UPDATE: The funding Orlando Ballet was invited to apply for is for the auditorium portion of the new facility. The $5,822,392 figure is the cost to build the auditorium of Orlando Ballet’s new home, not the total cost of the building.
The Tourist Development Council Advisory Board voted to award funds to two separate art facilities projects at their September 21 meeting; Harriett’s Orlando Ballet Centre Auditorium and the OnePulse Foundation Museum.
The TDC oversees the allocation of the Tourist Development Tax funding and has previously funded projects like the Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center and the under-construction Steinmetz Hall.
The Advisory Board suggested awarded $4 million to the Ballet and $10 million to the OnePulse Foundation through 2020.
The Orlando Ballet was invited to apply for funds for their upcoming 37,000 SF+ facility that is currently under construction on Lake Formosa, after being awarded a 2018 Arts and Cultural Facilities Grant. The estimated cost of their new facility is currently $5,822,392.
As seen in the slides below, Orlando Ballet believes they have performed to roughly 58,000 people in the last season, and that they have an annual economic impact of over $8 million, through their programming and their audiences.
The OnePulse Foundation, represented by Earl Crittenden and Barbara Poma, pitched their planned Memorial and Museum facility, citing an increasing demand from visiting groups and organizations on the Pulse site as well as “media exposure.”
Poma and Crittenden emphasized the impact of other Disaster Tourism sites across the country and revealed that the average amount of daily visitors to the interim Pulse memorial site currently hovers around 300 people a day.
Currently, one of the largest issues that the Foundation is dealing with, however, is that of parking. The bulk of the moneys granted to them by the TD will go towards purchasing nearby land to be used as parking for the permanent memorial and museum and they have their eyes set on nine separate properties.
WFTV recently spoke to a number of the property owners nearby to gauge their interest in selling. Click HERE to see that piece.
The permanent memorial is expected to open in 2020.
Funding for both of these projects will be voted on by Orange County officials later this month.
