Veterans museum, new Osceola County Historical Society museum still in the running

By Marvin G. Cortner
Editor

Osceola County commissioners Monday narrowed down the list of projects that could be funded with $19 million of tourist development tax reserves, with a veterans museum, the historical society and Osceola Heritage Park updates still in the running.

Commissioners, however, wanted another week to review the final offers from three developers to build up to 16 playing fields that would be used as a way to accommodate more amateur sporting events in the county and to generate additional overnight stays, and thus more tourist tax revenue.

Funding for projects other than the ball fields would consume approximately $9 million of the tourist tax reserve, leaving about $10 million for an amateur sports complex. No final decisions were made on the spending and commissioners will take up the question again Monday.

Among the projects commissioners still support are:

•$1.1 million in improvements to Osceola Heritage Park: making the facility Wi-Fi ready, removing the fence around the facility and building a walking trail in its place; improving electrical distribution and signage; developing additional parking on the former Chapman property; putting in new computerized cash registers for the concession stands at the Silver Spurs Arena; and provide funding to determine exactly what development rights the county has for the site.

•$2.8 million of improvements to the arena itself that include: improving access to the main floor; renovating two of the four quads that comprise the arena to allow better staging of smaller events and to add storage; adding a freight elevator; and remodeling the suites. Commissioners, however, did not support relocating horse stalls to a new barn on the west side of the arena and enclosing the existing multi-purpose building (that now houses the horse stalls) on the east side to be used as storage.

• $2 million for a museum of military history to be housed in the Kissimmee Convention and Visitors Bureau building at OHP. This amount includes $700,000 for the building’s renovation, $800,000 for future expansion and $500,000 in start-up funding.

• $1.8 million for the Osceola County Historical Society. This funding would include: $800,000 to build a new museum at the former Roadhouse Grill property on West U.S. Highway 192 at Shingle Creek, relocation of the Pioneer Village historical buildings from the society’s Bass Road site to Shingle Creek Regional Park (Babb property); development of a parking lot for the new Pioneer Village; and a security system for the buildings and property.

• $200,000 to establish an event acquisition fund and $400,000 to buy eight portable wooden basketball courts to handle additional Amateur Athletic Union games.

• Approximately $700,000 total to cover recurring operations at the new veterans museum, the historical society and the Osceola County Center for the Arts. Amounts of funding per organization have not been decided.

In talking about Osceola Heritage Park and the arena, Commissioner Ken Smith said the county needs to upgrade the facility in order to keep it competitive and able to attract and handle events of various sizes.

“We’ve got an $80 million investment sitting there,” he said, adding that the facility should have had a freight elevator from the beginning.

Commissioner John Quiñones said spending $5 million to build a new barn to accommodate relocated horse stalls and to enclose the current multi-use building for storage isn’t urgent.

While Quiñones said he supports most other improvements at OHP, he also said an overall marketing plan is needed for the facility.

“We have to know what we want OHP to be,” he said. “We don’t have the template to tell us this is the kind of event that we are going to go after.”

In response, Robb Larson, general manager at Osceola Heritage Park for Philadelphia-based SMG, the company that manages the facility, said the most successful events have included dog shows, car auctions, amateur and professional sports events and Hispanic concerts. In addition, officials said SMG has hired a marketing director and that a marketing plan is in the making.

When asked about how many room nights Osceola Heritage Park and the arena generate in a given year and where people visiting the facility stay, visitors bureau Executive Director Tom Lang said the bureau is still looking at the overall impact of the facility in the local economy in terms of room nights and sales taxes generated.

In talking about recurring expenses, Commissioner Michael Harford said tourist development taxes eventually would recover and that supporting the operations of local museums and arts centers would help bring tourists to the county.

“Tourists will come back when the economy changes,” Harford said, adding that support for the three organizations “says something about our community.”

When asked about whether the historical society could staff its new facility without the county’s financial support, Anza Bast, president, said “probably not.”

“You won’t find many museums that are self-sustaining; most rely on public support,” she said.