Anna Maria Island

The Pine Avenue Restoration Story

Pine Avenue and a Man with a Vision...

Last Updated January 12, 2009: Everyone on Anna Maria Island should know what the Pine Avenue restoration project is. It has been in the news now for some time, and construction is already well underway.

Because it is such an important project for the city of Anna Maria, and Anna Maria Island as a whole, we've decided to follow the Pine Avenue restoration story in a series of posts.

A Man With a Vision - We begin our story back in mid 2007, when a man with a vision took that vision to Anna Maria city commissioners and began winning support for what now is known as the Pine Avenue Restoration Project.

This artist’s rendering is of a sample business/residential structure proposed in a renovation project for Pine Avenue in Anna Maria. The drawing was done by local architect Gene Aubry and would be built at the corner of Crescent and Pine.

Pine Avenue Restoration Pitched to Real Estate Community

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.

Pine Avenue Restoration Underway

Work on Anna Maria's Pine Avenue Project Begins...

"The dream of Islanders Ed Chiles and Mike Coleman to keep Anna Maria’s Pine Avenue looking like old Florida continued to mature on Sept. 12 with the start of construction at 315 Pine Ave."

There were some Anna Maria City residents that wondered if the day would ever come, but come it has.

Work officially began last week on the Pine Avenue Restoration Project when these structures at 315 and 317 Pine Avenue were demolished to make way for the project’s first building.

Groundbreaking on that two-story building will be sometime this week, with Mayor Fran Barford wielding the shovel.

The Pine Avenue project is designed to transform Pine Avenue into a promenade of small, two-story shops and residences, with businesses on the first floor and dwellings on the second.

All the buildings will be built in an Old Florida style.

Learn more about the Pine Avenue Restoration Project.

Pine Avenue Restoration Gets National Media Attention

National Magazine Features Pine Avenue Restoration Project...

The Pine Avenue Restoration Project has been in the local Anna Maria Island news for well over a year now, but now its getting national media attention.

The September issue of Southern Living magazine has a three-page spread on the Anna Maria Pine Avenue Restoration Project in its People and Places section. The article features Ed Chiles’ and Michael Coleman’s vision for the Pine Avenue corridor.

"One practically grew up in the Island town — the other discovered it while driving through," Michael Beck wrote in the magazine. "Now they’re working together to restore Anna Maria’s classic Florida charm to there Anna Maria Island community."

Coleman, who was the originator of the idea for the Pine Avenue Project (PAR), said he knew the article was coming. "It just shows that more and more, this quiet little island is well known for Southern Living magazine to come here and do a story," he said. "It’s an idea, and its time has come."

Rosedale Cottage

Rosedale Cottage Hoped to be Part of the Pine Avenue Restoration...

Just a few short weeks after the approval of the Pine Avenue restoration project's second site plan, Michael Coleman, one of the principals of the project, said he hopes Rosedale Cottage can be one of the centerpieces of the Pine Avenue Restoration Project.

The Pine Avenue restoration group now owns the Rosedal Cottage building. Located at 503 Pine Avenue, it was the scene for an event billed as a conversation among neighbors on August 19th of this year.

Local Businessmen Want 'Old Florida' Preserved

Pine Avenue Restorations LLC is Formed...

Local Businessmen
Want 'Old Florida' Preserved - as reported in the Islander on July 19th, 2007.

In what may ultimately turn out to be the biggest financial undertaking of his life - and possibly the most expensive - Anna Maria businessman Ed Chiles along with Pine Avenue resident Mike Coleman have formed an investment company to buy Pine Avenue properties and restore or develop them as two-story, retail-office-residential structures that would retain the “Old Florida” charm of the city.

The post card image to the above right is an artist rendition of Anna Maria's Pine Ave. back in the 40's.

Now that's very cool indeed!

The two have quietly signed purchase contracts on 15 properties along Pine Avenue and six on North Bay Boulevard at the Pine Avenue intersection. Their plan is to renovate the developed properties or build new ROR units, but without a third floor. The first floor would be retail space, while the second story would be residential.

Chiles Takes On Pine Street

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."