Mote outreach center project at Anna Maria Pier delayed

A timeline remains unclear for progress on Mote Marine Laboratory’s educational outreach center at the Anna Maria City Pier. Anna Maria Mayor Dan Murphy said Jan. 13 the city’s plans to open the center in the empty 1,800-square-foot building on the pier’s T-end by March would need to be revisited as he continues to wait for designs from Mote. Early in negotiating a lease with Mote, the city projected a December 2021-January 2022 opening date. That date had shifted to March-April 2022 by the time the lease was signed in September 2021. Now, apparently, due to difficulties in engineering for live marine display tanks, Mote will submit two sets of designs, according to Murphy. “They’re going to give us one set of plans with a lot of live displays and then another set of plans with less live displays and more interactive displays,” Murphy said. He said Mote was set to provide designs by the end of the month, at which point he will bring them to city commissioners for consideration. The city’s lease with Mote allows city commissioners to cancel the contract if they find the designs unsatisfactory.