Sex, promises and 150 room hotels

Mr. Spoll has now publicly assured the residents at the north end of Longboat Key that he will not force them to accept anything taller than a 3 story hotel over 2 stories of parking. Mr. Spoll may have forgotten that nice hotels usually have a spacious lobby and a restaurant on the first level. That makes 6 stories and counting the additional 14 feet allowed by town codes for elevator and stair shafts and equipment rooms on the roof.

Since the town commission is working on the second legal reading of their sweeping changes to the town's Comprehensive Plan, residents may no longer expect any sort of protection in the legal area of our codes. This commission is quickly making the process of granting variances to developers a political process. We have already reached the level of politics where our unelected mayor represents clients, as their architect, before the Planning and Zoning Board that he appoints. Who would you hire if you too wanted your building plans to have smooth sailing through the town?

No matter that two hotel developers have stated that a minimum of 150 rooms is essential to build a financially viable hotel at the north end of the island. Mr. Spoll knows better it seems. Three year ago, the same Mr. Spoll voted to spend $25K taxpayer dollars to hire a traffic engineer who would agree with Mr. Spoll that traffic roundabouts are bad and unsafe. Now that same Mr. Spoll appears to have done a 180 degree reversal and now embraces traffic roundabouts. I wish he had saved us all the $25K in the first place.

I typed into Google Images - "150 room hotel" and came up with dozens and dozens of pictures of 150 room hotels. You be the judge whether Mr. Spool has any idea what a 150 room hotel looks like. All the pictures show 6 to 9 story hotels. Please note that the two tallest condominiums at the Key Club are 10 stories tall.

When you vote, remember that Mr. Brenner publicly supports tourism development at the north end of Longboat Key. Then think about who would want to buy your home if your island becomes a commercial tourism destination at both the north and south ends.

L'Ambiance condominium - 10 stories tall

It Takes a Village

During the next few months, the north end, and especially the village, may see the town commission proposing revisions to the existing town comprehensive plan and building codes to allow a major tourism development on the commercial land located at GMD and Broadway at the north end of Longboat Key.

I hope the north end community will participate in large numbers in this process. If the residents participate, there is much more likelihood that the land at the entrance to the Village will be developed with an intent to maintain and protect the ambiance of the neighborhood.  If the north end community does not choose to be an active part of the development planning, then what happens at the north end may not be in the best interests of the major stakeholders in the area, namely the homeowners.

Let's look at the difference in composition between shopping centers that cater to residents in a community, compared to shopping centers that cater to tourists. Are the two appreciably different? Perhaps we can compare two such shopping experiences located adjacent to the north end. One is the Center Shops on Longboat Key and the other is Bradenton Beach. Both are thriving, yet each caters to a different clientele.

The types of businesses located at the Center Shops rely on local customers to survive. The businesses include the well attended Longboat Key Education Center, a bank, three locally supported restaurants, a frame shop, an exercise center, a UPS store, several offices, dry cleaner, kitchen shop, window treatment store, etc.


Bradenton Beach enjoys two seasons, drawing patrons in the winter from Anna Maria Island and during the summer from beach goers and day tourists. The types of businesses in Bradenton Beach are largely tourist oriented. I do not think anyone believes the few residents of Bradenton Beach are capable of supporting such a robust group of tourist oriented businesses. Ed Cliles' Beach House restaurant is a major draw for Bradenton Beach and appears to enjoy a year-round clientele.

The unique location of the north end commercial property, its relatively low cost, and its access to the north end beaches might attract a developer interested in creating a day tourist destination. Such a development could be a lot more fun than Coquina Beach on a year-round basis for tourists and Manatee County residents. However, I cannot see how local residents and day tourists share similarities in lifestyle. I am trying to imagine what types of businesses would attract beach going day tourists and young people to a commercial center on the north end of Longboat Key.

In recent studies it has been found, that when commercial tourism is introduced into a previously residential community, the local residents tend to lose territory, as they retreat from tourist activities.

