{"id":426605,"date":"2026-10-13T14:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T14:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/426605\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T14:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T14:12:09","slug":"orlando-city-council-approves-pulse-memorial-construction-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/426605\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando City Council approves Pulse memorial construction contract"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 10 years after a shooter killed 49 people at the Pulse nightclub, the Orlando City Council unanimously voted to move forward with construction on a memorial on Monday.<\/p>\n

Under a new construction agreement with Winter Park\u2019s Gomez Construction, the project is on a concrete construction schedule. Work will begin at the site of the former nightclub on South Orange Avenue on Nov. 25, and wrap up by the end of next year.<\/p>\n

The Pulse shooting was at the time the largest mass shooting in U.S. history. The nonprofit OnePULSE Foundation led fundraising efforts following the tragedy, but was plagued by accusations of misusing community and public money.<\/p>\n

After the foundation dissolved in 2023, the city bought the land itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the last step in the healing and the continuum of this process \u2014 to make sure that we get this built,\u201d District 4 Commissioner Patty Sheehan said.<\/p>\n

Under a $12.6 million agreement, Winter Park\u2019s Gomez Construction will turn the now-razed site into a 0.9-acre space for the community to honor the victims and reflect on its legacy.<\/p>\n

Buddy Dyer has been Orlando\u2019s mayor for more than two decades. He won\u2019t be seeking reelection next fall, and he\u2019s made the memorial a personal priority before he leaves office.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommissioner Sheehan and I will term out in January, and we’re going to make sure that that memorial is finished before we do,\u201d Dyer said.<\/p>\n

According to planning documents, construction on the project will begin at the end of next month, and run through the end of next year. That completion date hasn\u2019t changed, though earlier this year project planners told the council they expected to begin work in September.<\/p>\n

Orange County, the state of Florida and numerous charitable organizations are helping to finance the project, in addition to the $7.5 million the city has budgeted for the work.<\/p>\n

The Florida Legislature last year awarded<\/a> more than $394,000 in grant funding. And the Orange County Commission committed $5 million to support the memorial in June<\/a> of 2025.<\/p>\n

The Orlando City Council had picked<\/a> Gomez Construction to complete work on the project, scoring it the highest out of three firms that submitted bids to work on the project.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Rendering<\/p>\n

\/<\/p>\n

via city of Orlando<\/p>\n

A rendering of the site plan for the proposed Pulse nightclub memorial presented to the Orlando City Council in May.<\/p>\n

Cost-saving changes<\/p>\n

The bid package on Monday\u2019s agenda included 19 changes to the project from earlier designs in order to stay within the $12.6 million budget, according to a spokesman from Gomez Construction.<\/p>\n

For example, \u201cthe tile mosaic at the curved wall of the Visitors Center is deleted from the project and will now be just stucco,\u201d the Oct. 5 bid notes explain, and \u201cthe granite on the two survivor walls will now be tile.\u201d<\/p>\n

The revisions also entirely get rid of benches outside of the visitors pavilion and swap copper plumbing for PVC. And, also to save on costs, \u201cthe plant sizes are reduced by an approximate 50%.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project is also over budget for lighting and electrical work. Douglas Richards, a spokesman for the city of Orlando, elaborated on the project cost in a statement on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt every pre-construction design milestone, Gomez provided the city with a cost estimate, as well as ideas to save money and get back to the desired budget point, if applicable,\u201d Richards wrote. \u201cMany of the cost savings centered on changing suppliers. For example, the supplier for pavers was changed from an out of state company to a local supplier, resulting in savings due to reduced shipping\/delivery costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gomez Operations Manager Stephen Corrow attributed the need for cost-cutting measures to a \u201cvolatile\u201d construction market with substantial price fluctuations. Kristi Fries, the city public works project manager, said Gomez made a \u201cHerculean\u201d effort to keep the project within budget.<\/p>\n

According to the schedule<\/a> attached to Monday\u2019s meeting agenda, construction work on site will begin on Nov. 25, starting with site grading and a tree removal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 10 years after a shooter killed 49 people at the Pulse nightclub, the Orlando City Council…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-426605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426605","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=426605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}