St. Petersburg’s list of unresolved city matters is growing: Add to it uncertainty over who will run the Mahaffey Theater.
After 15 years, businessman Bill Edwards and his company, Big 3 Entertainment, are no longer managing the city-owned waterfront performing arts venue. Edwards and the city couldn’t agree on extension terms. So the city in December set out to find the next operator.
But only one offer came, and a city review panel rejected it. Meanwhile, Edwards, who poured millions of his own money into the 61-year-old theater, decided to end his contract months early, leaving the city to take over operations.
The city must now determine the theater’s future while juggling the reopening of the historic Manhattan Casino and the redevelopment of its downtown marina. It’s taking place while the Tampa Bay Rays negotiate with Hillsborough County officials for a replacement to Tropicana Field after announced plans in St. Petersburg fell apart.
“We kind of got this track record ... that things don’t really move quickly,” council member Brandi Gabbard, who is running for mayor, said during a May 7 discussion of the Mahaffey situation, which she described as “messy.”
The city plans to put out another call for theater operators, although that process is expected to take about four months. In a city known for the arts, the uncertainty has posed a major challenge for the Mahaffey’s main tenant, The Florida Orchestra.
St. Petersburg Arts Alliance Executive Director Helen French, a supporter of the sole proposal rejected by the city, said a new bidding process offers a fresh start and renewed focus for the theater. It could also solidify the Mahaffey as the permanent home of the orchestra.
“Maybe this is a good opportunity to find just the right fit,” French said.
Florida Orchestra in the balance
The City Council recently approved spending $460,000 through September to manage the Mahaffey and assume Big 3’s contracts. City officials went on a hiring spree to retain theater employees and book shows through 2027.
They’re also under orders from the council to accommodate The Florida Orchestra, whose leadership expressed in emails and letters that it has been neglected during Big 3’s tenure and the city’s search process.
In negotiations, Edwards wanted the city to more than double its management fee to $750,000 annually and assume insurance costs while Big 3 kept all naming rights revenue. Beth Herendeen, the city’s point person on event facilities, thought she could strike a deal with her former boss. She worked for the Edwards Group from 2013 to 2018.
“I really thought we would get to an agreement, and I probably let that go on a little too long and didn’t start the RFP (request for proposals) process sooner,” said Herendeen, who also led the charge to fix the hurricane-damaged Trop for the Tampa Bay Rays’ return in April.
Edwards said he poured over $12 million into the Mahaffey. He went before the council three years ago to compel the city to invest in the theater’s deferred maintenance.
“It’s a big old building and we need a lot of repairs,” Edwards said in a recent interview with the Tampa Bay Times. “We did it as much as we could. I’ve subsidized it for close to all that time.”
With that contract expiring, The Florida Orchestra appealed directly to Mayor Ken Welch in October. The orchestra’s president and CEO, Ignacio Barrón Viela, said that, under Edwards, the orchestra hasn’t been able to secure rehearsal and performance dates.
Viela wrote that city negotiations went on “without any effort to address our concerns.”
“The orchestra is a big part of it, but it’s a part of it,” Herendeen said. “It wasn’t intentional leaving them out.”
Lori Osborne, The Florida Orchestra’s vice president of strategic partnerships, wrote in an April 8 email to Herendeen that it is the only orchestra in the country that has not released its upcoming season. She said Big 3 missed a Dec. 31 deadline to confirm dates despite its service agreement with the orchestra.
“We have been empathetic, flexible, and have operated in good faith throughout — but feel like we have given more grace than we have gotten in return, and we are out of time,” Osborne wrote in bold italics. “Every additional week of delay has real financial consequences for our organization and, frankly, for the Mahaffey’s programming as well.”
As the council approved funding to run the Mahaffey in the interim, it supported council member Gina Driscoll’s resolution to have city officials contract directly with the orchestra.
“Otherwise, it’s not an exaggeration to say that we could lose The Florida Orchestra over this,” Driscoll said. “They don’t have any guarantees that they have a home here at all.”
From Science Center to Mahaffey
The city’s lone proposal to run the Mahaffey came from a group called St. Petersburg Arts Partners. Led by businessman Joe Hamilton, it listed Vinik Sports Group, an entertainment management company established by former Tampa Bay Lightning majority owner Jeff Vinik, as a partner.
Hamilton runs the St. Pete Catalyst, a local news site that has a content-sharing agreement with the Times. His bid came with 19 letters of support, including from Pinellas County Administrator Barry Burton, County Commissioner Kathleen Peters and the Mahaffey’s neighbors, The Dalí Museum and the Tampa Bay Rowdies. Hamilton is already working with the city on reviving the Science Center.
But a panel of city employees didn’t like that they only had one bid to consider. They also weren’t clear on what the working relationship was between the group and its listed partners.
It likely didn’t help that Herendeen told her fellow review panel members that she had heard that Hamilton was bragging that his proposal was “on lock” and that he had been wandering around the Mahaffey looking at what he’d change.
Hamilton told the Times that Edwards is a friend with whom he regularly visits at the Mahaffey. He said that between the team he put together and having no competition, it was practical and logical to think the deal was his. He said Herendeen’s comments “clearly influenced the process” that ultimately resulted in him missing out on the contract.
“It certainly set the tone for subsequent meetings,” Hamilton said.
The St. Petersburg Arts Partners offered 54 pages of clarifications to try to address the city’s questions and concerns. But the review panel voted April 27 to reject the proposal and start over.
“I was really proud of the team and the proposal we put together because it would’ve done an incredible amount of good for the theater and for the city,” Hamilton said.
Parallels to the Manhattan Casino
Kyandra Darling, a candidate for state House District 62, said she saw parallels between the ordeal at the Mahaffey and what happened to the historic Manhattan Casino. Darling’s mother was among a group of investors who said they didn’t get a fair shake running a historic building the city let fall into disrepair.
The Manhattan Casino, once the cultural hub of St. Petersburg’s Black community, closed in 2022. The city began work on a $4.8 million renovation last summer. It is expected to reopen as a city-run event rental space this year.
“If you talk with Bill Edwards and people who supported the operations, they did a lot for the community but still felt like they didn’t have enough to be able to operate at a higher capacity,” Darling said. “I think the city is going to have to be very intentional in leaning in and making sure they are working with the people who they do pass it off to ultimately, if they don’t stay managing it.”
Refining the process to find the Mahaffey’s next operator may give the city a second shot at doing just that.
Herendeen said a new request for proposals will go live in June. She said it will include more operating details and specific requirements, including input from Vinik Sports Group and The Florida Orchestra.
”I think we’ll be better for it,“ Herendeen recently told City Council members.
Hamilton said he won’t apply again.
“I’d like to be part of making the Mahaffey as good as it can be, but I put my best foot forward and they said, ‘No thanks,’” he said.
