Gainesville's Florida Theater eyes comeback amid rising construction costs
As Gainesville's live music scene continues to grow, longtime Gainesville music stakeholder Bill Bryson is betting the historic Florida Theater can become its next cornerstone. But while reconstruction is underway to reopen the century-old venue, how he will pay for the project remains uncertain amid rising costs and other financial challenges. Bryson hopes to reopen the concert venue at 233 W. University Ave. by 2028, its 100th anniversary. He purchased the theater in 2017, and its last event took place the following year. Bryson has been a major stakeholder in Gainesville's music scene for decades. In the 1990s, he owned The Covered Dish, which stood where the now-closed High Dive was later located. With the Florida Theater now under his ownership, Bryson told The Sun on Nov. 12 that restoring it will be a multimillion-dollar project. According to city records , the Gainesville City Commission voted Feb. 6 to add the Florida Theater to the Local Register of Historic Places, opening the door to grants, tax credits and other incentives. Bryson told The Sun in a previous interview in 2025 that throughout plans to renovate the future two-story venue, he has had to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, rising labor and
