Event Center Agreement Reached


Punta Gorda officials and Charlotte County commissioners, at a joint meeting on March 3rd, agreed on additional funding that gives a green light to the construction start of the Event Center.

The City’s CRA (community redevelopment agency) agreed to contribute $1.2 million for architectural enhancements to the building. This money comes from tax incentive funding (TIF) monies which are earmarked for CRA projects. Separately, the County Commissioners approved an additional $2 million dollars of county funds for the Event Center – costs unrelated to the architectural changes.

TEAM Punta Gorda, through an architect, had proposed a number of changes to the county design-build team’s initial renderings. Many of TEAM’s suggested architectural improvements were incorporated into the county’s latest proposed rendering.  (See Below)

Construction of the 43,000 plus square foot building is scheduled to begin this summer.

TEAM applauds the efforts of all those involved in bringing this to a conclusion. We will be glad to see the first shovel of upturned earth that begins construction of our new Event Center.

(Note: A recent newspaper editorial erroneously reported that TEAM Punta Gorda would try to “raise another $200,000” to pay for architectural enhancements. A correction was printed in a subsequent edition of that newspaper.)