Blue Bamboo Seeks Rent Decrease or Other Changes to Lease
The music venue opened in the city building that was once a library last year but has failed to secure upper floor tenants to help cover rent that is scheduled to increase in August
June 22, 2026
By Beth Kassab
The Blue Bamboo will ask city commissioners this week for rent relief, changes to its lease that could allow for a private school or a commercial tenant on its upper floors or other changes that Executive Director Jeff Flowers says is necessary to sustain the group that transformed the old city library into a performing arts venue.
A City Commission work session is scheduled for Thursday afternoon to discuss a series of options proposed by Flowers.
In August, Blue Bamboo’s lease on the city-owned building is scheduled to double from $11,000 per month to $22,000 per month.
“Current earned revenue from performances and traditional nonprofit arts tenancy alone is insufficient to sustain this increase,” reads a memorandum from Flowers to the city.
A reckoning over the lease is playing out a year after the nonprofit held its first performance in the city space followed quickly by upheaval when Central Florida Vocal Arts, the original tenant slated to take the second floor and help pay the rent, walked away from the deal and then, a few months later, the death of Blue Bamboo founder Chris Cortez from brain cancer.
Since then, Flowers, a former Maitland city commissioner and Blue Bamboo board member who financed the early construction of the new venue, took over leadership of the small nonprofit and has tried to secure new tenants to occupy the second and third floors.
His recent proposal for an artificial-intelligence-driven private school run by a Winter Park couple is still an option, according to the memorandum, though the city attorney has suggested the lease with the city would need to be modified to allow for a school. The City Commission was scheduled to consider the school option in May, but Flowers pulled the item from the agenda to allow time for this week’s work session.
Flowers said the Blue Bamboo has hosted nearly 200 events so far and invested $2.3 million, including more than $1 million in grants, in renovating the building. Orange County pledged nearly $1 million in the form of a Tourist Development Tax grant toward the project.
City spokeswoman Clarissa Howard confirmed the Blue Bamboo remains current on its lease payments to date.
Any changes to future rent amounts or other changes to the lease will be a policy decision made by the Commission.
The elected officials could decide to offer the Blue Bamboo a rent reduction or changes to the lease that would make it easier for the organization to sublease out the second and third floors. Or the Commission could decide to hold to the original lease and potentially sell the building or use it for a different purpose if the Blue Bamboo can’t continue to meet the terms.
The arrangement is likely to be complicated by intensified budget pressures facing Winter Park and other local governments as Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Legislature are pushing voters to approve property tax cuts on the November ballot, a measure that would result in significant revenue reductions for cities and counties.
Mayor Sheila DeCiccio was the lone vote against the Blue Bamboo lease in 2024 after she questioned the group’s financial wherewithal to follow through on the terms it proposed to the city.
Cortez and Flowers assured the commission at the time that the group’s business plan was viable.
Then-Commissioner Todd Weaver championed the Blue Bamboo from the dais and joined the Blue Bamboo’s board of directors after he left office and is now listed as its vice president.
Awarding the lease for the old library to the Blue Bamboo ended the city’s years-long quest to find a use for the prominent building left vacant after the Library & Events Center opened on Morse Boulevard at the end of 2021.
Before the music venue made a play for the space on New England Avenue and visible from S.R. 426, Rollins College was the frontrunner to get the building and repurpose it into a new art museum.
Now the building could be vacant once again Flowers conceded in his memorandum to the city.
The seventh and final option presented by Flowers is for the Blue Bamboo to relocate elsewhere.
On Thursday, commissioners are slated to discuss the matter but are prohibited from taking votes during a work session. The lease is likely to be up for an official vote sometime this summer.
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Rollins College has been granted substantial incentives from the City of Winter Park. Substantial.
Rollins College has a Music Program/Music Degree. Seems like a logical option for someone at WP City Commission to approach Rollins leadership as to leasing (or purchasing) the 2nd and 3rd floor spaces to serve as offices/classrooms/auditorium for their music program. The school is right across the street. Rollins owns the adjacent Alfond Inn.
