Nonprofit Wants Downtown New Port Richey's Empty Health Department Building to Become a Kids' Science Center

A New Port Richey nonprofit is asking the city to hand one of downtown's most visible empty buildings to kids. Brainstorms NPR, Inc. wants to convert the vacant, city-owned former Pasco County Health Department building at 5640 Main St. into a children's science discovery center, and it will make its case to the City Council on Aug. 18, weeks before the council is expected to pick a developer for the same site.

The three-story building holds roughly 14,400 square feet at Main and Bank streets. It has been empty about five years, since Pasco County moved health department operations to Hudson in 2021. New Port Richey took ownership in 2022 through a property exchange that involved city-owned baseball fields at Pine Hill Park.

The city put the property out for bids on June 8. The request for proposals encourages retail, restaurants, cultural uses, upper-floor apartments and mixed-use redevelopment, and it lets bidders propose either renovating the existing structure or tearing it down for something new. Proposals are due Aug. 3. Evaluations follow the next week, with the council expected to consider a selected developer on Sept. 1 and the winning team presenting construction plans later in September.

So Brainstorms, which has run hands-on STEAM programs at Pasco libraries and community events for years without a building of its own, is competing against commercial developers with financing behind them. The nonprofit's plan calls for interactive science exhibits, engineering activities and a hurricane simulator. It also wants to keep the mural on the building.

The pitch: downtown for kids, not just for nights out

Brainstorms board members have framed this as a gap in what downtown offers. Board member Daisy Thomas told local media outlets that the city, now past its 100th year, should be building intergenerational programming rather than amenities that serve a small crowd on weekend nights. Planning and development officer Thomas Sakser said the park downtown is well done, but families run out of things to do after an hour and there is nowhere to go next.

Secretary Shauntae Garlock made the visual argument: coming over the bridge into downtown, you see the Hacienda on one side, and the other side needs something worth looking at too.

The building itself is the complication. City officials have pointed to its 1950s design, including the fact that it presents no windows or doors to either Main Street or Bank Street, as a reason it turns its back on the businesses around it. Whoever gets the site, museum or restaurant row, has to solve that.

What the city says it's looking for

The RFP is not written for a passive buyer. Bidders have to show financial backing, a track record in redevelopment and a plan that creates long-term economic value on the parcel. The city also wants the project to knit Main Street together with Railroad Square Phase 2, and it left the door open to proposals that involve a future parking deck on nearby city-owned land.

Cultural uses are on the city's own list of encouraged concepts, which is the opening Brainstorms is walking through. What the nonprofit has not made public is how it would pay to rehabilitate a building that has deteriorated through years of vacancy.

How to weigh in

Council meetings are where residents get their say on this one. The Aug. 18 presentation and the Sept. 1 selection are both public, and public comment is part of the agenda. Bid documents and addenda for the property are posted on the city's bid postings page.

The city has not said how many proposals it received or released the names of other bidders. That should become clear during the evaluation week in mid-August, before the council takes its vote.

Keep up with this one and the rest of what's happening around the county at Pasco County Community Website, and follow us on Facebook for updates as the Aug. 18 meeting approaches. Got a view on what should go into 5640 Main St.? Join the conversation in our Community Forum.

For more on decisions like this one, read more government and politics stories or browse our business development coverage.

Header photo: Ryan Watern1 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)