North Port Commission allots $9.26 million for first phase of Warm Mineral Springs plan

NORTH PORT – On a pair of split, 3-2 votes, the North Port City Commission agreed Friday to use a mix of sales tax revenue and parks impact fees to pay for the first pahse of the Warm Mineral Springs master plan. 

That initial phase, with a projected price tag of $9.3 million, will cover restoration of the three structures in the 21.6-acre Warm Mineral Springs Activity Center, extension of city water and sewer lines to the property, and the parking lot's reconstruction. 

Funding for the remainder of the plan, developed by Kimley-Horn, with a projected $19.5 million cost, covers potential uses on the remaining 61.4 acres of park land. 

The two commissioners who voted against using surtax funds – Vice Mayor Pete Emrich and Commissioner Barbara Langdon – had both hoped that an outside investor could be found to develop alternate uses for the 61.4 acres as part of the public-private partnership and pay for Phase One, too. 

Langdon said the city's commitment to use sales tax money and impact fees for the improvements may encourage potential outside developers to come forward. 

“That’s my silver lining in this discussion,” she added. 

Both Langdon and Emrich noted the sales tax funds are still tax revenue and could be used elsewhere to pay for capital projects that otherwise may be funded by the city’s general fund. 

“I agree, Warm Mineral Springs needs to be a focus of attention for rehabilitation but we owe our due diligence to the taxpayers when we do this,” Emrich said. “There are alternate funding sources that can take place.” 

He suggested the city could take out a loan, possibly sell off some of site for private development and thus put it back on the tax rolls, or seek partnerships. 

He cited the 2014 effort to do so, though then, one of the proposals involved using the park land as collateral for loans to develop a $34 million project. 

Warm Mineral Springs seen as valuable asset

Commissioner Debbie McDowell stressed that Warm Mineral Springs – which the city annexed in 2000 when it was private, then owned jointly with Sarasota County from 2010 until 2015, when the city purchased it outright – is an asset. 

“It’s our capital asset and it has made more money than I could have ever imagined,” she said. 

The city pays National and State Parks Concessions, Warm Mineral Springs Inc., about $48,000 a month to operate the springs and keeps any revenue generated.   

In recent years, the springs have generated between $300,000 and $400,000 a year. 

McDowell noted that attendance at the park was 4,571 in February, as COVID-19 pandemic social distancing concerns started to wane, then almost doubled again to 7,100 in March and sat at 7,537 in April. 

That meant that the net income jumped form $47,600 in February to roughly $157,000 in April. 

“That is with these buildings in total disarray and people are still coming to see this wonderful asset, McDowell said. 

Those three buildings, which include a sales building, a restaurant and spa building, and a cyclorama, were built for the three-month Florida Quadricentennial, which started in December 1959.  

The sales building and spa are the main entry point to the springs. The cyclorama – essentially a circular exhibition hall with interior murals – is currently closed and is believed to be one of only three remaining in the United States. 

The city actually created its own historic register in 2017, as part of an effort to have those three structures, which are believed to be designed by Jack West of the Sarasota School of Architecture, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

The springs itself was listed on the register in 1977. The three buildings were listed on the register in September 2019. 

“Once those buildings get fixed yes we can advertise the beauty of those buildings to everybody,” McDowell said. 

“I envision Visit Sarasota really plugging Warm Mineral Springs once its’ been revitalized,” she later added, referring to the area tourism promotion agency. “Right now, nobody is plugging Warm Mineral Springs because it looks like crap – that's the bottom line.” 

The commission voted to move previously earmarked surtax money from the Myakkahatchee Creek Greenway, at $1.4 million; Spring Haven Land Acquisition at $1.4 million and the Dallas White Master Plan Design and Site Renovation at $1.5 million, as well as $200,000 from a restroom project at LaBrea Park. In that same motion, they also voted to dedicate park impact fees to expansion and paving of the parking lot. 

After a unanimous vote to revisit the four capital projects during budgeting, the commission voted to take the remaining surtax funds from the $9 million in surtax funding set aside to build a community center at Atwater Park. 

A possible partnership

Ironically both the proposed community center at Atwater Park and redevelopment of Dallas White Park were both part of a public-private partnership opportunity that the global real estate company Colliers International was poised to advertise, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic-induced economic shutdown in 2020. 

The commission is scheduled to discuss the future of Dallas White Park, including Colliers’ plan to advertise in September for a public-private partnership when it meets Tuesday. 

In a May email to the city, Colliers representatives expressed an interest in marketing Warm Mineral Springs for public-private partnership development as well. 

Though she did not address that directly, Langdon said she hoped the city could entice a restauranteur to develop something akin to an “upscale Snook Haven,” and the University of Miami, or some other entity to build a museum on some of the remaining park acreage. 

While a museum was part of the Kimley-Horn plan, Langdon’s proposal for a second restaurant – to go along with a cafe that would reopen as part of the three structures by the springs – intrigued her fellow commissioners. 

“That would be awesome to have right by the entrance,” McDowell said. 

Commissioner Alice White noted that with other agencies considering restoration of Warm Mineral Springs Creek, which has become choked with sediment, it may be possible for manatees to make their way north to the park. 

“We could actually have a manatee viewing area herein North Port,” White said. “How great would that be.” 

North Port Parks and Recreation Director Sandy Pfundheller said the additional phases of park development can easily be changed. 

“The master plan is just a guide, a concept,” she said. “The scope of services and really detailing what we want to see, that would be up for discussion.” 

Earle Kimel primarily covers south Sarasota County for the Herald-Tribune and can be reached at earle.kimel@heraldtribune.com. Support local journalism with a digital subscription to the Herald-Tribune.