City Council convened a workshop on January 8, 2026, to gather public input regarding the future redevelopment of the former Lions Club and Coast Guard station properties in the Gulfport marina district. The meeting was explicitly non-decisional; Mayor and Council members adopted the role of active listeners to shape the upcoming process as the buildings, which contain asbestos and storm damage, are scheduled for demolition in January. The city noted that while a living shoreline project was paused during storms, it remains under control pending a submerged land lease. The session focused on balancing the unique needs of yacht clubs, boat launching, flood mitigation, and public access without commercialization.
Good evening. I love it. I love seeing a lot of people here. And I'm hoping that a lot of you are gonna want to share your ideas with us. We're gonna appreciate that. I'll get really upset if anybody has their phone on and it rings during this discussion. So if there's any chance, you might want to fix it now. And while we're having the discussion, if there's any need to talk to your neighbor, I'd appreciate if you walk out there and do it in the hallway. So we only have one discussion going on at a time. So a workshop is a little bit different than uh a city council with a real strict agenda. So here's what tonight's gonna look like. Um first I'm just gonna give a real quick little overview, you know, maybe two minutes, and then the uh council will have an opportunity in speaking order to share what their thoughts are about the marina property or properties, and then we're gonna open it up for council comments. And so if I'm not staring at you when you're talking, it's because I'm writing notes, okay, trying to see what the most common response is, so that we would know how to start to proceed. So um, and when that's done, and everybody that wants to talk is gonna have an opportunity to talk. When that's done, then we'll probably go in speaking order one more time, and that'll probably be the end of it. There's no vote tonight, there's no decisions being made. This is all about what are we gonna do with the property. So for my real quick overview, um the Lions Club did not renew their lease, okay. Um, and so I think as of December 5th, that is back in the possession of the um city of Gulfport and the city of Gulfport, for those of you that don't know this, most of you do because you're from that the marina area. We've always owned that land, and the Lions Club owned the building. And there was a contract signed many years ago, probably before I was even in town, that talked about the buyout and how that would happen. So the actual buyout, the exchange of money has not happened yet because there's a little discrepancy and we're working through an appraisal issue, but it will help it will happen and it will be settled. So the question is, and the property will come down. It was damaged in the floods. It's an old building, it also has asbestos in it. So it is gonna come down no matter what, okay. And so now we have a big piece of property, and of course that was the point of having the maps up there kind of outlined in that hot pink, okay. I also will say, because I could see where um knowing this other little component might affect what you have to say. For those of you that did not hear, the Coast Guard station is also coming down. Okay, that was underwater, that's also full of asbestos. The city has done a very good job of accommodating the Coast Guard and the Lions Club, I believe both at the neighborhood center. So in terms of meeting space, they're getting it from us, okay. Um so that that's probably the most that I I want to say is that you know we're here primarily to talk about the one property, but there's nothing wrong about talking about the other property if you choose. And the other thing, just to be clear on the front end. I'm gonna say before the storms ever hit, so I'm gonna uh suggest it was early in 2024. The city council decided to move forward with a living shoreline on the area that we all talk about, kind of the point, the mangroves. Okay. When the storms hit, that got put on hold. It was not forgotten. So don't quote me exact, but I'm gonna say either June or July, I talked to the city manager and asked him what the next step was on that to move forward, and he said that we had to get a submerged permit submergable. Submerged land lease. S submerged land lease, okay. And so we did that paperwork at that time. I also asked him, is that gonna be two weeks, two months, or two years? Who knows? Okay. So I mean, I'm not trying to be a smart alley, but we don't know. It's not like you know, we've done it before during these times when um the federal government's been uh cut substantially. So I just wanted to be clear is that that is moving forward when it can. It's not a matter that we can do it right now because we have to have that land lease, but we are going to move forward with that.