The composition of the proposed commercial overlay district at the north end is a question of who's interests will be favored. If it is residential taxpayers, then there will be restrictions as to what sorts of businesses can be located within the overlay district. If it is simply finding a way of resuscitating a failed commercial center, then a more open approach will most likely be considered. Reference: ordinance 2012-06 Future Land Use Elements GOPS discusses north end overlay district.

Last evening, at the Observer/PIC debate, Commissioner Brenner stated that "retail does not work" at Whitney Plaza, and we've seen that that has been the case for years. If retail does not work, what does work, and do we want it? 

The residents of the Village need to be involved.



 

The Producers

The gist of "The Producers" plot is as follows - New York, 1959. Max Bialystock was once the king of Broadway, but now all his shows close on opening night. Things turn around when he's visited by the neurotic accountant Leo Bloom, who proposes a scheme tailor-made for producers who can only make flops: raise far more money than you need, then make sure the show is despised. No one will be interested in it, so you can pocket the surplus investor money.

If one examines the many "closing nights" for commercial developments on Longboat Key, compared to the overwhelming success of dozens and dozens of high-end residential homes, one wonders why investors would ever choose to put their money into commercial speculations on this island.

The reality of commercial development includes "the developer", quite similar to the producers, in that both use other people's money and have no "skin in the game", to use a Warren Buffett term. Other than maintaining a track record, neither the developer or the producer suffers any real lose if his/her efforts turn out to be failures.

The following is a list of commercial developments that are no longer here: Avenue of the Flowers, Mattison's Restaurant, Whitney Plaza, Holiday Inn, Buccaneer, Far Horizon, numerous small tourist facilities, 2 gas stations, bank building at north end, the commercial property adjoining the Center Shoppes property, and L'Auberge Restaurant.

Fortunately, for every failed commercial venture on Longboat Key, five to ten luxury homes have been constructed. No one can deny that a new mansion increases surrounding property values, whereas failing small retail shops in poorly maintained strip malls do little, if anything, to improve our community's image or property values.

Avenue of the Flowers and Whitney Plaza cast a pall over the entire community. They have for years. For the past few years the commission has been guilty of benign neglect in these areas. It's time to do something that should have been managed years ago, instead of treating these eyesores as cherished locations for commercial tourism expansion. We are all getting older and poorer while we wait for the commissioner's "vision" to come true, if ever.

Publix has begun a revitalization of what was Avenue of the Flowers. The town needs to aggregate other social amenities around the Publix project. We don't need more doomed retail experiments and wasted years. We need to have more fun.

It's time to stop coddling developers, and follow a more proven direction for revitalizing our community, by attracting residents who want to build mansions instead of motels and busloads of tourists.

The town needs to be active in resolving the visual blight at Whitney Plaza that is pulling down property values in the surrounding neighborhood. Too many years have passed where the town has allowed a developer to hold the north end property owners hostage, while he waits, hoping for a financial miracle. Job one for the commission is to preserve and improve property values on Longboat Key. For the past few years the commission has done nothing to resolve the Whitney Plaza blight. Has the commission bothered to find out what is really happening at Whitney Plaza? North end residents are tired of hearing "check's in the mail", "Mercedes is in the shop", "Whitney Plaza will be booming next month".

If one examines what has actually been occurring on Longboat Key since the referendum permitting 250 replacement tourists units was passed 7 or 8 years ago, the answer is absolutely nothing in the commercial sector of the island's economy, and a robust proliferation of high-end single family homes up and down the island. As Al Green said in a previous article, the "market" is driving our economy, and that market has been exclusively private residential up-sizing. The commissioners would do well to support this process, rather than fighting it, as they are doing at present.

Commercial developers have had a poor track record on Longboat Key. Perhaps so many commercial developments have failed due to the strong market trending towards Longboat Key becoming an exclusive seasonal retirement community. The commissioners need to promote this trend rather than talk about commercial development that is years away at best, and a probable failed blight a few years later, if one looks at the history of commercial development on our island for the past 20 years.

If the commissioners insisted that a commercial developer have a large financial stake in a proposed project, as recommended by Warren Buffett, I doubt we would ever see an expansion of tourism on Longboat Key. Perhaps then the developers would put their money into exclusive residential development where the odds of financial success are far greater.

