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Cultural Arts District hopes to attract businesses
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Cultural Arts District designation in the works? Check. Excited residents? Check.
Businesses clamoring to be part of Bayshore in East Naples? Still working on it.
But one thing is for sure— local businesses are getting excited.
“I just think there are some great opportunities,” said My Favorite Guitars co-owner Seth Garon, 36. “Being an arts center type of business, there are some great things we can do.”
Although the high-end guitar store is based in Gateway Triangle, well within the Bayshore/Gateway Triangle CRA, Garon and his father, Jon, both said last week that they would definitely consider moving the store to the Cultural Arts District under the right conditions.
“I think it’d be fun to be on Bayshore,” said Jon Garon, 60, co-owner of My Favorite Guitars, along with his wife Sharon, 55, and his son.
With the Cultural Arts District designation in the works, the Bayshore/Gateway Triangle Community Redevelopment Agency, or CRA, is now hoping to find ways to fill the 27 vacant commercial lots that line the Bayshore Drive commercial corridor.
To get a better understanding of why some of the corridor’s commercial property owners have yet to revamp, or even develop their land, the agency hosted a workshop April 1.
“What do you need? Is it money? Is it incentive?” asked CRA Project Manager Jean Jourdan at the meeting. “We want to know what is stopping property owners from developing.”
Answers varied from business owners being unable to connect with commercial property owner, to commercial property owners being unable to afford to develop their land with the current economic situation.
Another major point raised at the workshop was what type of business would neighborhood residents want to see on Bayshore Drive.
The resounding response from the more than 20 people who attended the workshop, including residents, local artists and business owners that were interested in moving into the proposed district was simple — big box stores and national chains need not apply.
“I’m interested in community. I’m interest in arts. I’m interested in people getting to know one another once again,” said Renee Newell, 44, owner of three rental properties in East Naples’ Bayshore neighborhood. “I’m tired of corporate America. It’s time for people to speak with their neighbors again.”
Nevertheless, keeping it local doesn’t mean keeping the arts out.
Naples Bay Corridor Alliance president Rick Edson said that in addition there are several performing and visual arts groups have shown interest in coming to Bayshore — including the Gulfshore Playhouse — if the district takes off.
The CRA has also begun testing the waters.
“We are in discussion with three organizations,” said CRA Executive Director Dave Jackson on Wednesday. “We are having open dialogue with Opera Naples, Gulfshore Playhouse and Theater Zone, but we are not limiting any future discussions to just them.”
Jackson said the input from the workshop and subsequent meetings with residents and property owners would help the CRA in its revitalizing efforts.
However, Jackson said creating incentive programs and plans for the Bayshore Drive Corridor, along with putting the language together for a Cultural Arts District ordinance — which the Board of County Commissioners still needs to approve — will take time.
“When you invite the public into the process it does not go too fast, because you have so many entities that have to give you their input,” said Jackson on Friday. “The thing for people to understand is, that it is a process.”
And that’s fine with Seth Garon.
“It will probably still be a while before things come into fruition,” he said, adding that no plans are set in stone. “But we’ll stay involved.”
For more information about the Bayshore-Gateway Triangle CRA, visit www.colliercra.com or call (239) 643-1115.
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Well it would help everyone if the district would cease buying cheap old mobile home sites and concentrate on acquiring land for parking areas or at least establish a plan for one laning the road and openning up the street for on street parking. That would allow the property owners to obtain parking credits along the street and maximize the size of their structures on their property, which would make the build outs more economically rewarding. But as things are now structured having to gobble up large sections of buildable and scarce land along the drives frontage means that nobody can develop property as the economics just want allow them to do so. So rather than pipe dreaming and press releases this district needs to install parking plans and infrastructure that will support a commercial district or it will remain stagnant. Start spending the money wisely and stop spending on planners and studies and more studies and more consultants. They also could cut down on the hiring of more staff in Mr. Jackson's office and put the redevelopment funds into redevelopment rather than consultants and paper pushers.
#1 Posted by kneejerk on April 21, 2008 at 9:24 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I may be mistaken but I do not believe Renee Newell lives in the neighborhood. She is an absentee landlord.
“I’m tired of corporate America. It’s time for people to speak with their neighbors again.”
#2 Posted by kneejerk on April 21, 2008 at 9:28 a.m. (Suggest removal)
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