Deal brings $500,000 to museum

The state grant for the Florida International Museum comes with certain conditions.

By LEONORA LaPETER

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 9, 2000

A $500,000 state grant for the Florida International Museum had one string attached: The city had to agree to keep the museum as a cultural facility for 10 years or face repaying the grant.

City Council members agreed Thursday to the state's terms, but several felt that the state was backing them into a corner.

"There's an assumption of risk caveat to this that I find unseemly," said council member Jay Lasita.

The covenant on the land forced council members to consider the viability of the downtown museum. Some were concerned that the city would lose the $500,000 if the museum flopped and it was forced to sell the building, but most seemed committed to the museum's future.

The city owns the building and a portion of the land on which it rests. It has $2-million set aside to buy the rest of the property and is in the process of making offers to multiple landowners.

The $500,000 grant from the Division of Cultural Affairs is needed to fix a leak in the basement and to build galleries to hold Smithsonian Institution exhibits.

The museum, open more than five years, has had its financial ups and downs. In the past two years, Gov. Jeb Bush has vetoed requests for the museum totaling $4.1-million.

Council member Kathleen Ford said the museum hasn't had the attendance it projected, and its financial support has dropped off. The museum is now open year-round with a permanent collection of John F. Kennedy artifacts and has an agreement with the Smithsonian Institution to bring special exhibits to town.

Dick Johnston, president of the museum, said the museum is now breaking even and expects to capitalize on the agreement with the Smithsonian. Already the organization has committed to send down portraits of 36 presidents.

"We'd like to have more attendance, of course," Johnston said. About 110,000 people have attended the Kennedy exhibit since it opened last November. "But nobody gets the attendance they want. We've been in a break-even position for the last four months."

Ford, the only council member who voted against the deal, thinks the city has sunk enough money into the museum.

"It's not performing, and I want to retain the ability for the city to get out of the property if they need to," Ford said.

In the past few years, the city has borrowed more than $9-million to buy the building, fix it up and eventually purchase all of the land, although $2-million of that will be repaid by Pinellas County.

Lasita and council member Bea Griswold both supported the grant but said the state seemed to be passing all the risk to the city.

Council members Bill Foster, Bob Kersteen and Larry Williams said they saw nothing wrong with the state's terms.

"What the state is doing, I think, is just solid business," Williams said. "It's the way the city should approach it, too. I think the days of getting grants without guarantees are over, and I'm glad of it."

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