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High-end art fair will float into Tampa Bay on yacht

A Naples couple is having a ship specially built to create a new way to bring together buyers and art dealers from around the world.

By LENNIE BENNETT
Published May 16, 2006

[Photo illustration courtesy of Expoships]

An artist's coomputer-generated rendering shows the $60-million, 228-foot Grand Luxe - home to SeaFair, the world's first floating art fair.

SeaFair, the first floating art fair in the world, will make St. Petersburg and Tampa its inaugural ports in January according to its owners, a Naples couple with a long and profitable history in the art world.

Blue-chip art, antiques and jewelry - all of it for sale - are to be exhibited aboard a new $60-million, 228-foot yacht, the Grand Luxe, that owners David and Lee Ann Lester promise will be the scene of galas to benefit St. Petersburg's Museum of Fine Arts and the Tampa Museum of Art.

SeaFair also would be the Tampa Bay area's first art fair with a roster of high-end dealers from the United States and Europe. Most dealers have permanent galleries but travel several times a year with their art to large, temporary art fairs, such as Miami Beach's Art Basel or New York's Winter Antiques Show. Those attract a large concentration of collectors who like the "one-stop shopping" format.

After several floating fiascoes in recent years - malfunctioning casino ships, cruise vessels that tanked financially and a pornographic movie shot surreptitiously aboard the HMS Bounty while docked at the Pier in downtown St. Petersburg - skepticism about another new maritime venture, especially in St. Petersburg, is understandable.

"They're not asking for anything and they're paying for everything," said Susan Robertson, marketing manager for the Pier, where SeaFair will dock. "We're working on a standard docking agreement with them."

"The Lesters have such a high degree of credibility," said Roger Zeh, assistant director of the Museum of Fine Arts, who researched the project. "They made a lot of contacts doing these fairs all over the world for 25 years. This is an internationally respected roster of dealers."

David Lester, 62, a lawyer, and his wife, Lee Ann, 59, an industrial psychologist, are the creators of the floating art fair concept and have a long resume in arts entrepreneurship. They started a small gallery in California 33 years ago, nine months after they were married, as "a way to write off travel," said Lee Ann Lester.

Bitten by the art bug, they traded their corporate careers for gallery ownership. They began organizing other dealers into large fairs around the world, including the prestigious Palm Beach International Art and Antique Fair, which they founded in the 1990s.

They sold the Palm Beach fair in 2001 for $18-million, settled in Naples, cruised around in their own yacht and got the idea of taking an art fair directly to smaller, affluent communities.

"The rich love any type of shopping experience when you give it to them in an elegant experience," said Lee Ann Lester. "We're taking quality dealers directly to the market and combining it with the aesthetics of a beautiful ship. In the past, we've had to set up and take down venues all over the world, which becomes very expensive. We're making this investment once in a permanent venue, and we believe it's a good one."

The Lesters sent out inquiries to arts organizations, including the Museum of Fine Arts, more than a year ago.

"They thought we were a good fit and asked to meet with us," said Zeh. "Our venue was so suitable. The yacht will dock at the Pier, we're right at the end of it, and all the dealers will stay at the Vinoy, which is a block away. "

While not-for-profits such as local museums, will benefit from Grand Luxe's visit, SeaFair is a business venture for the Lesters, who have invested their own money along with backing from Caterpillar, an international machinery manufacturer. If SeaFair is the success they hope, the Lesters and their backers plan to build more ships outfitted with galleries that would ply other routes.

Like traditional fairs, SeaFair plans to rent space to dealers who hope to sell to wealthy collectors. But SeaFair will allow dealers to sign on for months at a time - they must commit to at least one month - as the yacht makes its way around the coast of Florida and then along the Eastern Seaboard to about 30 communities in its first year. Only the crew will live aboard.

Dealers will meet the ship, restock the galleries and stay at local hotels. They usually specialize in a type of art or time period, and can tailor their offerings to the interests they perceive in each city where the yacht stops. The company's Web site, www.expoships.com, lists about 35 dealers based in cities including Paris, London, Zurich, New York, Chicago and Beverly Hills, who have applied for space on Grand Luxe.

Monthly rental fees for dealers begin at about $50,000 for a 200-square-foot gallery.

The attraction of the arrangement, said Lee Ann Lester, is that dealers don't have to haul and set up their art from place to place and the yacht will bring their art to many more markets. The convenience and proximity is hoped to attract new collectors as well as those already on dealers' mailing lists.

But the Tampa Bay area has never been known for having a large concentration of big-spending collectors as in Naples or Miami.

"High-end people are very quiet," said Zeh. "Sometimes I think it's higher here than we think."

"These are dealers who are trolling for long-term clients, developing relationships, not necessarily for a sale today," said Lee Ann Lester.

"Part of it's logistics," she said about the Tampa Bay area stop, near other west coast dockings. "When we were doing the Palm Beach fair, our dealers would ask us how to get more collectors from the west coast of Florida. They want to establish themselves in markets of growing affluence."

Grand Luxe is under construction in the Seattle area, designed with 28 galleries, museum-quality climate-control and security, restaurant, cocktail and reception areas. It will have few windows, to provide more wall space and protect the art from natural light.

The Grand Luxe won't be open to the public.

But between the fundraisers, corporate entertaining and dealers' receptions for their clients, its owners expect it will see plenty of traffic. Admission to the fundraisers will be typical of such galas in recent years. For its January gala, the Stuart Society of the Museum of Fine Arts will charge $250 a ticket, said chairman Mary Shuh. Tampa Museum of Art's Steve Klindt, director of development, said its gala will be a new version of its annual Pavilion event, with tickets starting at $600 per person.

"This has never been done before," Zeh said. "And it may not work. But the Lesters have a good business perspective."

And just in case, Lee Ann Lester said, Grand Luxe is being built so that it can be retrofitted without too much trouble as a conventional yacht, portholes and all.

Lennie Bennett can be reached at (727) 893-8293 or lennie@sptimes.com.

[Last modified May 21, 2006, 11:04:37]