Blue Bamboo can’t afford $22,000 in annual rent.
This is and has been complete and utter nonsense. This building should have been renovated into a new city hall, it would have been perfect and city hall does not need to be on Park Avenue. The existing city hall site could then be redeveloped and add significant tax revenue to the city offsetting some our the homeowner’s taxes. I am not suggesting selling the Park Avenue property, the city could hold the lease with a development deal that the city is in control of. It is the most desired property in Central Florida.
Wow! What a boondogal. Regrettable, but the city needs to pull the plug now.
I would like the upper floors to turn into small business spaces, like Credo Conduit. A lot of us work from home, and miss out on interacting with others. Short term leases could also serve as campaign hubs and pre launch planning spaces. The library is simply too noisy for this purpose.
I admire Jeff Flowers as an arts entrepreneur. He has taken a significant financial risk. However, he is asking now for an even greater subsidy than he already has.
The commission has a fiduciary responsibility to use this $8,000,000 asset in the best interest of the people of Winter Park. That is not the current lease or a modified lease that offers greater subsidies.
As suggested earlier, the commission would do well to let Blue Bamboo out of the lease and assist the organization in relocating to a venue on private property. Then lease or sell the land for the highest and best use.
I agree with Ian Reeves! Many others do as well and have been proposing this for years!
The City wants to build a parking garage adjacent to the current City Hall. Public-Private deal they say. Well what better use for that site than a misuse project with parking garage. Think of the revenue it would produce and the good will of more parking!
Renovate the old library for City Hall. No brainer!
If the Commission can’t pull the trigger on that, then just sell the old library to a residential developer. That would be a less intrusive and compatible project to its neighbors.
$22,000/month rent?
Wow!
What happened to the Space Museum that wanted to rent the building? They had all the money upfront and wanted to be close to Rollins College. The mayor needs to contact them right away. By the way, the she was absolutely right on this one. The rest of the commissioners should have listened to her!
“ mixed use “ for my comment! I hate autocorrect!
There was plenty of opposition and skepticism about the whole Blue Bamboo lease and other provisions. Where they are today, although unfortunate, is not surprising.
If they allow Blue Bamboo to reduce their rent from what was agreed to in writing in the lease agreement then I don’t want to hear one word from the City Commission about the sky is falling and they won’t be able to provide the historical level of services to us residents because of reduced revenue as a result of the possible property tax reduction.
This entire debacle has cost the City of Winter Park millions and was totally unnecessary. The new location is more about “events” than a library at a cost of over $42 million dollars and still has construction issues. It is unaffordable to rent and, quite frankly, the building is absolutely hideous. Sell the old library building and be done. We do not need to subsidize any more bad ideas.
@Bonnie Jackson , Yes Ma’am you are so right, the new library is absolutely hideous. It reminds me of the Kane’s furniture store in Casselberry (across from Rachel’s). But but, but, we had a *knighted* architect design that hideous building. Woohoo!
I wouldn’t make any concessions at all. This was pretty much doomed to fail from the onset. I cannot believe that the commission voted to approve this leasing arrangement. Rollins could have taken over the building and put in their art museum. It would have been contiguous to their Alfond Inn Hotel.
It’s time to move on to another plan for the library property . Property could be sold and proceeds held in reserve . Tax revenue generated by a private owner would help to offset potential income loss if additional homestead passes.
Blue Bamboo is a plus for Winter Park, but I am surprised the inability to pay the rent increase wasn’t known well before this time. If the city grants a lower rent and changes to the lease to allow them to continue ( which I hope they do) BB needs to hire a consultant to come up with a viable business plan to be presented to and approved by the commission.
If the City wants a school or other commercial tenant in the building, the Blue Bamboo lease should be limited to the first floor and the other floors leased directly by the City. No way BB should profit from any sublease. And our mayor was absolutely right about the ability of BB to meet its financial obligations under the current lease. Rollins is a far better tenant with the money to pay market rent.
