Mote in February 2018 announced its intention to move its aquarium from the city of Sarasota’s City Island to the county to a parcel of land between Benderson Park and University Town Center mall in 2021. Construction is anticipated to last approximately two years, Bebak said. Mote has raised and secured donor commitments for just over $30 million and hopes to break ground on the aquarium late this year or early next year, Dan Bebak, vice president of aquarium, education and outreach at Mote, said. “We are very grateful that the commissioners have enthusiastically embraced this vision that we have for establishing a new economic driver for this community - for this region - that will also be an incredible resource to help with STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education for nearly 70,000 students every single year, STEM workforce development and the promotion of more science to help address some of the great challenges that we’re facing here together,” Mote president and CEO Michael Crosby said. Mote Marine executives expressed excitement Wednesday about coming one step closer to constructing the aquarium, which renderings depict as a four-story facility with classrooms, offices, cafe, terrace seating and aquariums for coral, manatees, crocodiles, otters and sharks. “That’s the way we’re going until such time as we hit a roadblock,” Rissler said. The county’s goal still remains to sell the land to Mote, county Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Director Nicole Rissler said. “Some of us would have just preferred to do a sale and a cleaner deal, but politics interfered on that,” Commissioner Nancy Detert said. The property Mote Marine is eyeing overlooks a constructed lake. If Mote secures the necessary land-use changes and has funding to complete the project, the county wants to sell the property to Mote for $100, according to county documents.īut selling the property - which is the objective of both parties - could prove problematic after voters last November approved a county charter amendment prohibiting the county from selling or giving away county-owned parks and preserves and to prevent the county from vacating any road segments or rights of way abutting any beach, river, creek, canal, lake, bay, Gulf access or waterfront vista. If any of the land-use approvals are denied, the county intends to transition into a long-term lease for 40 years, which includes five 10-year renewal options.
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