Pine Avenue Developers Reveal Project Details to Anna Maria Island Realtors...
It was the desire to preserve the original vision for a Pine Avenue promenade and to protect the critical and extremely limited "historic boutique business district" that lead to the Pine Avenue Restoration Project. It's importance is not lost in the fact that Anna Maria Island's historic boutique business district runs the length of Pine Avenue and, for all intense and purposes, is the only remaining area on the entire island (and perhaps the entire Florida gulf coast) where such a project is possible.
Michael Coleman explains the Pine Avenue Restoration project to real estate professionals.
Pine Avenue Restoration Vision
Central to the Pine Avenue Restoration vision is the strong conviction, of both residence and city officials alike, that two-story historic cottages best reflect the culture, heritage and nature of our Anna Maria. It is believed that the Pine Avenue Restoration Project is the communities last, best hope to capture and preserve this legacy.
Although the Pine Avenue Restoration Project has been in the news for the past year now, those involved in the development of the project haven't had the opportunity to reveal project details to the people who would be instrumental in selling it – the real estate professionals on Anna Maria Island. That is until last week when project organizers invited local real estate professionals to a party at an office for Island Real Estate, the main agency handling the Pine Avenue Restoration development.
Those attending where told that, "project plans call for developing the Pine Avenue properties with historically compatible structures housing first floor boutique retail shops and one residential floor on top. The new structures will be complemented by inviting front porches and balconies, and topped off with such architecturally rich details as pitched roofs and dormer windows.
The look will draw its inspiration from the historic cottages that are currently interspersed on the street, and existing historic structures will be renovated whenever possible. We envision quality, value-added retail shops that will encourage and cater to local foot and bicycle traffic, as well as the many visitors and island residents who arrive by island trolley or car.
Project Details as Reported to Local News Media
Plans call for a number of two-story structures boasting "uniquely Anna Maria" style with residential space atop commercial.
Island Real Estate agents David Teitelbaum and Alan Galletto are handling the sales of the units, and Teitelbaum spoke of the design. "The residential areas measure 2,000 square feet and the commercial areas are 2,500 square feet," he said, "The economics of making this work called for such an arrangement and the ideal client would be someone who can live over their store or office."
Sandbar restaurant owner Ed Chiles, who gathered together the people who set the wheels in motion on the project, talked about the philosophy of it. "The most important fabric of a community is its commercial area," he said. "Without that, you become a suburb, a bedroom community."
Chiles said that the project takes the commercial area of Anna Maria and improves on it. "We don’t want to make any more commercial property," he said. "We just don’t want to lose what we have."
Chiles compared the project with the early days of Anna Maria. "When the Anna Maria Development Company tried to market the Island to tourists, they all came by ship and landed at the Anna Maria Pier," he said "The pier became this city’s front door and they all promenaded down Pine Avenue."
Chiles said their goal is to have this project finished and sold by 2011, the 100th anniversary of the development company. He also talked about the scale of what they have planned. "There’s nothing big box here," he said. "It’s a mix of mom and pops, a mix of professionals and boutiques."
Chiles said they could have put two stories of residential over the commercial, but it would have made the buildings too large for the look they wanted. He said it was absolutely the right thing to do. He said they got Island architect Gene Aubrey to design the buildings, because he seemed to know what they wanted. "He showed us a rendering for one of the properties and said, ‘that’s got a Sears and Roebuck catalogue house on it,’" Chiles said. "When he said that, we said, ‘That’s it; he’s got it.’"
Chiles said he and the group of backers are passionate about the project because it is the future of the city’s business district. Then he talked about the lifestyle in the city. "The thing I love about Anna Maria is the same thing I hated about it when I was 15," he said, "It’s slow. It’s easy going."
Project manager Mike Coleman credited his wife, Jane, for seeing the need for the project. He said he didn’t have the kind of money to finance it, but that somehow Ed Chiles got wind of it. "Ed had a meeting with us and found the people to back it," he said. "It has really been a labor of love. It needs to be done right because it’s a legacy project."
Coleman showed off a Styrofoam form that will serve as a mould for concrete walls that will make up the structures. He said they also offer special windows and ceilings to make each home a "thermos bottle that will be able to withstand any storm that comes to the Island."
Chiles introduced Ted LaRoche, from Murfreesboro, Tenn., who has gathered the financial backing for the project. "I come from an area of historic communities," LaRoche said. "Our courthouse was built in 1857 and it still has musket holes and cannon holes in it from the Civil War."
He compared Murfreesboro to Franklin, a similar sized town nearby. "We got a grant, bought up our historic district and restored it and Franklin didn’t," he said. "Today, people come to our town to revisit the past and Franklin is just a suburb of Nashville."
It was in 1911 that original development on Anna Maria was sparked by construction of what's now known as the City Pier, built at the foot of Pine Avenue. In its promotional material the Anna Maria Beach Development Company encouraged the multitudes to come to Anna Maria Beach, "the most attractive of all of Florida's island resorts," and beckoned folks to "visit the beach… destined to become …the greatest year-round resort city in Florida."
Just as in 1911, when the Anna Maria Beach Development Company encouraged visitors to ride the steamer to the City Pier and promenade down Pine Avenue to the Bath House, where the Sandbar Restaurant sits today, the Pine Avenue Restoration Project vision is to re-create that Pine Avenue promenade and preserve a little bit of Old Florida for future generations to enjoy.
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