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Letter to the editor

Restoring retro resorts might gain some voices

TREASURE ISLAND A resident wants the chamber to help push the city for preservation.

By LIBBY NELSON, Times Staff Writer
Published October 10, 2007

Heidi Horak looks at the city and sees a treasure trove.

The gold? Retro roadside motels built in the 1950s, remnants of an era of "space age" architecture - and a draw for tourists, Horak said, if they aren't torn down to make way for new development.

Speaking as a resident rather than a city official, Horak will make her case to the Treasure Island Chamber of Commerce on Thursday at its monthly luncheon, asking the business community to pressure the city to preserve the resorts.

Restoring and keeping up the motels would create a "retro Disney" drawing young professionals and retiring baby boomers, she said.

"All these kids that came here in the '50s and '60s are approaching that time in their lives where they want to give their kids and their families that experience," Horak said. "We spend our whole adult lives trying to repeat what we did in our childhood - and they have a lot of money."

Treasure Island is already known nationally for its retro resorts, Horak said.

When the Surf, a '50s-era motel, was torn down in 2004, the story made it as far north as the New York Times. An essay about Treasure Island in the Atlantic Monthly this summer spurred the preservation campaign back into action.

"This is how the world sees Treasure Island," Horak said. "We already have the publicity. Everybody already knows. It's built-in marketing."

If the business community asked for it, the city could provide incentives to motel owners to make their businesses profitable, she said.

As the vice chairwoman of the Treasure Island Planning and Zoning Board, she could help propel any initiatives.

"The 'motherhood and apple pie' issue in Treasure Island is: 'We need to do something to help the mom-and-pop hotels and motels,'" Horak said. "Frankly, no one's ever done anything."

Libby Nelson can be reached at (727) 893-8779 or lnelson@sptimes.com.

[Last modified October 9, 2007, 22:03:54]