USPS Publication Number 16300
T h is C o m mu n i t y N ewsp a p er is a pu bl ica t ion of E sca m bia / S a n t a Rosa B a r Assoc ia t ion
Se r v i ng t he Fi r st Jud icial Ci rcu it
Section A, Page 1
Vol. 18, No. 26
Visit The Summation Weekly Online: www.summationweekly.com
July 4, 2018
1 Section, 12 Pages
Studer Donating $3 Million Property for Sports Complex
B
lue Wahoos owner Quint Studer has tried for years to revitalize
the west side of downtown Pensacola. He offered $5 million to help relocate the YMCA to Marittime Park in 2013. He offered $20 million in 2015 to help fund the construction of a Center for Entrepreneurship, also at the park. Bureaucracy stymied both those efforts.
BY
WILL
ISERN
But Studer refuses to give up. Now, he’s offered nearly half of the largest empty parcel of land in downtown Pensacola – for free – to the Pensacola Sports Association to build a youth sports complex. Studer will turn over roughly half of the 19 acres acres of the former Emerald Coast Utilities Authority property on Main Street to the PSA. Studer purchased the property for $5.2 million in 2015. The parcel he is giving away is valued at roughly $3 million. The Pensacola Sports
Association has sought to build a youth sports complex for more than two years, since a 2016 study showed that such a facility could generate 50,000 hotel room bookings and $25 million in annual economic impact. A similar complex was recently completed in Foley, Ala. The association spent the better part of the last year backing an effort by a group of private developers to replace the Pensacola Bay Center with a state-of-the-art arena. That plan languished after the would-be developers realized it would not be eligible
for new market tax credits. County commissioners in June declined to endorse the project to the Triumph Gulf Coast Board, effectively killing it. Studer watched as those negotiations fell apart, and when it became clear that plan had fallen through, he reconnected with Pensacola Sport’s Association president Ray Palmer. The PSA study that supported building a field house had also identified Studer’s property as the ideal location. Studer said he is less interested in generating sports tourism than he is in creating assets for locals to enjoy, but said he saw value in a potential facility at the site for locals and tourists alike. “The project had gone off on a different track,
but when it became obvious that track was ending, Ray and I reconnected,” Studer said. “You’ve got Corinne Jones Park to the north, and now you have the fish hatchery not going there (across the street at Bruce Beach), you can open that up to public access like it should be. I think about all these local families that could come down to the field house, go to Corinne Jones Park, go to Maritime Park, go to Bruch Beach; I think that would create a great vibrancy on that west side of downtown.” How the Pensacola Sports Association funds the facility remains to be seen. Palmer has estimated that the facility the association envisions could cost around $35 million. Palmer said he plans to assemble a team of experts to guide to the project. “We’re going to build a team of people that can help us make this thing happen in the fastest, smartest way we can,” Palmer said. “My mission is to find the right people to make those things happen.” The deal comes with several stipulations. Stud-
er will require that whatever the PSA wants to do must receive support from the Tanyard Neighborhood Association, where the property is located. He’ll also require that facility be open to locals, that it comply with the development plan for the area, and that it be “funded and approved through all the proper channels.” “This project can create a healthier community, attract more visitors, create a great place for area residents, activate Bruce Beach and open the door to the west side of Pensacola,” Studer said. “That sounds like a win-win to us.” Palmer has said he hopes to generate community support for the project to kick start fundraising. “There’s going to be fundraising side, there’s going to be a PR component generating community buy-in, explaining to potential users what it is and what it isn’t, and hopefully people will understand we can’t be everything to everybody, but that we’re going to follow the study and try to build the best thing for the community that we can,” he said.