Gainesville City Commission votes to demolish Thelma Boltin Center

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the September 4 meeting, the Gainesville City Commission deferred a discussion on conveying property to GRACE Marketplace and voted to demolish the Thelma Boltin Center and “create a unique public space that reflects community identity and supports local needs.”

Conveyance of property to GRACE Marketplace

During the adoption of the agenda, Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut asked to defer until October 23 a discussion of declaring a parcel of City property as surplus for the purpose of conveying it to GRACE Marketplace. Chestnut said she wanted a better understanding of the City’s real property policy: “What happens then to the annual funds that we give to GRACE Marketplace? Is that going to be decreased? Is that going to impact this? And then once they do all of the renovations, what impact is that going to have? It seems like they’re going to turn it into a community healthcare facility, I’m not sure, but I would like to… thoroughly flesh [it] out.” The motion to adopt the agenda with that change passed unanimously.

Interim City Manager

Commissioners next voted to appoint Chief Operating Officer Andrew Persons as the Interim City Manager, starting October 21, with a salary to be negotiated by Mayor Harvey Ward. Click here to read Alachua Chronicle’s article about that appointment.

Thelma Boltin Center

In the afternoon session, the Commission discussed what to do about the Thelma Boltin Center. Wild Spaces Public Places Director Betsy Waite reviewed the history of the building, which was built in 1942 as an entertainment venue for U.S. service members stationed at nearby military bases. The building is on a two-acre site at the corner of NE 2nd Avenue and NE 5th Street, in the Duckpond Neighborhood. The building has been used by the City’s Parks department since 1946 but was last used in 2019. 

Although the General Policy Committee voted to renovate the building in August 2019, it was closed in 2020 because of COVID, and then a structural failure in the roof was identified in December 2020 and several assessments were conducted over the next few years. In April 2022, the General Policy Committee voted to design a new Thelma Boltin Center, but after the City’s Code Enforcement Division decided the building met the criteria of a “Dangerous Building” in August 2022, the building was prepared for demolition.

In April 2023, the City Commission voted to proceed with a partial restoration at a cost of $5.6 million, but they tabled that in September 2023 to conduct more community engagement. In December 2023, the City Commission approved structural repairs at a cost of $3 million, with $1.5 million coming from both the City and the County. 

Click here to see the presentation about Thelma Boltin Center.

Waite gave the City Commission six options, shown in the slide below.

Costs:

• Option 1 (continue with structural repairs): $6,645,690
• Option 2 (complete restoration): $7,833,045
• Option 3 (partial restoration): $7,245,659
• Option 4 (complete replacement with a new building): $7,787,940
• Option 5 (building demolition with full floodplain restoration): $450,000-$650,000
• Option 6 (building demolition, partial floodplain restoration, and housing): same as option 5, with housing funding coming from other sources

The staff recommendation was to proceed with option 5 or option 3.

After the presentation, Mayor Ward said, “At this point, we are in as much of a math question as we are in a ‘How much do people love this building’ question.” He also reminded everyone that none of the options would use money from the City’s General Fund: “This is Wild Spaces Public Places funding. That’s a whole separate thing.”

Public comment

During public comment, 13 people spoke in favor of preserving the building, and nobody favored demolishing it. After public comment, Ward said, “I would point out to you that we also had letters and emails from folks who agree with you and people who don’t agree with you, some vociferously, in both directions.”

Conveying the building to the Friends of Thelma Boltin

Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker asked Melanie Barr how much money the Friends of Thelma Boltin has raised, and Barr said it’s been difficult to raise money because the work was stopped. She said they have “less than $20,000.” Duncan-Walker said she would be interested in “literally offloading the building” to the community. Persons said it would still be classified as a dangerous building, and the City would need to enforce either demolition or remediation. 

Chestnut said she did not support putting more money into the building if it would still not be up to code and would require even more money to make it usable. Commissioner James Ingle also thought it was “irresponsible” to spend $3 million to stabilize a building “that maybe we’ll do something with, one day.” He said he could support either one of the options recommended by staff. 

Eastman: “Whatever we do with it, this has to be a very useful and important space that connects that whole neighborhood together and is a community space that can be utilized.”

Commissioner Bryan Eastman said he had looked for “common ground” throughout the process, but “at some point, you’ve got to make a call as to the future of this building.” He didn’t favor just demolishing the building and making stormwater changes: “Whatever we do with it, this has to be a very useful and important space that connects that whole neighborhood together and is a community space that can be utilized.”

Ward: “That’s the question to us: Is it the most important Wild Spaces project that there is?”

Ward said the restoration would probably cost more than $8 million, but even if it was $7 million, “that’s almost a full year’s allocation of the 10 years of Wild Spaces for the City of Gainesville, and it would be the most expensive project, that is a current project that currently exists, of anything that we’re going to spend on Wild Spaces… That’s the question to us: Is it the most important Wild Spaces project that there is?” He said he thought 8th & Waldo “is a greater project.”

Speaking to the audience, he said, “You all are good advocates. You’ve done a good job of making us stop and think about this. But the bottom line is, is this the most important project that we could spend Wild Spaces money on?”

Chestnut agreed that 8th & Waldo is “the most important project for me at this time… I don’t see pumping more funds into this.”

Motion

Eastman made a motion to adopt staff’s recommendation to demolish the building and allocate the remaining funds toward reimagining the site as a trailhead along the Sweetwater Trail Loop System, connecting Depot Park, the Matheson History Museum, Tom Petty Park, and the 6th Street Trail. The motion continued, “The reimagined site should honor the historic and cultural legacy of the location and Thelma Boltin’s contributions, incorporating the folk art tradition she spent her career elevating, along with usable outdoor community space, stormwater improvements to reduce flooding in the neighborhood, and a community garden element to promote sustainability, education, and neighborhood connection. Staff should partner with local artists, cultural organizations, neighborhood groups, and the Historic Preservation Board in a community engagement process to create a unique public space that reflects community identity and supports local needs.” Commissioner Casey Willits seconded the motion. 

Ward asked if Eastman could add language about veterans, and Eastman changed it to, “The reimagined site should honor the historic and cultural tradition and World War 2 heritage of the location…”

The motion passed 6-1, with Duncan-Walker in dissent.