from the April 30 meeting will be given to the city redevelopment agency — the city commission — and the community redevelopment agency advisory board in a joint meeting May 19.
Thursday’s meeting will begin at 6 p.m. in the city commission chambers at city hall, 1565 First St.