The $4.6 million OCALA Gateway Project Nears Completion

[Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2025.

The “OCALA” letters are up, and the rest of the south gateway project on Interstate 75 is expected to be substantially complete by early March.

The gateway, currently being installed at the 42nd Street flyover, welcomes northbound traffic to Marion County and is funded entirely by tourist development tax revenue approved by voters by referendum in 2005.

The I-75 project consists of two county line markers, installed in late 2023, and two representative gateways. The second gateway will be located at the future interchange just north of Ocala, where the Buc-ee’s Ocala Travel Center is planned. The project is being constructed by Commercial Industrial Corporation, with a cost of $4,638,863, plus an additional 10% for contingency, according to Jessica Heller, Marketing & Communications Coordinator for Tourist Development Ocala/Marion County Visitors and Convention Bureau.

According to a county press release, “The gateway project implements the vision of the Marion County Board of County Commissioners to introduce tourists driving through Marion County on I-75 to the county’s unique character.”

“The Tourist Development Tax (also referred to as tourist tax, bed tax or resort tax) is a 4% charge on the revenue from rentals of six months or less. This tax applies to the short-term rental of any living quarters or accommodations in any hotel, apartment hotel, motel, resort motel, apartment, apartment motel, rooming house, tourist camp, trailer camp, condominium, room or home. The tourist development tax shall be charged by the person receiving the consideration for the lease or rental, and it shall be collected from the lessee, tenant, or customer at the time of payment,” according to the Marion County Tax Collector’s Office website.

The Tourist Development Tax is remitted to the Marion County Tax Collector but spending is overseen by the Tourism Development Council, structured to include one Marion County Commissioner, two elected officials representing municipalities (one must be from most populous city), three owners or operators of accommodations, and three at-large members interested in the tourism industry.

According to county financial records, in the 2021-22 budget year tourism development tax collected totaled $4,842,627; in 2022-23 $5,368,965; and in 2023-24 $5,481,186.

Revenue from the tax is restricted for certain uses:

To acquire, construct, extend, enlarge, remodel, repair, improve, maintain, operate, or promote one or more:

a. Publicly owned and operated convention centers, sports stadiums, sports arenas, coliseums, or auditoriums within the boundaries of the county or subcounty special taxing district in which the tax is levied;

b. Auditoriums that are publicly owned but are operated by organizations that are exempt from federal taxation pursuant to 26 U.S.C. s. 501(c)(3) and open to the public, within the boundaries of the county or subcounty special taxing district in which the tax is levied; or

c. Aquariums or museums that are publicly owned and operated or owned and operated by not-for-profit organizations and open to the public, within the boundaries of the county or subcounty special taxing district in which the tax is levied;

2. To promote zoological parks that are publicly owned and operated or owned and operated by not-for-profit organizations and open to the public;

3. To promote and advertise tourism in this state and nationally and internationally; however, if tax revenues are expended for an activity, service, venue, or event, the activity, service, venue, or event must have as one of its main purposes the attraction of tourists as evidenced by the promotion of the activity, service, venue, or event to tourists;

4. To fund convention bureaus, tourist bureaus, tourist information centers, and news bureaus as county agencies or by contract with the chambers of commerce or similar associations in the county, which may include any indirect administrative costs for services performed by the county on behalf of the promotion agency;

5. To finance beach park facilities, or beach, channel, estuary, or lagoon improvement, maintenance, renourishment, restoration, and erosion control, including construction of beach groins and shoreline protection, enhancement, cleanup, or restoration of inland lakes and rivers to which there is public access as those uses relate to the physical preservation of the beach, shoreline, channel, estuary, lagoon, or inland lake or river.