Bob Carr Performing Arts Center (OMA) on Buddy Dyer’s Chopping Block

The future doesn’t look good for local history in Orlando. As the Tinker Field controversy continues, it looks like Bob Carr Performing Arts Center — or the old Orlando Municipal Auditorium — is also on Buddy Dyer’s chopping block.

According to the City of Orlando’s Creative Village Master Development Plan, Bob Carr’s future has been decided. The plan states (bold emphasis mine):

“The City and CVD [Creative Village Development] acknowledge a strategy that contemplates the repositioning of the Bob Carr Performing Arts Center, including its ultimate demolition when the suitable replacement facilities are available; namely the Stage II of the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts (Stage II – DPAC).”

Like Tinker Field, the OMA has been a part of so many residents’ memories in Orlando and Orange County. Even Elvis performed there. It is the oldest Orlando Municipal building still standing and its original brick façade is still preserved, but Buddy’s bulldozers are zeroing in on the OMA as the historic building doesn’t quite fit with Dyer’s stalled “Creative Village.”

But wait, there’s more bad news for the OMA/Bob Carr. There is actually a City of Orlando “alternative” rendering in Dyer’s Community Venues Master Plan that shows a redeveloped Bob Carr/OMA. Like the Tinker Field “alternative” scenario rendering, when it comes to Buddy Dyer, a rendering like this can just about seal the deal – we all know which “option” Dyer will choose.

If there’s going to be a preservation effort, the clock is ticking.