It would be unfortunate if Blue Banboo loses all that it has put into this project. There’s no clear solution. However, increasing the homestead exemption to $250,000 will require our leaders to be more fiscally responsible in the future and to more carefully evaluate the art projects that are supported by public money in Winter Park.
Blue Bamboo has spent tens of thousands of dollars on substantial improvements to the building. If they are forced out, they should be reimbursed for these improvements which cannot be taken with them to a different space.
The renovations are on Blue Bamboo. Before putting money into the renovations, they should have realized that they were never going to meet their lease payments to the city. Extremely poor fiscal management. Nobody says you get a free ride.
Selling city owned land is no longer an option when the city runs out of city owned land. Land in Winter Park is an appreciating asset, not a depreciating asset. Income producing real estate is highly desirable. I believe the presence of the Blue Bamboo is a big net plus for the city and for the larger community. Why did the sub-lease option with Vocal Arts fall apart? We need to know. Why did they commit and then back out? I would be supportive of a temporary reduction in rent/change of terms to allow the Blue Bamboo to remain. Luxury condos on the old library site would provide zero cultural enrichment. If we could ever “develop our way to prosperity” the city should have been able to “retire” after Ravaudage. Instead, the demands and costs for necessary municipal services and infrastructure outpace the taxes and fees generated by the developments. I hope the commission will work with Flowers to find a way to allow the Blue Bamboo to remain in the building.
Beth is correct about it being an asset. For the organization, a lot has changed through no fault of their own. That being said, the group needs to bring in a real executive director (not their funder, CEO, or chairman) who knows how to run a nonprofit venue. They need to submit a written fundraising plan to the city commission. There needs to be specific actions taken by specific people at specific times and held to it. Which in turn means they need a board of directors who are accountable and involved in operations. Many people don’t know about the code enforcement issues that had to be fixed before they could open… new stairs had to go in, the hole in the ceiling had to be closed, new a/c, lots of other things that took up the groups money. They need a chance to start new.
Agreeing!
The important thing to remember about the two most recent mega projects in our community: the Winter Park Playhouse and the Blue Bamboo – – is that both were made possible by a “glass half full”point of view.
Both are now improved WP owned community assets, which will only become more valuable and desirable as similar properties become more and more scarce. That’s my baseline starting point.
If this community truly wants to be regarded as innovative, expansive and desired it needs to be creative, visionary and solve our problems with nurturing (not threatening) options. That’s a brand requirement. And BTW, it spills over to enhanced property values.
Draw a 100-mile concentric circle around WP, and where will you find an intimate jazz music venue, w easy access, nightly rotating offerings, a steady and growing clientele, free no-hassle parking, and walkable sidewalk restaurants just blocks away? Sounds like something in Carmel.
The truth is that evolutionary arc can take its own time. We should be celebrating the BB recent COO. A major hurrah! You did it!
A tunnel vision hard line agenda need not offer the only road map. Bring all your winning cards to the table. Leave the jokers behind. That’s the leadership I’ll vote for.
Great to see the creative thinking here and recognition that the Blue Bamboo is a cultural asset. Condos, apartment, office building, private homes are not! We need to find ways to support this venue as it is what makes Winter Park unique. Certainly some group(s) wants to rent out the2nd and 3rd floors.
This should have gone to Rollins in the first place. Sheila was 100% correct. Blue Bamboo will never be able to meet its commitments and there is no need to drag the bad decision out further.
Rollins will own 3/4 of Winter Park before I die. Sad.
Serious question: Which property that Rollins owns would you rather have owned by a real estate developer/investor? Or maybe you want those properties to be owned by the City. Make your case…
The board of directors is responsible for governing, setting strategy, and evaluating the performance of the executive director. The executive director is responsible for managing the day-to-day operations. Combining these roles creates a natural conflict of interest. Jeff Flowers is listed as both. Can the city require BB to go through a nonprofit training?