Just over a decade ago, the small Lake County town of Tavares had little to draw visitors into its sluggish downtown, city leaders say.
Main Street was lined with only a few restaurants, a bar, empty shops and government buildings – including the county jail.
Today, Tavares’ population has nearly doubled to about 15,000 residents. And its downtown district is a vibrant place with a new hotel, a marina and seaplane base, a popular splash park, an event pavilion, new restaurants, and a train depot that offers locomotive rides for tourists.
City officials want to continue investing into Tavares’ downtown by building a new performing arts center.
“It used to be that in Tavares, at 5 p.m., it was a ghost town,” Mayor Lori Pfister said. “Today, people are flocking to our downtown on the weekends, because we have so much going on with entertainment. … And a performing arts center will draw in more people.”
This month, Tavares Council members agreed to hire Haskell Co., a Jacksonville-based design and engineering firm, to study where the city should build the new performing arts center, its size, construction costs and how Tavares can pay for it.
Tavares would not be the only Lake County city with a performing arts center.
Other nearby centers include The Sharon L. Morse Performing Arts Center, 1051 Main Street, in The Villages; The Clermont Performing Arts Center, 3700 U.S. Highway 27; and the Mount Dora Community Building, on East Sixth Avenue, which was renovated into a performance center in 2010.
Still, city officials say a new performing arts center in Tavares will not compete with the other ones in Lake County, or the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Orlando.
“We’re a pretty busy little place and people are coming into our downtown,” Council member Kirby Smith. “But this study is going to help us determine” if there is enough of a market for another performance center in the area.
In the coming weeks, city staff will negotiate a contract with Haskell, including the cost for the study. Tavares officials said the study should then be completed in about nine months.
They have identified four city-owned properties in the downtown district for the new center. Those include:
• Adjacent to City Hall, at 201 E. Main St.
• An empty parcel across from City Hall between Rockingham and New Hampshire avenues.
• An empty parcel on West Ianthe Street near West Alfred Street.
• At the site of the current Tavares Library on East Alfred Street, between North Rockingham and North New Hampshire avenues.
“The preference is to use properties currently owned by the city, if possible, rather than taking another property off the tax rolls,” said Bob Tweedie, Tavares’ economic development director. “The study will determine the appropriate size and elements of the performing arts center. Whether it’s a 750 or 1,000 seat center? Does it include a black box theater? Does it include a library? But the goal is for the city to have a facility that will have multiple uses and not sit dark most of the time.”
Nearly a decade ago, city officials came up with the idea of transforming its sleepy downtown, which sits along the northern shore of Lake Dora, into a seaplane base. Today, that seaplane base is one of the busiest in the country, with more than 18,000 landings and take offs annually. And Tavares now calls itself “America’s Seaplane City.”
In 2012, a new three-story hotel, now named the Key West Resort at Lake Dora, opened on Joanna Avenue and Ruby Street in downtown district. It was followed by several new restaurants nearby.
A year later, the city opened its new $3.3 million pavilion off South Disston Avenue at the eastern end of Wooton Park, overlooking Lake Dora. The 8,000-square-foot facility features two banquet halls, meeting rooms and a pier.
The city also invested $540,000 to build its own train station near Lake Dora. Warner Bros.’ The Polar Express Train offers vintage train rides during the holiday season. And starting this month, Wizard of Oz fans can climb aboard a train and take a make-believe ride to the Emerald City.
“Ten or 15 years ago, you looked at downtown Tavares and you saw government offices, a bar, and a restaurant, and that was pretty much it,” Tweedie said. “Tavares was a place you drove around or you drove through it. But there was an effort to change it into a vibrant downtown community….And today it’s a place where people can live, work and play.”
mcomas@orlandosentinel.com
