Families and survivors have waited 9 years for Orlando to build a memorial for Pulse shooting victims. Now the city is moving forward with plans

CNN

2 days ago

For nearly a decade, the community in Orlando has been working to find a way to memorialize the 49 people who were killed when a gunman opened fire on Latin night at a popular gay nightclub, making it the worst mass shooting in modern US history at the time.
Now, as the city marks the nine-year anniversary of the tragedy at Pulse on June 12, city leaders and local activists say they have renewed hope that construction of a permanent memorial site will begin next June.
City engineers are currently reviewing proposals from design firms with plans to award a contract this summer.
The conceptual site design – created by an 18-member advisory board of survivors, loved ones of victims and community leaders – includes a memorial and reflection space, a survivors' tribute wall, a private gathering space for personal reflection, a walkway with columns honoring the 49 victims on rainbow glass panels, a healing garden and a visitor's center.
The Pulse Memorial is set to be completed by the end of 2027, according to the city. Admission to the memorial will be free, city officials say.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, who has been mayor since 2003, said he believes it's important to honor the victims and survivors.
'I think from the time it happened we knew that we wanted to memorialize the victims of the tragedy and have a place to reflect on what happened and to honor them,' Dyer told CNN. 'Hopefully that is what we will be able to achieve with the memorial, and I think it's important that it's on the site where it took place.'
The building that housed the club will be demolished, Dyer said.
Family members of the victims and survivors were able to walk through the building for the first time on Wednesday.
'For whatever closure and peace of mind that may provide somebody, we wanted to make that available,' Dyer said.
The city acquired the land where Pulse sits from the club's owners in December 2023 for $2 million, a city spokeswoman said.
The club owners had formed a non-profit called the onePulse Foundation following the shooting with the intention of raising funds to build a memorial and museum in honor of the victims, Dyer said. The foundation raised more than $20 million in the seven years it operated, according to CNN affiliate WFTV. Dyer said the money raised was largely spent on salaries of foundation workers.
The foundation's plans for both a memorial site and a museum that would cost at least $50 million to build proved to be 'very hard to achieve,' Dyer said. The onePulse Foundation dissolved in December 2023, according to WFTV.
'The magnitude that needed to be raised to create a museum overwhelmed the memorial process,' Dyer said.
Nancy Rosado, an advisory committee member and community activist, said the lack of progress on building the museum for nine years became a 'sticking point to healing' for survivors and the family and friends of victims.
Rosado, who offered grief counseling to many of the families impacted by the massacre, said people wanted to see their loved ones memorialized and have the trauma they endured from the shooting recognized in a meaningful way.
The city, she said, surveyed families and victims on what they wanted the memorial site to include.
One shared goal of the advisory committee was to ensure that the memorial honored both the gay and Latino communities who felt at home at the club before the shooting.
'I believe this will move them forward,' Rosado said. 'Let's get this component settled so you have a place to go to express your grief or to express joy at seeing your son or daughter's name or your friend's name on a wall. These elements are so healing and I'm really happy that we are at this particular point.'
Brandon Wolf, who survived the Pulse shooting after hiding in a bathroom, said it's past time for the community to have a 'respectful, permanent place to pay their respects.'
Wolf lost his two best friends, Christopher Andrew Leinonen and Juan Ramon Guerrero, in the attack.
'I am looking forward to a space that is worthy of the memory of my best friends – one where I can feel close to them and reflect on why we have to continue doing the work to honor them with action,' said Wolf, who is also national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign.
But some families and community advocates say they oppose the advisory committee's design plan for a memorial site.
Zachary Blair, co-founder of the grassroots group Pulse Families and Survivors for Justice and a former Pulse patron, said he is disappointed that it's been nine years since the shooting and the city still has no permanent memorial for the victims of the tragedy at Pulse.
Blair said he created his group and started speaking out in 2019 when he learned the onePulse Foundation wanted to build a multi-million dollar museum. He said many families and survivors were against the museum because they believed it was 'turning a massacre into a tourist attraction.'
When onePulse dissolved in 2023, Blair said there was even more frustration that the foundation had raised millions of dollars, yet it still didn't build anything to memorialize those impacted by the attack.
'It's awful and it shows how much of a failure these people are,' Blair said.
In a statement published by CNN affiliate WESH in 2023, the onePulse board said it was 'challenged by unexpected and definitive events, among them the inability to secure a full donation of the Pulse nightclub site from the property owners and a global pandemic that brought with it critical limits and many unanticipated consequences, that ultimately impacted our fundraising efforts.'
'These unanticipated challenges have led the Trustees to vote late yesterday to initiate the transfer of our assets and the dissolution of the Foundation,' the statement read.
Blair said his group still believes the city's current memorial design is 'too garish, it's too touristy.'
'It's not a somber, reflective, dignified space where families and the public can come to pay their respects,' he said.
Christine Leinonen, Christopher Andrew Leinonen's mother, said she believes the existing plan is more of a tourist attraction that the city is using to bring in revenue from visitors spending money in Orlando.
Leinonen, also a co-founder of Pulse Families and Survivors for Justice, said she would prefer an outdoor memorial park with trees and a walking path. She said she applied to join the city's advisory committee but was not selected.
'We want a simplified, dignified, free, easy space,' Leinonen. 'A place where people can stop by while they are out walking. Let's not take a mass shooting … and make it into your form of collecting tourist dollars.'
Dyer acknowledged that there has been some division among families and survivors on how the Pulse memorial site should look. He called claims that the site will be a tourist attraction 'misinformation.'
Rosado said she feels confident the current plans for the memorial will be successful.
'Right now, people have such little faith and are braced for a shoe to drop somewhere along the line,' Rosado said. 'But I have a lot of faith that at this stage of the game with all the fanfare and all the commitment and time invested in this that we are going to see this memorial be a fitting tribute to those we lost that day.'