Following on the heels of last week’s announcement that the City of Orlando would be purchasing the former Pulse Nightclub property from its three co-owners to pursue its own public memorial, the OnePulse Foundation has just shared that it will not be moving forward with its museum project as well.

Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings’ office shared a statement on Friday, October 27, that Demings had met with the nonprofit to discuss the future of its proposed propose museum project at 438 W. Kaley Street [GMap].

OnePulse purchased the 1.75-acre parcel for $3.5 million in September 2019, with the hopes of opening a National Pulse Memorial and Museum sometime in 2022. Orange County government had previously agreed to award the foundation $10 million in Tourist Development Taxes in 2018 to help purchase the land and plan the museum, which was expected to cost roughly $15 million to build at the time.

CONCEPTUAL RENDERING OF THE NATIONAL PULSE MEMORIAL AND MUSEUM, AS IT WOULD BE SEEN FROM THE INTERSTATE. RENDERING BY COLDEFY

OnePulse Chair, Earl Crittenden, shared the following letter last Friday, stating that the foundation would not be pursuing the project, and asking that their formal funding agreement be terminated and that the deed for the property be signed over to the county.

onePULSE-LetterDownload

At the time of this post, only $6.5 million had been awarded to OnePulse for the purchase of the property and to cover design costs for the museum, with the remaining funds still being held in TDT accounts, according to a post by Ryan Lynch for Orlando Business Journal.

Crittenden has also announced that he will be stepping down from his role on the Board of Trustees, effective October 31.

Brendan O'Connor

Editor in Chief of Bungalower.com

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  1. so where did all that money go? the scholarships couldn’t have cost that much seems that operating costs and exec salaries took alot of cash. Im feel bad for the people who donated their money and PRAY that Buddy Dyer and the city of Orlando do the victims justice and get that museum BUILT soon

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  2. Sadly, this whole endeavor has turned into a huge S**t show. I stopped participating in the Rainbow Run when it became questionable as to where my money was going. It’s such a sad result to an even sadder and horrific event. I hope the city is able to put together an appropriate memorial. Those 49 soles deserve better!

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