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By JUDY STARK
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 31, 2001
Here's a way to put your name on the map -- literally.
The Riviera Dunes Resort & Yacht Club in Manatee County overlooks an old dolomite mine on the Manatee River. The developers have just finished creating a cut that opens the old mine to allow boat traffic out into the Manatee River and thence to the Gulf of Mexico.
The plan is to build community marinas and private docks in this harbor. Riviera Dunes is a luxury community of 440 home sites that, besides the harbor, plans to offer an aqua driving range, retail stores and a resort hotel.
And the name of the harbor? Glad you asked.
The naming rights are up for grabs for a minimum bid of $200,000 in what is apparently a first-of-its-kind online auction. If you're familiar with eBay, just think of this as eHarbor, and you'll get the idea.
The bidding period is expected to close by the end of 2002, said Frank Maggio. He owns envirosponsor.com, an online company that creates geographic landmark sponsorship programs. He also is the chief executive officer of First Dartmouth Homes, which builds at Riviera Dunes.
So we could be looking at, say, "Publix Harbor," or "Tropicana Harbor" or "Microsoft Harbor," is that right?
"Microsoft would be a perfect candidate, since the residences are going to be high-tech homes, probably with computers provided by the builder in every home," Maggio replied.
One caveat: The U.S. Department of the Interior prohibits naming geographic landmarks after living people, so if you were thinking of entering a bid to name the place "Bill Clinton Harbor" or "Britney Spears Harbor," you may have to wait a while before you can "memorialize forever their name on all navigable boat charts, road maps, and atlases," as the Web site says.
The rich and impatient can cut to the chase right now and just make the maximum bid of $5-million, which will close the bidding.
Twenty-five percent of the top bid will go to Tampa Bay Watch, a non-profit organization based in St. Petersburg that promotes good stewardship of the Tampa Bay estuary, Maggio said. The rest will be split between the developers (W.C. Riviera) and Maggio's company, envirosponsor.com.
The minimum bid was formerly $400,000, but Maggio said he lowered that figure to get bidding started. The lengthy bidding period permits interested parties to see that the project is viable and the development is moving forward.
There have been no bids so far, Maggio said.
Envirosponsor.com will work with the successful bidder to submit the paperwork to the Department of the Interior to gain official approval of the name, Maggio said. (He cautioned that he can't guarantee that Interior "will acknowledge the winning name, but we will help with the application and in establishing key criteria," such as acceptance of the new name by the Riviera Dunes homeowner association.)
Maggio said he was inspired to sell the naming rights when he read newspaper stories about the Washington Redskins' sale of naming rights at what is now FedEx Field for more than $200-million.
Envirosponsor.com matches people who want to sponsor geographic landmarks, people who have landmarks available for sponsorship and environmental causes that are interested in being involved with the maintenance of the landmark or habitat.
For information, photographs of the harbor and an online bidding form, visit the Web site at www.envirosponsor.com. For information about Riviera Dunes, visit www.rivieradunes.com or call toll-free 1-888-783-8637. The development is on Haben Boulevard, off U.S. 41, near the Manatee Civic Center in Palmetto.