Latest on Ed Smith

Here is the latest (as of 11/15/06) plan for the proposed new baseball park in Sarasota. It was presented by Pat Calhoun at a meeting this evening.

The deal seems to hinge on whether an acceptable agreement can be found with a "partner", namely a hotel operator that would allow generation of about $10M. This would likely be in the form of a long term lease.

Since current parking is being used for the new structure, the city would look for additional parking across Tuttle in the current youth athletic park. This would require one of the three "stakeholders" (likely the BMX track or the football league) to move to a different site. A site identified as a possibility is on 17th, further east.

Bids from potential hotel developers are due by 2 PM on Thursday.