Newspeak and the town commission

Size of Whitney Plaza expansion proposed by our commissioners

Newspeak is a fictional language in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. In it, it refers to the deliberately impoverished language promoted by government.



Today I met a Longboat resident who had recently met a Longboat commissioner at a social function. The resident related to me that he had asked the commissioner about his pro-development reputation. The commissioner replied to the resident that he, and the commission, were not pro-development. The commissioner told the resident they were instead only trying to restore what had previously existed on Longboat Key in terms of retail businesses and tourist accommodations. I am told the commissioner used the term "Keeping Longboat Longboat" to describe the massive revisions the commission is making to our zoning codes and comprehensive plan. To me this is Longboat Newspeak.

I want to examine changes to Longboat's building codes, density limits, building height limits and  sweeping alterations to the comprehensive plan being proposed by the current commission and town attorneys in light of their assertion of being preservationists and not developer-friendly government officials.

If the commissioners are really only trying to "restore" retail business and tourism to what previously existed, then logically the codes already exist for doing that, since the current rules and codes already allow what the commission contends are their only objectives.

The increases in height, building mass and population density to Whitney Plaza being proposed by the current commission can be viewed as little else but opening the developer flood gates on the north end of the island. Why increase the height from 5 stories to 6 stories? Why increase the density if only businesses are to be allowed at that location? Surely there must be logical explanations for such detailed increases to the bulk and density of the current 1 story shopping center. A retail center that has been only partially occupied for over 2 decades. Obviously there has been little to no demand for commercial space on the north end of the island for quite some time. And no wonder since there is 3 times more commercial real estate on Longboat than is required to support our decreasing population. One wonders what the commissioners have in mind.

And where will all the tourists stay? The commissioners assure us we need many more tourists in order to eventually sell units at the Key Club. If you were going to recommend accommodations for visiting friends, where would you direct them? Now imagine where additional tourist motels and hotels can be built on this island. Would you recommend a new hotel at Whitney Plaza, where the public beach is a long hot walk across a busy highway, or a toes-in-the-sand waterfront lodging? Which would offer the better "island experience"?

Why is the commission working so hard to vastly increase the building bulk at Whitney Plaza? What do they think will be built there that requires exactly 1 extra story and a much larger footprint? I doubt any hotel located off the beach could compete with existing waterfront lodging on Longboat or adjacent islands.

I am worried that for all their supposed good intentions for all of us, that the commission makes our exclusive community vulnerable to profit-driven developers by destroying the well-crafted codes and comprehensive plan that have made Longboat one of the premier residential retirement communities in this country.

You might ask a commissioner why they want to expand Whitney Plaza far beyond what is fitting for the ambiance of the north end. The commissioners have never asked the residents of this island if they are happy with the way things are in terms of retail, and if they are willing to have more tourists and traffic congestion to have more stores that will have to cater to tourists to survive. Tourism stores are not the same stores that are frequented by residents. Maybe the commissioners should ask themselves why in the past it made sense for so many motel / hotel owners to sell to condominium developers?

Current Whitney Plaza

Longboat Key does need to change with the times. We need to open up our social structure. We need to find ways to provide better access to our beaches so that new home buyers will be attracted to neighborhoods east of GMD. We need to have the town actively participate in rejuvenating our community activities and make better use of our parks and recreation areas. We do not need inappropriate development where none is needed. Most of all, we need to start acting like a community instead of snowbird heaven. People need to wake up and see that beautiful Longboat may be under siege by developers and that our current commission is the best thing that ever happened for them. We do not want to become a poster child for the now defeated Amendment #4 - Home Town Democracy.

Even though the above mentioned commissioner calls himself, as well as his fellow commissioners, preservationists, I do not believe that dumbing-down the conversation to the point where "keeping Longboat Longboat" includes large scale high-rise development on the north end is anything less than Longboat Newspeak.

