ORLANDO, Fla. — A major move at City Hall on Monday, city leaders have now decided who will be handling the construction of the Pulse Memorial. City Commissioners and Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer voted unanimously to allow Gomez Construction Company, based out of Winter Park, to lead the project. “As always, Orlando has responded with love and compassion and unity, and today we take two more steps in recognizing what happened that day,” said Mayor Dyer during the city council meeting.
The memorial has been surrounded by controversy for years; it will feature a reflection pool and a walkway with 49 columns representing the victims. The design, approved by an advisory board, will now be turned over to Gomez Construction to become a buildable project. “Today the city voted to consummate the shady behind-the-scenes,” said Matt Zaccarino, chair of Citizens Against Public Corruption, during the public comment session at the city council meeting.
Gomez Construction is no stranger to large projects across Central Florida. On their website, there are several projects led by Gomez Construction, including schools, streets, and even the Orlando International Airport. We reached out to the company for comment, but they had no statements the share at the time.
City leaders also voted to acquire the property next to the site for a million dollars, and the move is facing some backlash. “The land is not worth by any stretch of the imagination,” said Zaccarino. “Broker price opinion, any appraisal, will never show that what the city is paying for the land is actually worth.”
Mayor Dyer, however, confirmed the price was exactly what it was supposed to be. “There are some proponents that don’t want the pulse memorial, so they come up with something new every turn the wheel,” Dyer said. “In this case, we are paying exactly what the individual paid for the One Pulse Foundation for the property.”
Construction should start in June of 2026, and the actual memorial should be done by 2027.
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