Local Business Man Busy With New Pine Avenue Development Project...
Ed Chiles is a name well known to Anna Maria Island residents.
Being head of the ownership group of the Sandbar, BeachHouse and Mar Vista restaurants, Chiles is also a main player in the new and ambitious Pine Avenue development project.
The vacant lot to the right, located on historic Pine Avenue, is just one of the Chiles-Coleman properties under contract where a two-story retail-office-residential structure would one day be built.
"To say Anna Maria Island businessman Ed Chiles is busy is an understatement."
In addition to the Sandbar, BeachHouse and Mar Vista restaurants, Chiles is also chairman of START, the organization that fights red tide; president of the Manatee Community Foundation; vice-chairman of the Lawton Chiles Foundation; a member of the tourism development council; the former chairman of the Anna Maria Island Goodwill (two terms); campaign treasurer for Christine Jennings for Congress; and to top it off, he volunteers to help the Anna Maria Island Community Center when called upon.
One may ask, "Why take on the work and financial responsibility of putting together an investment group to purchase Pine Avenue properties in Anna Maria for development as retail-office-residential locations with an Old Florida architectural style?"
Well, when asked, Chiles said, “It’s a very exciting opportunity. In my lifetime, I’ll likely never have but this one opportunity to preserve the Anna Maria that I grew up in, the Anna Maria we all remember. Why not take the chance?”
Chiles is working with partner Mike Coleman, who actually lives on Pine Avenue, to accomplish this dream of preserving Anna Maria's Old Florida atmosphere while enhancing its future for generations to come.
The Pine Avenue project involves options on 15 Pine Avenue properties and six lots on North Bay Boulevard at the Pine Avenue intersection.
Chiles and Coleman have pledged to create only two-story ROR units on the Pine Avenue properties, in spite of the fact that new Anna Maria ruling allows for three stories. The exceptions are the six lots on North Bay Boulevard, due to the high cost. Chiles told the city in a letter that those might have to be developed as three-story ROR units (two stories over parking).
To fulfill the dream will take a lot of cooperation between the planners and the city, Chiles acknowledged. It will also take a lot of money, and Chiles has already begun the arduous task of finding investors who believe in the Pine Avenue vision.
Without the effort, Chiles believes that, in time, Pine Avenue will eventually become nothing more than a canyon of three-story residential structures. “I have nothing against those residences, but I just don’t think people want to see Pine Avenue become a street with nothing but those type homes. If that happens, the ambiance of the original Anna Maria is lost.”
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