It was a mixture of anger, confusion and nostalgia on Oct. 14 when a community-led meeting was held to discuss the possibility of the city selling the community center.

On Sept. 22, the city opened a 30-day period for builders to propose a new development on the site.

The emotions continued to simmer the next day at the City Commission meeting, when Gail Isaac-Thomas, who hosted Wednesday’s meeting, says she was shocked to learn the cost of fixing up the lakefront building.

“… I’m not beating up on one, two, three, four, five,” she says of the commissioners. “The blame lies on every commissioner who has sat up here. And for the residents to hear and be faced with the fact that the community center needs $700,000 worth of repairs is a disgrace, disrespect and shameful.”

Commissioner George Asbate says the commission has held numerous budget workshops to talk about the center. Eight years ago, there was talk of placing the issue before the public in a referendum.

“We take it dead serious,” he says.

“A developer first approached the city in 2025 about a hotel and brewery concept on one of the [former] Waterman (Hospital) blocks along Bay Street,” the city says on its website.

“Because another proposal was already under consideration for all three Waterman blocks, the city suggested the community center property as an alternative. A workshop was held, but the concept did not move forward at that time. The developer later re-engaged with the city, and the revised proposal came out of those discussions.”

Residents reminisced Wednesday about the Northshore Drive building, which has hosted weddings, funerals, dances and other events since it opened in 1965. It looks out onto Lake Eustis.

“We have beautiful sunsets,” more than one citizen says.

The sunset hasn’t changed, but the city has.

“There were more people on my aircraft carrier than there were in my hometown then,” says Oscar D. Morris III. The city’s population was about 6,000 then, compared with more than 26,000 today.

“Why aren’t they doing this on the three blocks?” asks Eustis businessman Daniel DiVenanzo rhetorically.

He says that in 2020 he thought about building a four-story hotel on the old Waterman site.

The problem was that there were not enough convenient parking spaces for an 80- to 100-room hotel that would include a restaurant, bar and meeting space.

The soil in one of the blocks is “muck,” he told Style Magazine.

“How far do you think the people want to walk to get to their hotel room on a rainy, humid Florida day?” he told commissioners.

Something could be built on the Waterman site that would be “beautiful,” he says.

He is in favor of selling the community building site to the proposed developer. The resort would generate 125 jobs and provide $7 million in revenue for the city, he says.

“I think this resort, its location and what they can accommodate there will kick off the revival and the renaissance of Eustis,” DiVenanzo says.

“The Community Center remains open and operating, with current rentals, programs and scheduled events continuing as planned,” the city says in an email to Style.

“The City is evaluating how the Community Center’s public functions could be relocated or replaced, if a sale ultimately moves forward, including the use of city-owned property and other locations,” the email says. “A specific site has not been identified. The city is committed to ensuring that the Community Center will not close without a plan in place for the residents, programs and groups that currently use it.

“As far as a date for a decision, no date has been set at this time. The city is still in due diligence, negotiations and is accepting proposals. Any agreement would come back to the commission for a vote at a public meeting.”