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Treasure Island's okay for a restaurant and deck on public property prompts questions of favoritism.
By AMY WIMMER
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 6, 2001
TREASURE ISLAND -- The new owners of the Bilmar Beach Resort plan to bring to Treasure Island a Sloppy Joe's, the Key West-born chain of restaurants named after Ernest Hemingway's favorite Keys hangout.
The bar and restaurant will feature a 2,500-square-foot deck that requires state approval because of its proximity to the water. The city of Treasure Island has already signed off on the plan, despite objections from some residents who accused commissioners of bowing to business interests.
"What a sweet, sweet, sweetheart deal you're giving the Bilmar," said Treasure Island resident and former City Commission candidate John Hadsall.
Commissioners and city staff see the issue differently. They will allow the Bilmar to use about 40,000 square feet between the hotel and the concrete sidewalk that runs along much of the beach in Treasure Island.
"They're going to beautify the entire area behind their building, from the north end to the south end," Mayor Leon Atkinson said. "They're going to upgrade it."
Commissioners unanimously approved the license for the Bilmar to build a deck on public property. Commissioner Stephanie Lavino voted in favor of the license, but said she would like the city to consider charging for such licenses in the future.
City officials hope other businesses along Gulf Boulevard will be inspired to improve the gulf side of their properties once they see the Bilmar improvements. At least two other businesses expressed interest in landscaping between their buildings and the beach sidewalk, City Manager Chuck Coward wrote in a report to the commission.
"We'd really like everybody to landscape that whole area so the whole place looks nice," Coward said.
Critics warned the city against allowing the Bilmar to use public right-of-way without charging the hotel for it, but City Attorney Jim Denhardt urged commissioners not to charge for use of the property because a traditional lease would give the Bilmar some property rights.
Because it is not charging the Bilmar a fee, the city can dictate what types of landscaping the hotel adds and can also cancel the license at any time, even without a reason.
Hadsall and another critic, resident Heidi Horak, suggested that Treasure Island was trying to cater to businesses -- particularly a popular one such as Sloppy Joe's -- by allowing the Bilmar to build its deck for the restaurant.
Of the 25 properties along the beach sidewalk, 13 have some type of landscaping or recreational facilities between the properties and the sidewalk, and those are grandfathered in from the 1970s, before the state's Coastal Construction Control Line prevented activity west of a state jurisdictional line.
The state Department of Environmental Protection is trying to adjust that line landward, but it now generally runs on the beach side of the hotels and other developments along Gulf Boulevard.
Meanwhile, the new owners of the Bilmar, Cleveland-based CMI Consolidated Management, is excited about the introduction of a Sloppy Joe's to Tampa Bay. The bar has three locations: in Key West, Fort Lauderdale and Tallahassee.
"I think it's an ideal site for the West Coast because right now the area is lacking an area where you can go and watch the sunset," said Richard Ferrell, president of Forbes Hamilton Management Co., which manages the Bilmar for CMI.
The first Sloppy Joe's officially opened Dec. 5, 1933, the day Prohibition was repealed. The original owner, Joe Russell, was operating illegal speakeasies before that day, and Nobel Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway is rumored to have purchased illegal bottles of Scotch there. Today, the bar hosts Ernest Hemingway look-alike contests.
Ferrell said the Bilmar owners are looking forward to bringing something new to Treasure Island and to the beach sidewalk.
"We believe that it is important for the properties along that walkway to make it more inviting to the people who are utilizing the walkway, not only our guests but to the other people who are walking along there," Ferrell said. "That land has just been left there unattended, and it really does need some softening through landscaping."