Blue Bamboo plans weekend opening
The nonprofit music venue recently secured a $1 million grant from Orange County and is counting down to its debut show in the old library
June 17, 2025
By Beth Kassab
Chris Cortez says the old Winter Park Library is buzzing with final construction and preparation this week before the space debuts this weekend as the city’s newest performing arts venue with two sold-out shows of the Orlando Jazz Orchestra on Sunday.
The opening of Blue Bamboo Center for the Arts, more than a year in the making, comes on the heels of a $1 million construction grant awarded to the organization from Orange County.
“You’ve got to believe it’s possible or you can’t get anything moving at all,” Blue Bamboo founder Cortez said this week of the once long-shot odds of the venue taking over the old city building that was favored to go to Rollins College. “It’s contagious.”
The City Commission pivoted last year from a pitch that would have allowed Rollins to transform the building at the corner of New England and Aloma avenues into a new art museum and instead signed a lease with Blue Bamboo and rezoned the property to accommodate a venue space.
Cortez, a musician, and his wife Melody Cortez, a visual artist, started Blue Bamboo in 2016. They were on the hunt for a new space after the rent soared at their old location off Fairbanks Avenue at the same time city officials were still trying to figure out how to best use the 33,000-square-foot and three-story former library on New England Avenue.
Jeff Flowers, president of Blue Bamboo and a former Maitland City Council member who grew up in Winter Park, said the building has been transformed.
“This drab library was not very inviting and now it’s just … wow,” said Flowers, who noted the old oculus, the circular opening between the first and second floors that spanned 13 feet in diameter was once home to an indoor tree, is now closed.
The first floor features two performing spaces — a main stage with 182 seats and a smaller stage with a seating capacity of about 60.
Flowers said the nonprofit Performing Arts Matters, which he and his wife founded two decades ago to fund groups such as the Orlando Contemporary Chamber Orchestra, will have office space in the building.
Central Florida Vocal Arts also plans to take over space on the second floor once construction is done there, said Theresa Smith-Levin, founder and executive director. About $200,000 of the county grant is designated for the group to build out teaching, rehearsal and office space. Central Florida Vocal Arts may use the first floor stages for some of its opera productions.
Cortez said the money from Orange County, which divvys out a small portion of the Tourism Development Tax to local arts groups, will be crucial to completing changes to the building.
He credited contractor Walker & Company with working diligently to help Blue Bamboo secure a certificate of occupancy sometime this week and open by its Sunday deadline.
In addition to the shows planned for Sunday, events are also scheduled for next week and through July.
WinterParkVoiceEditor@gmail.com
Well…..going from a rent that soared to signing a $1 a year lease for a 33,000 square foot publicly owned building (along with a $1,000,000 TDT construction grant) is truly beyond belief, Mr. Cortez. The 1.75 acre property is easily worth $15,000,000. The $1/year rent is a fiduciary failure/giveaway by the commission.
I hope the commissioners aren’t foolish enough to talk about pressing finances at their mandatory July budget hearings.
Pit, does everything need to be about making money? Can’t our City allow arts for the culture and enjoyment alone? Arts need government and community support. Just sit back and enjoy a show there for goodness sake.
June 20th when I posted and it is still awaiting moderation!
Pitt,
Explain your concerns. I’m interested.
The lease has some very specific requirements and an escalating amount. Here’s the specific language: ommencing on the Effective Date, Blue Bamboo shall pay to the City as rent for the Premises the sum of one hundred thirty-two thousand dollars ($132,000) per
year, and during the second period commencing on the first day of the second period, Blue Bamboo
shall pay to the City as rent for the Premises the sum of two hundred seventy-six thousand dollars
($276,000) per year (“Rent”). The Rent shall increase by two (2) percent every five (5) years after
the end of the first period during the Term of this Lease any extension thereto.
Pitt, there is an election in March for two City Commission seats. I encourage you to run for one of them. It will be enlightening to see how Winter Park residents embrace your ideas and ideology. Best of luck.
I went to the show and damn was it worth the supposed waste of public funds. The commission should do more of this.
Cheers to Lance Walker and the folks at Walker Construction, the former library’s original contractor (as well as the contracting team for the Rollins Cornell Museum and OMA-the Orlando Museum of Art). True community is a pleasure to behold. Bring on the music!
I sure miss the old Library and would never use the word “drab” in describing it; anything can become “drab” if it is neglected. A truly great design of a building.
I’m happy that the City, the County, Walker Construction and
the Cortez’s could make this happen. It’s not always about
the money.
The new Blue Bamboo will especially contribute richly to downtown Winter Park, which *needs* a music venue. Therefore, It is exciting and inspirational to read in the article of all the efforts and vision that have been contributed by so many great people. I have precious memories of all the sensational music performanes experienced at the original Kentucky Avenue location, but this new location will be something else altogeher. And hey, maybe Bamboo’s presence will finally persuade the Park Avenue restaurants to extend their hours! Congratulations and gratitude in advance to Chris & Melody Cortez and all contributors quoted in the article.
Pitt Warner. The lease agreement includes an annual rate of $132,000 that would increase to $276,000 after two years, and by 2% every five years. Maybe best to fact-check before posting misinformation — a quaint practice, admitedly.
Thank you, I stand corrected. I got it confused with the rent for the WP Playhouse that will be $1 per year.
The Blue Bamboo lease is $132,000. The 33,000 sf building is being leased for $4 a square foot. As a taxpayer and not a fan of jazz, it’s absurd to lease space at a market rate that is just above zero.
Pitt, any amount of rent and any kind of music was better to me than Rollins getting a sweetheart deal. The college is taking over real estate in WP…like kudzu.