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Surrealist Museum To Get Real Part In Cultural Center

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By CARLOS MONCADA, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 2, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG - The city council unanimously approved a deal Thursday to lease waterfront land to the Salvador Dali Museum for 99 years.

The lease, approved by voters three years ago, will bring the popular attraction on Bayboro Harbor closer to downtown and make it part of a new cultural destination, next to the recently renovated Mahaffey Theater.

The new museum building, estimated at $30 million, also will sit alongside a new waterfront park next to Albert Whitted Municipal Airport.

The vote capped about five hours of sometimes intense discussion, during which it appeared the deal might not happen.

Differences between the museum and the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, which plans to purchase the museum's existing building for campus expansion, had threatened to unravel the three-way agreement.

The two sides still must iron out details, such as an agreement on when USF would pay the museum $6 million for its building at 1000 Third St. S.

"It's an exciting opportunity for us," Mayor Rick Baker said. "We do get into the discussion and debate of other details, and sometimes they get a little contentious. But at the end of the day, we're going to have a magnificent center for the people of St. Petersburg."

The museum will pay the city $1 a year in rent and will cover expenses on the new building, such as repairs and insurance.
Museum officials plan to break ground on the 50,000-square-foot, hurricane-resistant building next summer and have it completed in 2010. Money for the project is coming from state matching grants, donations and the sale of the existing building to USF.

"We're going to have one awesome museum on a beautiful waterfront lot," council member Bill Foster said. "I'm confident that this is going to happen without a glitch."

Racking up 200,000 visitors and $50 million in economic impact annually, the Salvador Dali Museum is St. Petersburg's premier cultural attraction. Opened in 1984, it houses one of the most extensive collections of the works of the Spanish surrealist, valued at more than $500 million.

Nearly three-fourths of city voters approved a referendum in 2004 allowing a 99-year lease of land once occupied by the Bayfront Center Arena to the museum. By a slightly wider margin, voters also approved allowing the city to convey the land underneath the museum's current building to the state for expanding USF.

Reporter Carlos Moncada can be reached at (727) 451-2333 or cmoncada@tampatrib.com.

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