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GULFPORT, Fla. — After spending nearly 60 years at its clubhouse located at the Gulfport Marina, the Gulfport Lions Club is moving out and the building is coming down.
The clubhouse was built in 1967 and has been the home of hundreds of fundraisers, events and parties. The Lions Club hosted its biweekly meetings out of the large brick building for decades. The building holds a long history of camaraderie and fond memories for the hundreds of Lions Club members who spent time there over the last few decades.
What You Need To Know
- Lions Club owns its building, city of Gulfport owns the land
- Following input from community meeting, city plans to knock down the building and use land as green space and boat launch area with public access
- Lions Club let lease expire, moved to 49th Street Center
President Tommie Bixler says the Gulfport chapter is down to a few dozen members, and he and his wife, Kat, are working hard to bring in new faces to help grow and continue the Lions Club legacy.
“We’ll still exist, we just have a lot of older members now. We just need to figure out how to do some more fun things… so it’s not just work, work, work,” Bixler said.
Due to the dwindling membership, Bixler said paying to keep the large building on the waterfront property running wasn’t feasible anymore. In December, the Lions Club let its most recent five-year lease expire and relocated to a shared space at the 49th Street Center.
The Lions Club property is in a unique situation. The city of Gulfport owns the land that the building sits on, while the Lions Club owns the physical building.
Gulfport Mayor Karen Love said that per the lease agreement the city is getting an MAI appraisal for the building. Once the appraisal comes back, they will buy the building and knock it down.
“It’s coming down,” Love said. “It was damaged by the floods, and it’s a year and half later and there really hasn’t been repairs made to it. I did do a walk through and even though it’s a large building… you could smell mold.”
Bixler said that in an inspection following the 2024 hurricanes, the building was deemed not to be substantially damaged. He was hoping the city would continue to use the building as an event space.
Love said that will not be happening, and the city is moving forward with plans to make the area into a green space that allows small boat and kayak access from the beach area.
“Let’s let the public start using it,” Love said. (And) get rid of the pavement and let some of the green space start developing naturally,” Love explained.
At a community meeting last Thursday, roughly 25 residents shared their feelings about what they wanted the area to look like. Love said the consensus was the community wanted a green space, with beach access for boat launching, as well as public restrooms.
She says no formal decisions have been made, and details will be discussed at city council.
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Angie Angers
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