[Taltarzac725]

Originally Posted by Dr Winston O Boogie jr

When it was being built, I commented several times to my wife that the big wall on the side facing the square looked out of place in the quaint little square. Yes, I think that outside of the building is ugly and doesn't fit the square.

I don't think that the issue is whether to have built a bigger and better performance center. I think that many, if not most, residence wanted that. The two issues that I see are the size and location.

Being only 200 seats larger than the Savannah Center, I can't see where it's going to attract big name artists. If it does, the ticket prices will have to be astronomical.

The second issue is location. Many people don't understand why this had to be built in an already busy and congested town square with limited parking. There are plenty areas more centrally located where a larger (2,000-3,000) seat facility could have been built with plenty of parking. It also would have made more sense to to have it more centrally located on one of the major east to west roads, 466 and 466A. People from the southern and central areas would have had easier access. The area across from Pinellas on 466A that they just bought immediately came to my mind as the perfect spot if a 3,000 seat venue. Easy access from a main road, centrally located and plenty of room for parking.
They could have also added some retail and restaurants for the patrons of the performance center.

It's not only parking that will be an additional problem, but an additional 500 cars and golf carts coming into the square on concert nights will cause quite a bit of traffic. Look at the roads coming into the square. They are all small one lane in each direction roads. Main St., Paige Place, Del Mar, Alonzo and the other streets are going to be jammed up when The Sharon is sold out.

I'm not trying to be critical of the developer. I am a huge fan of this organization and love almost everything that they've done so far. I just can't agree with this one.

This is my own opinion of course and I could be proven wrong so we'll all just wait and see. In the meant time we should be able to discuss things and give our opinions without being criticized or labeled as negative. We're not all going to agree on everything all the time.

I have had visitors who have thought the same. Not a good location and that kind of an unappealing to the eye building. The original Church on the Square was beautiful. The Sharon does look quite attractive inside, however.