Plans are still moving forward with varied plans to turn the Sarasota Bayfront into a cultural mecca, but the words "conference center" will not be found following direction from Sarasota City Commissioners. 

Michael Klauber, chairman of Visit Sarasota County, said he was satisfied by city direction to make City Manager Tom Barwin the official liaison between City Hall and the Sarasota Bayfront 20:20 effort, a visioning directive headed by tourism leaders. "The direction we got was very positive and it keeps us going in the same direction we are already going." 

Sarasota City Commissioners voted 3-2 last week to have City Hall work closely with the 20:20 group, with direction to the group not to plan on having a conference center planned on public property and not to have the Bayfront view impeded by any project. Commissioners Paul Caragiulo and Suzanne Atwell voted against the measure, fearful that putting such specific directives would hinder the visioning process at an early stage. "I don't want to get into the position of saying we don't want this," Caragiulo said. "I don't want to draw a circle that small. I want to have a conversation about what the community wants to see. That's the whole purpose."

While the 20:20 plan moves ahead, another development group's Bayfront Now proposals also continue to evolve. Plans provided to SRQ last week (pictured) seem to take the city directives into account to a significant degree, with a community park planned on city land on the waterfront. And on property where previous iterations of the Bayfront Now plan once had a conference center, there is now an "education/meeting center" attached both to a Mote Marine aquarium and to a proposed hotel. "The proven way to make meeting/education/conference centers work is to have the connected hotel operator responsible for the operation," said Chris Gallagher, a partner at Hoyt Architects and part of the Bayfront Now effort. "When coupled with an operator such as Marriott Hotels, they have significant worldwide marketing and group business experience."

Commissioner Susan Chapman said she was concerned that she understood from a presentation by Bayfront Now at a meeting earlier this month that the initial financing of the conference center would be based on the security of the city owned land. That created too much financial risk for the city, she said. "There is the potential that if these projects don't make money we could lose out on our security," Chapman said.

Gallagher, though, said the hotel would be the one taking any risk with a center. "Since having a facility like this is a benefit to the hotelier, they take on the responsibility for all operating costs of the conference center."

While the two Bayfront efforts have been characterized as times as competing visions, Klauber said Bayfront Now leaders, including Chris Cogan of Seven Holdings Group, have attended Bayfront 20:20 meetings. Atwell said last week she has encouraged the groups to work together.

A number of other partners have to be in the mix for any plan to work though, Klauber noted, including Mote Marine, the Sarasota Orchestra and the Sarasota Ballet. That was largely why Klauber was unconcerned with taking conference center talks off the table for now, even though tourism officials have clamored for years for a center near the Bayfront. "It's way too soon to get into the specifics of those kinds of things," he said.

Of note, the Bayfront Now group has stressed a desire to move more quickly on getting development going and bringing any final vision to the forefront. But Klauber said the effort can't move faster than Bayfront 20:20 is going.