No Offers So Far; Process Continues To Sell Civic Center
March 22, 2011
Escambia County’s second step to sell the Pensacola Civic Center got underway Monday after no one made an offer when it was first listed on the market.
Escambia County Administrator Charles R. “Randy” Oliver said no “letters of interest” were received to purchase the civic center by the deadline last week. In February, the Board of County Commissioners directed the Purchasing Office to offer to sell the Civic Center for $10 million, but there were no offers received.
Monday, the Civic Center Advisory Committee began the process of selecting a firm to conduct a performance, economic and marketing assessment of the Civic Center. Three firms will participate in a question and answer session. Once the committee selects a firm and the study is completed, the findings will be presented to the Board of County Commissioners for further direction.
The Pensacola Civic Center, owned by Escambia County, is a 10,000 seat arena with over 20,000 square feet of exhibition space. A dozen meeting rooms with 13,000 square feet of meeting space are also available. The facility opened in 1985.
Comments
10 Responses to “No Offers So Far; Process Continues To Sell Civic Center”
While commissioner, I learned that almost no civic centers are money makers. Their principal purpose is to bring traffic to the area where the local businesses will make up bed-taxes, the tourists will spend money will local businesses, etc. The Civic Center management is farmed out and the COUNTY doesn’t have the money to bring in the First Class Acts required to make it a go. The CITY is broke and as usual, someone in the city will have a great idea and then get the County government to foot the bill for it. In these hard times, state governments are making some hard choices for the state government. We need to make some of those hard choices here. I dont think there is anyone downtown or at the BCC willing to take the heat from the Pensacola News Journal for making tough decisions. Maybe the civic center would make a better Aquarium than the former waste treatment plant. Maybe the Navy could be paid to turn the civic center into a museum. Most people are unaware that our Naval Museum is in the top ten Florida destinations for tourists. Does anyone know how to think out of the POCKET downtown? I’m sorry, I meant to say think outside the box.
That place is almost 30 years old….no one in their right mind will want to buy it and pay to keep it up or update it.
The Civic Center should have been built where the Milestone subdivision is now way back when. The County bought that vacant Navy airfield for a buck or something, but naturally, somebody had a “buddy”. It would have been more convenient for the rest of the county citizenry with plenty of parking for the CC to be there north of 9 mile rd.
Yes why bother with paying money for a study. Nobody is interested!
We can spend that to clean up the area so people WANT to come here
and buy something.
right….and how much is said “study”?
Check their pockets?
lol
Another good example build it in the wrong place and they wil “NOT COME”! The new ball park to be is another good example of “NOT BUILDING” in a central location for “ALL” to enjoy. When if flops the still want be able to figure out why?Our Commissioners have got realize they have got to go north!!
interesting idea, Klondike Kid
What is the reason for the sale?
Maybe they can sell it to Navy Federal instead of the 4 H property. I think the “Navy Federal Civic Center” sounds good.