{"id":179486,"date":"2026-03-05T16:59:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T16:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/179486\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T16:59:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T16:59:16","slug":"orlando-to-hold-public-meeting-on-pulse-memorial-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/179486\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando to hold public meeting on Pulse memorial progress"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Leaders with the city of Orlando will hold a meeting Thursday afternoon to give an update on the design of the permanent Pulse memorial as the project has reached the 30% design benchmark<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What You Need To Know<\/p>\n

Orlando to host a public meeting Thursday at 4 p.m. on the Pulse memorial 30% design phase benchmark
\n
June 12, 2026, will mark 10 years since 49 people were killed inside the former Pulse nightclub
\n
Crews will remove and store the Pulse sign on March 10, and demolition will begin on March 18
\n
City leaders expect the permanent memorial to be completed by fall 2027<\/p>\n

The city stated the design team will share a presentation that shows how the memorial design is advancing the work of the Pulse Memorial Advisory Committee.<\/p>\n

According to the city, at the meeting the design team will share a presentation that shows how the memorial design is advancing the work of the Pulse Memorial Advisory Committee<\/a>.\u00a0The public can attend the meeting in-person or virtually.<\/p>\n

At the site of the former nightclub, the sound of machinery is echoing as the landscape changes once again.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot to take in and believe that it\u2019s actually going to happen. It\u2019s a lot to process,\u201d Nancy Rosado, a member of the Pulse Memorial Advisory Committee, said.<\/p>\n

Crews are clearing the way for the permanent memorial.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tangible now, and the fact that it\u2019s tangible, the fact that they\u2019re actually clearing the trees means that they\u2019re actually going to use the building over there as a welcome center,\u201d Rosado said.<\/p>\n

Rosado has been actively involved as part of the Pulse committee formed by the city of Orlando to design the permanent memorial at the site of the 2016 nightclub terror attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy to see the trees coming down. It means that the area is being processed.\u00a0I think the difficult part is going to be when they actually start tearing down the building,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Since the city took over the permanent memorial in October 2023, Rosado has been behind the collaborative efforts to come up with the design.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need a design. You need a team of people to have input, both in a cultural sense and a community sense for the Hispanic community and the LGBTQ community. So, it\u2019s been a process that\u2019s been very, very important and I think pretty meticulously done this time around,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

June 12, 2026, will mark 10 years since 49 people were killed inside of the former Pulse nightclub.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pulse survivor Ricardo Negron said he feels grateful seeing progress toward a permanent memorial.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing that it\u2019s actually happened it\u2019s a good thing, at least in my opinion, and I can only speak for myself. It is a good thing that we\u2019re moving forward with having that final place that we can call our own for our community,\u201d Negron said.<\/p>\n

A construction fence lines the property of the Pulse site.\u00a0With the fencing in place, the temporary memorial is no longer accessible, but there is a small area where the community can leave items like flowers and flags during the construction phase.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOur community, the LGBTQ community and Hispanic community deserve a marker, something that signifies these people\u2019s lives, and that they were very innocently taken from us. So, it\u2019s a good thing in a very broad sense. It\u2019s a good thing that we\u2019re moving forward,\u201d Rosado said.<\/p>\n

A statement sent by the city of Orlando about the demolition plans said in part:<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we prepare for this difficult transition, we recognize the significance and weight of this moment. We hope that you will continue to uplift the families and the survivors to ensure the legacy of our 49 angels continues to shine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Construction of the permanent Pulse memorial is expected to begin once the site is fully cleared.<\/p>\n

Here is a timeline of the demolition process:<\/p>\n

On March 10, the Pulse sign will be removed and securely stored\u00a0\u00a0
\nThe building will be demolished starting March 18
\nSite clearing will continue over the summer with construction planned to begin in the fall
\nThey expect construction to be completed by December 2027<\/p>\n

Rosado said some of the victims\u2019 families have talked to her about experiencing mixed feelings surrounding this demolition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes that fix the hurt and the pain of what\u2019s happened over these years?\u00a0Absolutely not. Everybody grieves at their own pace. Everybody feels at their own pace, and they may see this as good. The building is going to be destroyed, but there are others that are like I spent so many wonderful nights there. All the mixed feelings will come up all over again,\u201d Rosado said.<\/p>\n

Negron said he believes the demolition is a step in the right direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if closure is the right word, but I think it\u2019s a great step in the healing journey for definitely for me and I would like to think that for others as well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For those experiencing mixed feelings, Rosado\u2019s advice is to seek help when needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo not sit there in pain by yourself or just sitting, waiting for it to pass. You don\u2019t have to stay in pain. You can get better sooner,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

That is a pain that\u2019s very familiar for Negron as he remembers what happened that night.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I was actually inside. I mean, I remember vividly being in the bar area of the main dance floor,\u201d Negron said.<\/p>\n

He says it hits even harden every year when June comes around.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe emotions are just higher, everything is really in your face, so to speak, and now with everything that\u2019s happening with finally the memorial moving forward. It\u2019s kind of like inevitable to think about what happened here and everything that led us to where we are today,\u201d Negron said.<\/p>\n

Negron said although he still lives close to the Pulse site, he chooses not to visit often, but once the permanent memorial is complete, he\u2019ll be back.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI do want to see what it becomes, and I will definitely be around to see it,\u201d Negron said.<\/p>\n

City leaders expect the permanent memorial to be completed by fall 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The public can attend the 4 p.m. meeting<\/a> in-person at City Hall or virtually.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Leaders with the city of Orlando will hold a meeting Thursday afternoon to give an update…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[767,1011,1013,274,770,1190,766,115,772,139,141,140,16956,278],"class_list":{"0":"post-179486","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-app-community","9":"tag-app-human-interest","10":"tag-app-latest-human-interest-stories","11":"tag-app-top-stories","12":"tag-community-news","13":"tag-human-interest","14":"tag-massiel-leyva","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-on-air-ticker-article","17":"tag-orlando","18":"tag-orlando-headlines","19":"tag-orlando-news","20":"tag-pulse-shooting","21":"tag-top-stories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}