] Become Engaged Downtown NORM GOLLUB During my two years in Sarasota, I have come to appreciate this city as a community that continually challenges itself to be the best that it can be. This is due to the variety of community leaders, downtown property owners, retail merchants, professionals and other stakeholders working diligently to contribute to downtown’s recent growth. In the short span of two years, downtown real estate development has skyrocketed. It has grown from just a handful of projects in 2013 to 29 that are currently under construction or in the pipeline, including many in the Rosemary District and the Burns Square areas. The combined construction value for these projects is estimated at close to $1/2 billion dollars. This is pretty amazing when you consider that two years ago the downtown construction market was stagnant and retail vacancies were plentiful. Retail vacancies since then have been shrinking and new retailers seeking to locate downtown have been growing. Savvy property owners such as Lou Donato and Butch Isaac have been meeting that demand by installing distinctive retail tenants into their properties. If you haven’t visited the 1400 block of Main Street or Lemon Avenue lately, you’re missing out on a great retail mix. Combined with the shops on Palm Avenue, and other streets, downtown retail has been undergoing a positive resurgence. Today, the downtown retail vacancy rate is only 5 percent between Washington Blvd. and U.S. 41. Recent market studies undertaken by national retail expert Robert Gibbs for the city, reveals that downtown, including the adjacent Rosemary District, can currently absorb an additional 177,300 square feet of retail. That’s good news for the State Street garage, the former Golden Apple, the Jewel and One Palm Avenue projects that are under construction. They have all bee n designed to include new retail space. When the State Street garage opens in mid-March with 395 parking spaces, it will also provide a convenient parking location for those shopping, dining and working downtown. Almost 24,000 people work downtown. They eat lunch in downtown restaurants and shop in downtown stores. Soon, many more will be able to walk to work from home due to new residential projects underway. An additional 996 rental apartments along with 695 condominiums and townhomes are in the works. This will increase the residential density throughout the downtown area and provide additional “rooftops” that many retailers require to come into a community. In addition, three hotels are under construction and two more are in the planning stages. These hotels will provide a total of 948 guest rooms. These numbers do not include the recently purchased Quay property, which will add residential and possibly hotel space into the mix. Downtown Sarasota has definitely emerged out of the Great Recession and is responding well to a marketplace that has a favorable eye on this community. Some local residents may argue that there is too much development taking place downtown. Others that there is not enough. Downtown, of course, will continue to have difficult issues to resolve, including relocation of the bus transfer station, extension of the CRA, workforce housing, resolving vagrancy issues, and more. Whatever your viewpoint on these and other topics, I encourage you to become engaged in community conversations and let your voices be heard. Help to continue shaping the future of downtown Sarasota. To learn more about the downtown economy, development projects and studies, visit sarasotaeconomy. Norm Gollub is the Downtown Economic Development Coordinator for the City of Sarasota and the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce.
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 15:35:08 +0000
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