Frog in the Fryingpan

Put a frog in a fryingpan of hot water and it will immediately jump out. Put a frog in a pan of cool water and gradually heat the water, the frog will stay put until it is soup. We are I fear proverbial frogs in a fryingpan. Our community is more and more rapidly being commerciaslized, yet it appears we either do not notice, or we are so disconnected for this community that we simply do not care what happens, just as the frog does not notice the steadily warming water.

I wonder how many Island Side property owners would have bought into the Longboat ambiance and perceived investment security of this island if the Key Club, in its expanded form had been already in existence. Somehow I feel the people who live at Island Side might have looked elsewhere for a more spacious and relaxed environment. A place where their investment would be in more caring hands.

I have several friends in Bay Isles who are worried that the planning and zoning board, in concert with the commission, will legislate a massive expansion at Avenue of the Flowers Plaza that might, if we are lucky, include an assisted living facility. It is not clear what height and density increases are being contemplated by the planning and zoning board. Of course all this is being done without the participation of the owners of the properties in question. It might be a good idea to find out what they want. Has anyone found out why all the businesses at Avenu of the Flowers left?

Blackpoint Partners, who have some sort of connection with Loeb Partners, who are trying to increase the Key Club land value at Island Side, are still planning a 1600 unit condominium addition on the golf course at Bay Isles as Blackpoint Partners states is their intention on their web site:  Blackpoint states they will be able to expand their presence on Longboat by changing the development codes. It appears from the actions of our town government that Blackpoint knows what it is talking about.

I attended a party in the village this evening where people are in shock at the thought of a 7 story mixed-use structure that covers several properties in addition to Whitney Plaza at the entrance to one of the most charming enclave of old Florida homes on the west coast. Wouldn't it be appropriate to ask residents what they want instead of forcing commercial development on them? I have always believed that local government was supposed to be responsive to its constituents. Here the residents are not asked.

6 story mixed-use structure

What if the present town government gets its way and abandons a comprehensive plan that, up until 2008, has been responsible for making Longboat one of the premier residential retirement communities in America? 75% or more of our residents are retired so let's not quibble about being a retirement community. Do the people on the commission and the planning board believe that people will spend more time on the island if they greatly expand commercial development on the island? One need only look at the percent of part-time residents to see that that is unlikely. Who then will patronize all the new stores and hotels that are envisioned by the current government? If you lived in Sarasota or Bradenton would you fight the traffic over the bridges just to go to a small community with a few more stores and no beaches? If you were an investor would you build a six story strip-mall on the north end with its seasonal sparse population that did not ever support Whitney Plaza? A few people clambering for more development do not fill stores and shops.

Perhaps a decade from now, if ever, investors will take a gamble and build more commercial space on Longboat. Then retailers will have to be persuaded to open business where more than half the people leave for 8 months a year. Businesses on Longboat have not failed because of a lack of store space. They failed for lack of year-round business.

Meanwhile our local government has not introduced a single initiative to expand social amenities in our community to attract home buyers to a more inviting environment.

For an in-depth analysis of what is happening please goto:
 http://lbk-folk.blogspot.com/2011/03/modest-proposal.html

Foot Notes:

Blackpoint: http://www.blackpt.com/portfolio_LongboatKeyClub.html "refinanced property’s $45 million non-performing loan under a new lender, installed new management and developed master plan to add approximately 1,600 new units to density."

Whitney Plaza: "Consensus was reached by planning board members at their Tuesday, March 15 regular meeting in making plan changes that would allow Whitney Beach Plaza to rise from its current one-to-five stories with 65 feet of height in total. The board also agreed that a developer coming forward with a project should be allowed to include plans for a residential component, as long as it doesn’t exceed 20% of the total project." 

Bay Isles: "The board directed town special counsel attorney Nancy Stroud to come back with potential plan amendments that would allow for a residential aspect of a town-center overlay district, which would include Avenue of the Flowers and land east through parcels along Bay Isles Road, such as the Longboat Key Public Tennis Center and the religious institutions. Stroud suggested a policy that would allow the town to provide fiscal incentives for proper revitalization to both areas when funds are available. Although the planning board isn’t looking for a new residential component along Bay Isles Road, consensus was reached to see if developers might come back with a senior-living facilities component."