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St. Pete leaders approve first step toward major Dalí Museum expansion on November ballot

By and
Updated  July 14, 2022 10:53pm EDT
St. Petersburg
FOX 13 News

Leaders approve first step toward major Dalí Museum expansion

Briona Arradondo reports

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - City leaders just approved the first step toward expanding the Dalí museum in St. Petersburg. The museum wants to add more space for conferences, education areas for kids and galleries, but they had to build out onto city-owned property to do it. 

There's been some concerns about how construction would interfere with the St. Pete Grand Prix and the Mahaffey Theater, but everyone came to an agreement on how to move forward Thursday. The Dalí museum said the newest design is a smaller footprint – a 40-foot-wide strip of waterfront land on the West Right of the museum. 

PREVIOUS: Stalemate over use of city-owned land puts Dalí Museum expansion on hold

The city owns the land, so city council approved amending a lease to allow for the museum expansion. The Dalí's executive director said this is a long-awaited first step in a complex project. 

The Dalí has proposed making this expansion a reality in the past. However, they ultimately couldn’t get on the same page as the city. They put out a similar plan last year, but they ended up revoking the amended lease after they couldn’t agree to the city’s conditions of approval.

Dalí expansion on hold over disagreement on city-owned property use

A big effort to expand the Dalí Museum and build new technology has stopped in its tracks. The museum, the city, and nearby Mahaffey Theater couldn’t come to an agreement before a crucial deadline.

The city says in order for the amended lease to be approved, the plan has to ensure that the Grand Prix race isn’t impacted in any way, including track construction and track dismantling before, during, and after the museum expansion is complete.

Additionally, while construction will likely have some effects on the Mahaffey Theater – including impacting parking and possibly access to some of the theaters' entrances – the plan has to allow for the theater to maintain its operating integrity before, during, and after construction of the expansion.

The city council also said this proposed lease amendment would also allow for future expansion for the Center of the Arts, and the Dalí Museum is a part of that are and larger plan. 

While this first step was approved, it's not a done-deal yet. The last public hearing for this is on August 4 and then if it's approved, it will go to voters on the November ballot.