It’s a move city leaders think could bring more visitors to downtown Orlando and at the same time, give more space to a local educational center.

  • Holocaust Center eyeing a move to downtown Orlando
  • City officials think center will bring more visitors downtown
  • Center to meet with city commissioners Monday

“It will allow us to tell more stories," said Pam Kancher. “I believe our mission and purpose is one that the community will embrace.”

For the last 31 years, the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida sat in Maitland, at the corner of busy SR 414 and Maitland Avenue.

They gathered artifacts and hosted programming last year, working with 26,000 people in-house or in schools, according to Kancher, the center’s executive director.

But they outgrew their 7,000-square-foot facility and eyed expansion in The City Beautiful.

“One of their goals was to bring an iconic museum to the downtown corridor," Kancher said.

“This is, I think, a real opportunity for downtown," said Thomas Chatmon, Jr., with Orlando's Downtown Development Board.

Chatmon said that he envisions the center drawing some of the region's 68 million visitors to downtown Orlando.

“A cultural and educational amenity that will be known nationwide," he said, adding that they hope to work with the center to incorporate facets of the community's tale of diversity and adversity.

“I think we have a unique story to tell the world about how we handled Pulse," Chatmon said.

Recently, the Orlando Regional Chamber of Commerce merged with the Economic Development Commission, moving to Pine Street and leaving their former facility by Lake Ivanhoe empty.

On Monday, Jan. 22, City Commissioners agreed on a memorandum of understanding between the city and center. These types of agreements are nonbinding but establish understanding for which both parties have agreed upon.

"The significance of having that museum grow and be a part of our city I think can’t be understated," Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said.

The exact details of the deal, such as a potential $1 per year lease of the building and land, would still need to be ironed out.

“It would be a sweetheart lease, consistent of what the city was already doing for the Chamber of Commerce," Chatmon explained.

The center will likely need to maintain the adjacent Senator Beth Johnson Park. Plus, they'll need to raise an estimate $20 million to move and renovate the building to five times their current facility's size.

“I believe our mission and purpose is one that the community will embrace," Kancher said.

For the executive director, who left New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in order to run the center, the mission is personal.

Her mother left Poland in 1932 and just two years ago, Kancher saw the towns from which Jews were deported while visiting a concentration camp.

“The very first stone I saw was the name of the town from which she came. It took my breath away," she said. “I am deeply touched by the Holocaust.”

Now, as the center eyes Monday's meeting with high hopes, they're relying on their mission to sway commissioners.

“We use the history and lessons of the Holocaust to educate," Kancher said. “Hate is taught. If you can be taught to hate, you can be taught to love.”