New Problems with the City of Orlando's Planned PULSE Memorial
Orlando promised donations would ease the burden on taxpayers, but the bills made available to the public as part of an upcoming (October 12, 2026) City Council Meeting say otherwise—despite the Mayor's public promises.
When Orlando bought the Pulse nightclub property in 2023, Mayor Buddy Dyer said he would raise money to offset the cost. The purchase was $2 million, and Dyer said he hoped to raise $2 million to reimburse taxpayers. The money came from the current year’s budget, plus about $50,000 in closing costs. A commissioner noted the property had been appraised at $700,000.
Orlando City Council approved a $2 million purchase of Pulse Nightclub property.
Then came the neighboring parcel. Millionaire employer of the Mayor's son and brother of city attorney Jody Litchford, Craig Mateer, bought it for $1 million at the City’s request, and the City paid him that same $1 million plus $30,000 in closing costs. That is about $3 million in land purchases, paid with public money.
The City recently reported that it received $1.75M in donations from tourism giants, including Universal, Disney, and the DeVos Foundation—a nonprofit set up by the DeVos family that has peddled and profited from homophobia and the Amway "pyramid scheme" for decades.
Now the City wants more.
On Oct. 12, Commissioners are asked to approve a $12,624,837.00 construction agreement, up from the $12 million authorized last year. With design, demolition and change orders, the contract documents total $14.8 million.
The money the City has secured from external sources is being applied to that increase, not to repay taxpayers for the land. There is no record of the promised reimbursement nor a plan for a future reimbursement.
The contract itself is cost-plus with a guaranteed maximum price, not a fixed price. The contractor’s own proposal carries a $1.79 million electrical allowance and says that scope is over budget.
Add it up: roughly $18 million in land and construction commitments for a tourist attraction memorial with a visitor center (which will function the same as a mini-museum)—mostly paid by Orlando taxpayers.
This contract documents the exorbitant costs of the memorial and the payouts to the Mayor's friends. The Gomez Construction company is known for its fast-food construction projects at the Orlando International Airport, which Mayor Buddy Dyer has run through his position on the Board of the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority. They have zero experience building a memorial or anything like this project that we have been able to find.
The onePULSE Foundation dissolved under fraud and the City of Orlando is doing the exact same thing that the failed nonprofit did. They have turned what should be a decent memorial into another spectacle with a museum they have marketed as a "visitor center." Millions more are being shifted around, all to exploit the 49 deaths so more of the mayor's friends can profit off the tragedy.
City officials say they are honoring our loved ones, but we know what they are really doing.
The City has made it incredibly difficult to find documents, so we have provided them below for the public to access easily:
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