The Bay Is Flush With Tax Dollars. It's Still Asking Sarasota for $2 Million.
Cindy Weiner and Peter Mebel walk to The Bay almost every day. The couple, who moved near the park two years ago, call it "our own little jungle in the backyard." They've watched the Promenade go in along North Tamiami Trail, caught a movie under the stars on the lawn, and stood in the crowd for one of the World Cup watch parties that have become a regular feature of the park's calendar this year.
If you've spent any time there this summer, the place can feel close to finished. The palms along the Promenade have filled in. The Chidsey Library sits freshly restored, walkable from the Blue Pagoda and the Municipal Auditorium. What that finished feeling hides is a park that's less than half built, funded by a formula that's currently outperforming its own projections, and still short enough on committed cash that a nonprofit foundation just launched a public fundraising push to close the gap. That mismatch, more money coming in than anyone expected, and still not enough certainty to build, is the actual story of The Bay right now.
The Bay is 53 acres of city-owned bayfront, and only two of its four planned phases are built or under construction. Phase 1, the first 10 acres, opened in October 2022. Phase 2, a 14-acre, $65 million build-out, is fully funded and expected to wrap in 2027. Add those together and you get 24 acres, well under half the park, on a project the conservancy running it has said will take eight to ten years across four or more phases to finish. The remaining acreage, including the future home of a performing arts center, is still in the concept stage.
The Bay's $200 million total cost is split by a specific formula: half from private philanthropy through the Bay Park Conservancy, and the other half split evenly between the city and county, drawn from a tax increment financing district established in fiscal year 2020. That district captures the growth in property tax revenue on downtown parcels near the park, measured against 2019 assessed values, and channels it back into the project.
Here's the part that should surprise anyone who assumes public parks run on tight budgets: that TIF district's original 30-year projection was about $190 million. By fiscal year 2026, rapid redevelopment at The Quay and in the Rosemary District had nearly doubled those projections. The tax base feeding the park is growing faster than anyone modeled five years ago.
You'd think a funding source beating its own forecast would make the next round of construction an easy yes. In April, Bay Park Conservancy Founding CEO AG Lafley went to the Sarasota County Commission for what the conservancy described as a routine ask, releasing TIF funds for the next round of Phase 3 work. Instead of committing to its full share, the commission approved only half its portion of the fiscal year 2027 debt service payment.
A second, smaller version of the same hesitation showed up around Centennial Park. The conservancy asked the county to commit to 50% of a $16 million bond covering that section. The county instead approved just the first year's payment, $282,000, into next year's budget rather than backing the full bond.
Part of the caution traces to a structural quirk in how TIF districts work: if the money isn't spent within a given year, the county can redirect it to the general fund instead of holding it for the park. Revenue beating projections doesn't guarantee it stays earmarked for The Bay.
"This challenge match from Gulf Coast demonstrates the ongoing importance of The Bay and its growing positive impact on the environment and on people throughout the community."
That's AG Lafley, reacting to a new push that landed just this week to make up the difference the county left on the table.
On August 6, the Gulf Coast Community Foundation launched a $2 million challenge match to help finish the park. The foundation's board approved a $1 million grant, which anonymous donors then doubled. Every dollar given by the public through June 30, 2027, gets matched, with a goal of raising $4 million total.
Foundation president Phillip Lanham framed it around what residents already use the park for: "Almost every day, The Bay is hosting something that brings people together." It's a pitch built on the fact that the park doesn't need convincing anyone it's popular. More than 1.15 million visits had been tallied through mid-May 2026 since the park opened in fall 2022, a number Sarasota Mayor Debbie Trice has called extraordinary for a city of just 58,000 residents. By August, that count had already climbed past 1.2 million. The demand for finished acreage is outpacing the acreage that exists.
Walk the shoreline between the Van Wezel and Centennial Park this summer and you'll see the most visible construction on site: a resilient shoreline project, backed by roughly $10 million in federal and state grants, that requires matching funds from the conservancy. City commissioners approved the construction agreement in March, and the work is shifting the shoreline roughly four and a half feet eastward, building in rain gardens that filter stormwater before it reaches Sarasota Bay.
The reasoning behind the sequence matters more than it might seem. The conservancy points to the beachfront at the west end of Phase 1, which held up with little damage during the trio of 2024 storms, compared to the unprotected man-made waterfront stretch just north of it, between the Van Wezel and the 10th Street canal, which took real damage. That comparison is why amenities and design features come last in this project. Stormwater and resilience get built first, every time, before anyone adds a bench or a restaurant pad.
The clearest sign of what's actually coming next isn't a rendering, it's a signed deal. The conservancy has partnered with Venice Pier Group, the operator behind Sharky's On The Pier and Fins at Sharky's, to build a waterfront restaurant on the site of the former U.S. Coast Guard station at the edge of the boat basin. Construction starts next year, with an opening targeted for 2027. It's not the group's first turn running food service on public land. They've also operated concessions at the county-owned Snook Haven Park, currently closed for renovations.
That restaurant lines up with the Phase 3A and 3B concept model the conservancy unveiled in May: a massing study showing a future Sarasota Performing Arts Center site flanked by two restaurant spaces, a parking deck, and a former parking lot converted to green space. The Van Wezel anchors one corner of that model. None of it is funded yet the way Phase 2 is, but the design and the restaurant commitment both point the same direction.
The park you can walk through today is real, and it's already busy enough to have drawn well over a million visits in under four years. What comes next depends less on design plans, which exist, than on whether a growing tax base actually gets spent on the park it was built to fund, or gets pulled back into the county's general ledger one cautious vote at a time.
If you're the kind of Sarasota resident who tracks what's happening at The Bay the way you'd track a neighbor's renovation, that tension is worth watching alongside the ribbon cuttings. Arlene Buckmaster follows these local shifts closely because they shape daily life across the neighborhoods she serves, from downtown to the barrier islands. If you have questions about how projects like this affect the areas you care about, Let's Connect.
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