In the latest conversation of a months-long discussion, the Gainesville City Commission revisited plans to revitalize the site of Citizens Field at a meeting Thursday.
The site, located at the intersection of Northeast Eighth Avenue and Waldo Road, has long been a community hot spot. It’s home to high school football showdowns, the city’s busiest public pool and the Martin Luther King Jr. Multipurpose Center. Gradual disrepair convinced the commission to consider not only renovating but entirely redesigning the site.
As part of the revitalization, the city continues to negotiate with the Alachua County School Board over the sale of Citizens Field.
Interim City Manager Andrew Persons has led regularly scheduled discussions with interim Superintendent Kamela Patton since Oct. 9.
“We’ve been in near constant communication with her and her staff,” Persons said, including a recent call he took while driving to Orlando for Thanksgiving.
The proposed sales price of $5.5 million was sent to the board Nov. 10. The school board would also be responsible for contributing to half of the remediation and stormwater costs, 75% of stadium parking lot costs and 100% of utility connection costs for the stadium.
As part of the agreement, Citizens Field must remain a stadium, and construction must begin by Aug. 1, 2028.
Persons said he and Patton are close to reaching a consensus, and he expects a plan to be brought forward early next year.
There’s still much to do before the sale is completed, Persons added. State statute requires the school board to obtain two independent appraisals because the price is over $500,000.
While the school board would manage Citizens Field after the sale, the rest of the site at Northeast Eighth Avenue and Waldo Road remains under the city’s jurisdiction.
The commission approved an initial revitalization plan in mid-June, said Brian Singleton, the city’s interim chief operating officer. The proposal included site work for $10.4 million, competition and community pools for $5.85 million and $3.25 million, respectively and a new 50,000-square-foot multipurpose center for $45.5 million.
With other additions, like multipurpose fields and 250 paved parking spaces, the plan would total around $84.1 million, not including stadium costs.
Singleton introduced a revised plan at the Thursday meeting, which would streamline the process and prioritize site work.
The plan would begin with remediation, construction of multipurpose fields and the redevelopment of stormwater systems and utilities. It also proposed 450 parking spots, eight bus parking spots and designated drop-off areas. The site currently offers around 150 spots. With the construction of a senior center, a renovated multipurpose center and pools, the plan would cost a total of $53.5 million, not including stadium costs.
Up to $36.1 million has been identified for the redevelopment of the site, with money coming from Gainesville Community Redevelopment Area funds, Wild Spaces Public Places savings and grants and proceeds from the sale of Citizens Field. The city can also pursue a HUD Section 108 Loan, which is used to finance the construction of public facilities.
The available $36.1 million wouldn’t be enough to fund the proposed senior center and revitalized multipurpose center, which would together cost an additional $21.5 million. After addressing site work with the existing funds, Singleton said, the commission could look for further funding to invest in the desired additions.
Unlike the initial proposal, which would focus on the construction of individual facilities, Singleton said the revised plan would allow for multiple stages of site work to happen at once.
“A lot more can go on concurrently in this configuration than in the prior configuration,” Singleton said.
Commissioner Casey Willits voiced support for the revised proposal. It’s important to work from the ground up, he said, and basic utilities and stormwater management needs to be focused on before construction can begin.
“Site work’s not very sexy, but it’s got to get done,” Willits said.
The revised setup allows the construction to be done in stages instead of rushing to complete the project all at once, for which he said he was initially worried. By prioritizing utilities, multipurpose fields and improved parking options, the site can still be useful to the public before the project is complete in its entirety.
This gives the commission time to discuss funding for future additions to the site, like the desired senior center and revitalized multipurpose center.
“We can get one thing done,” he said. “We can cut a ribbon, and then, as we’ve identified other potential future funding, go take on another chunk of it.”
While the commission could find more funding through Wild Spaces, Public Places if it wanted to commit to the entire project from the beginning, Willits said he doesn’t want to sacrifice other projects. From trails to sports recreation centers on the commission’s to-do list, Willits said he wants to use the funding equitably and spread it among a diversity of recipients.
Even if the city doesn’t immediately pursue the additional $21.5 million required to construct the desired facilities, Mayor Harvey Ward said it’s still possible to achieve it in the future. The site is currently in the procurement stage, which could take three to four months.
Design and permitting could take 12 to 16 months, and construction 12 to 18. It could take several years before the site is ready for the senior and multipurpose centers. Ward sid he thinks it’s plenty of time to obtain the necessary funds, especially after the public has access to the first stage of updated facilities, he said.
“You may call me a dreamer, but I don’t think that’s wildly out of the question,” he said. “I think these are things that are legitimately possible.”
It’s important to prioritize existing facilities like the pool and stadium, he added, because they’re “fundamentally broken or things that are on the verge of being broken and unusable.”
The Northeast Pool is Gainesville’s busiest public pool, he said, and it could be inoperable as early as the next swimming season.
Other desired facilities, though, “aren’t broken yet,” he said.