Dream fades away in condo's shadow

An immigrant's fledgling restaurant is dying as construction has made parking nearby difficult.

By ROBERT FARLEY

© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 24, 2001

CLEARWATER BEACH -- Life has been a struggle for A. Kadir Yaylaci, a Turkish immigrant who is having trouble making a go of things in the United States.

Yaylaci, 38, had vowed that a small restaurant a half block off the beach would be the turnaround.

"I am at a point in my life I am going to change things," he said.

His timing was terrible.

Two days after Yaylaci opened Ali Baba Grill & Pizza, a developer started building a multimillion dollar, high-rise condo complex next door. The developer bought up most of the metered parking spots on the street, closed them off and basically turned the block into a construction site.

Yaylaci, who poured all his dreams and money into the venture, is devastated.

No one is coming to the restaurant, he said.

"I sit here till 3 a.m. hoping that someone on their way home from a nightclub will walk in to buy one lousy Coke," he said. "I am dying here."

Yaylaci blames the city for allowing JMC Communities to purchase all of the parking spots on the south side of Papaya Street to accommodate its construction of a 157-unit, gulf-front condominium community called Mandalay Beach Club. The company put up a fence the length of the street and erected signs that said anyone who parked there would be towed, seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

The city allowed the company to purchase the spots to accommodate construction vehicle traffic and also because of safety concerns said Gary Johnson, public services director for the city.

But city officials expressed sympathy for Yaylaci.

"It's got to be very frustrating," Ralph Stone, the city's assistant city manager for economic development.

Construction can be devastating to small businesses, Stone said. But projects such as Mandalay Beach Club are crucial to the city's plan to revitalize the beach area so that small business such as Yaylaci's can thrive over the long haul, he said.

Yaylaci knew about the construction, which has been ongoing for a year, Stone said. Although the parking on Papaya Street has been reduced to two spots, there is plenty of other metered parking nearby, Stone said.

Yaylaci said he didn't know the construction would be so intrusive. And the purchase of all the parking spaces on the south side of Papaya Street was a complete surprise, he said.

His business won't make it, he said.

Two doors, down, Karen Christ, owner of Jita Swim and Island Wear, said the construction likely will drive her out of business, too. She gets only a handful of customers walking through the doors each day. It's August, so business is slow, anyway, she said, but the construction has nearly killed it.

Johnson said patience should pay off for the small-business owners.

"If they can stick it out, they're sitting on a gold mine when it's done," Johnson said.

Christ said she had hoped to hold out, but that no longer seems possible. Yaylaci said he might not make it to next month.

Yaylaci is so strapped he sleeps on the floor of a small utility room behind the cooking area, next to the sink where he cleans the dishes. He showers in the back alley with a hose from an outdoor sink.

He has pawned his computer and television. He pulled $15 out of his pocket to show exactly how much money he has left. It will not be possible, he said, to send for his wife and 6-year-old son, who live in Scotland.

"I owe everyone," he said. "I sold everything I have. I put all my money and my energy into this place to make it go. I am basically waiting here for my death."

Yaylaci came to the United States 11 years ago. After stays in Seattle (where he met his wife), San Francisco and Alaska, he landed in Orlando. A broken foot left him without money, and he retreated to Turkey. But he returned to Orlando and bumped into Halil Peposhi, owner of Planet Pizza in Orlando, where Yaylaci once worked. Peposhi had a business proposal. He needed a partner to run a small restaurant in Clearwater Beach.

Yaylaci borrowed heavily from his brothers and sisters back in Turkey. Even his mother kicked in $150. That's big money in Turkey, he said, where his mother lives on her late husband's pension of $45 per month.

For two months, with the help of his brother, Yaylaci painted the restaurant and got it ready for its grand opening. He would sell kebabs seasoned with red pepper paste made by his mother as well as burgers and pizza. When he obtained his city license Aug. 6, he immediately threw open the doors for business. It met with silence.

Yaylaci has given up trying to attract customers during the day while construction is ongoing, but he sees no reason for the parking spaces across the street to be off-limits all day, he said. At the least, he said, it ought to be reopened on weekends and in the evening.

"All I'm asking for is some consideration," he said.

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