PURCHASE FROM SFBH WILL MAKE MORE ROOM FOR CROWDS.
“Recently, the Florida Strawberry Festival had the opportunity to purchase eight parcels of land from the South Florida Baptist Hospital (SFBH),” Strawberry Festival President Kyle Robinson said. “They had 10 pieces for sale and we weighed how we could best utilize it for the Festival’s needs, so we purchased eight of those 10.” The eight lots total six acres of land. Several of the parcels were lots SFBH used for employee parking. Short term, the Festival is going to continue to use those as parking lots. Other parcels are vacant lots. An old house stood on one, but the Festival has already torn that down.
These spaces won’t be used for public parking. Instead they will be used to store the tractor trailers that carry various rides and other components to the Festival. This change will open up parking lots on the west side of the Festival grounds for guest parking.
These are the purchased parcels of land and acreage:
• 1702 W. Reynolds – 1.87
• 1708 W. Palmetto Ave – 0.37
• 1703 Oak Street – 0.56
• Oak St. Parking Lot – 0.18
• 1709 Oak Street – 0.16
• 1807 Oak Avenue – 0.22
• 1809 Oak Street – 0.22
• 1702 W Oak Ave – 2.97
Two of the lots were for SFBH paid parking. One of them by the Emergency Room, the other one is along N. Plant Avenue diagonal across from the main hospital office. A 3,700 square-foot warehouse stands on this parcel. The Festival is already making use of itfor maintenance equipment, and storage.
“While parking is going to be the immediate use for these lots, it really gives us vision moving forward into the next five, 10, or 20 years, and our ability to grow the Festival,” Robinson added. “The Festival has a great problem—and that is, guests continue to come and we continue to see record attendance. We want to give the Festival the ability to grow and accommodate these people.” For those who have gone to the Festival on a Saturday or Sunday, they have found it packed, which doesn’t make for a good experience when it is so crowded inside the gates. Buying these lots from SFBH, in conjunction with lots the Festival has purchased over the years, gives the Festival the ability to expand the gates to better accommodate the current and growing volume of visitors. “All of our decisions are based on what is best for those who attend the Strawberry Festival and what is best for our community,” Robinson added. “We didn’t want to miss this opportunity. We were researching back, years and years ago, when the Strawberry Festival took a giant leap, and bought, what was then, the William Schneider Memorial Stadium and the adjacent Adelson Field. I couldn’t help but think they were thinking the way we are. Yes, it’s a financial stretch, but we need to do it for the future of the Strawberry Festival, and that was our mindset. We may not have an immediate use for some of these lots further to the east, but one day, many years in the future, there’s going to be a Board of Directors and Festival staff that are going to be grateful this group had the foresight to invest in this property so we can continue to grow.”
In 2023, 606,000 people came to the Strawberry Festival. In 2024, that number grew to 634,000.
