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Awkward position?
By JOHN REINAN ST. PETERSBURG -- The owners of Beach Drive Yoga opened their business just last week, but they are already wondering whether they will need to change the name. The yoga studio, at 424 Beach Drive NE, is in a block of buildings slated to be demolished for a condominium and retail complex. "We may become Beach Drive Yoga-in-Exile," joked studio co-owner John Bancroft. "It's a gamble," agreed his partner, Haris Lender. "We may have to leave. But our hope is to build up a clientele here, even if we have to move later." The 400 block of Beach Drive was supposed to become the home of a twin-tower luxury condo complex that would include a 620-car garage, a health club, and shops and restaurants. Financing for the $70-million deal is taking longer than expected, and so business is still going on in the 400 block -- if not quite business as usual. Lender and Bancroft signed a month-to-month lease with Hamilton Properties Inc., a family concern that owns the entire block. They said they're pleased with the location, and thrilled with the rent: between one-half and two-thirds the going rate for similar space in the area. "It was a really good deal," Bancroft said. "They worked with us." Parker Hanson, owner of the furniture gallery Thorns of a Rose, said he was disappointed this summer when he learned he would have to move his business, which has been at 406 Beach Drive for almost two years. "Naturally, I wasn't thrilled about having to leave," he said. "But the Hamiltons were quite fair in working things out." Hanson declined to discuss whether he got a rent adjustment, but said his major concern was the space, not the price. He, too, is now operating on a month-to-month basis. "They were nice enough to let me stay," Hanson said. "They could have stuck me, and they didn't." He has had his ups and downs, though. Hanson's customers are about evenly split between tourists and residents, and he has been hit by a double whammy in recent months. His tourist trade dropped in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and his local trade suffered because of confusion over whether he was still in business. "Around the holidays, especially, there were people who thought I was closed," Hanson said. "But my regular customers have been terrific." The president of Hamilton Properties said he sympathizes with the businesses affected by the stalled condo project. "I certainly feel for all of them," said Courtnay Hamilton. "I know it's a tough situation for everybody." He said efforts are continuing to lease the other vacant properties in the 400 block. Indications are that a window blind and shutter retailer will take over the old Jennifer Lynn space at 400 Beach Drive, and a restaurant may reopen next month in the Spanky's building. "There is potential that (the restaurant) could happen," Hamilton said. "But I would feel terrible if someone came in and invested a lot of money and was unable to get it back." Meanwhile, the Beach Drive survivors will hang in as long as they can. Said Lender: "We would like to be here until the day the bulldozer pulls up."
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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From the Times South Pinellas desks |
