Pulse memorial design concept rainbow columns
Early rendering of design concepts for the proposed Pulse memorial. Credit: pulseorlando.org

Orlando City Council on Monday unanimously approved a $12.6 million design and construction contract for the long-awaited Pulse memorial.

The city initially entered into an agreement with the construction contractor, Gomez Construction, in September 2025. At the time, the project was estimated to cost $12 million, but with higher construction costs than anticipated, the city has agreed to allocate up to $12.6 million for the memorial, which is expected to be completed late next year.

The Pulse memorial will commemorate the 49 victims and dozens of survivors of the June 12, 2016, mass shooting at Pulse nightclub, a former gay club located just south of downtown. It was Latin Night on the night of the massacre. The vast majority of shooting victims — both locals and visitors to the City Beautiful — were young, LGBTQ+ Hispanics and Latinos.

The construction of a Pulse memorial was initially led by the OnePulse Foundation, a nonprofit formed shortly after the 2016 shooting by former club co-owner Barbara Poma, who was vacationing in Mexico the night of the massacre. 

The organization raised millions of dollars in the years after the shooting for a memorial project that continued to expand as time went on. This sparked an opposition movement by some of the victims’ family members and survivors, some of whom were still struggling with medical expenses and the psychological toll of the tragedy. Estimated costs for the project eventually reached around $100 million. 

The nonprofit ultimately abandoned the memorial project and dissolved itself in disgrace in 2023 amid money woes and allegations of financial mismanagement. The city of Orlando took over the project of building a Pulse memorial, just ahead of the OnePulse Foundation’s dissolution. 

The city has since secured nearly $1 million in state funding and $5 million in county funding, to help supplement its own funding for the memorial.

The city also announced just last week that staff had secured another $1.79 million in contributions collectively from Walt Disney World, Universal, Dr. Phillips Charities, the Wilf Family Foundations — majority owners of soccer teams Orlando Pride and Orlando City SC — and the DeVos Family Foundation.

The DeVos Family Foundation, notably, is the owner of the Orlando Magic basketball team and has a history of funding conservative organizations, like Focus on the Family, that push anti-LGBTQ+ causes.

Betsy DeVos, a member of the DeVos Family who served as former U.S. Education Department secretary during the first Trump administration, faced scrutiny over this history ahead of her confirmation.

Walt Disney World, too, has uplifted inclusive messaging for the LGBTQ+ community while financially contributing to the campaigns of Republican politicians who undermine LGBTQ+ rights in the policy and rulemaking arena.

Still, Orlando officials praised the organizations for their contributions Monday, citing difficulties in raising funds following the failures of OnePulse. 

“In light of everything that has happened … with the OnePulse Foundation, who failed to build the memorial, it’s been very difficult to do philanthropy in the aftermath of that,” said Patty Sheehan, the city’s first openly gay city commissioner. “So, having these community partners step up really means a lot.”

Sheehan and Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, who were both in office when the shooting occurred, have faced scrutiny from some shooting survivors and victims’ families over their close ties to Poma and her husband Rosario, another co-owner of the club.

Sheehan today openly criticizes OnePulse and had a falling out with Poma, a personal friend, several years ago. Dyer, meanwhile, has faced criticism over the city’s purchase of the former Pulse property from the Pomas for the proposed memorial site for $2 million in public money. Former city commissioner Jim Gray, at the time, said an appraisal found the property was worth closer to $700,000.

“Do I want to pay them $2 million? No, I don’t really want to pay $2 million,” Dyer admitted candidly, just ahead of the Oct. 2023 vote to approve the purchase. “I would have rather seen the property donated either to us or to OnePulse but that’s not where we are.” It was an emotional meeting.

Gomez Construction, the firm chosen to build the Pulse memorial on the site of the former nightclub just south of downtown, is also a familiar name to Dyer. Although the firm doesn’t have any known experience constructing memorials of this kind, it has been involved with construction projects at the Orlando International Airport, which is governed by a board that Dyer sits on.

Final memorial design concepts, however, were ultimately chosen by an advisory council of Pulse nightclub survivors, family members of victims, and other stakeholders in the community. They include a reflecting pool, a wall honoring survivors of the shooting, a rainbow prism plaza and a visitors pavilion building. 

Gomez Construction is working with other design partners, including Borrelli + Partners, C&S Engineers, VHB, HLB Lighting, and Martin Aquatics, to turn these design concepts into reality, according to city documents.

The former nightclub building itself was demolished earlier this year to make way for the construction of the memorial. The iconic Pulse sign was stored for safekeeping and will be installed at the planned visitors pavilion, according to the Gomez Construction Co.’s proposal.

Last week, the city also for the first time announced that playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Sonnet to Orlando,” a poem delivered at the 2016 Tony Awards just hours after the Pulse tragedy, will also be incorporated into the memorial’s survivors wall.

“We chase the melodies that seem to find us until they’re finished songs and start to play,
When senseless acts of tragedy reminds us that nothing here is promised — not one day.
This show is proof that history remembers,
We live through times when hate and fear seem stronger,
We rise and fall and light from dying embers,
Remembrances that hope and love last longer.
And love is love is love is love is love, cannot be killed or swept aside …
Now fill the world with music, love and pride.”

Pulse Families & Survivors for Justice — a group of survivors, victims’ family members, and community allies — wrote in a Facebook post that this idea didn’t come from survivors.

A city spokesperson, however, told Orlando Weekly after publication that the idea came from the Pulse memorial advisory committee that helped choose the broader design concepts.

Jorshua Hernandez, a survivor of the Pulse nightclub shooting that today lives in Puerto Rico, told Orlando Weekly he had concerns about the memorial design proposal that he wished to share with Orlando City Council, but was told by a city employee that he would not be able to provide public comment virtually Monday afternoon over Zoom — only in person.

Many survivors and family members of victims do not live in the Orlando area. Orlando Weekly was not able to verify Hernandez’s account of his conversation with a city employee over the phone ahead of publication. He, instead, provided public comment in writing.

He specifically had thoughts to share about the survivors wall component. “The Survivor Wall should truly represent the people it is intended to honor. Its words should not be chosen solely by the City, but through a fair process that allows survivors to propose ideas, share their perspectives, and vote on what will be permanently inscribed,” Hernandez submitted as written public comment.

“Survivors cannot be honored while being denied the opportunity to decide how they wish to be remembered,” he added. “Our voices, our stories, and our participation must be an essential part of this memorial.”

Construction is expected to begin on the $12.6 million memorial this fall, Dyer confirmed Monday, and is expected to be completed by the end of 2027.

“We’re making sure that that occurs because Commissioner Sheehan and I will term out in January, and we’re going to make sure that that memorial is finished before we do,” Dyer said.

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Clarification, October 13, 2026 12:45 pm: This post has been updated to include comment from a city spokesperson (provided post-publication) on the origins of the idea to incorporate a poem from Lin Manuel Miranda into the memorial design.

General news reporter for Orlando Weekly, with a focus on state and local government and workers' rights. You can find her bylines in Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, In These Times, and Facing South.