Looking at Pineapple Square

After a day to think about the Pineapple Square development announcement, some of the questions that come to mind:

• What value does Sarasota receive for vacating a portion of State St.?
• Does this development require the city to give public air space above the sidewalks, if so what is the value of this?
• The developer is asking for $9M in TIF dollars for 600 parking spaces (appears to be the same $15K per space we keep seeing), this is on top of getting free land from the city. What is the value of all this?
• How will the use of TIF funds here affect our ability to use these dollars to fund the Newtown Redevelopment project?
• The Isaac Group indicates that time is of the essence, that competition for the same major retailers is keen and Sarasota has to act fast to be successful. Of course "success" is defined as a unique downtown shopping area unlike anything else in the country and would put Sarasota on the map as a major retail destination. Is this everyone’s vision of success for Sarasota?
• We hope time is available for stakeholder input and community discussion and decision making.

On a related subject, today’s CoolTown website has an interesting discussion relating job creation to fast growing businesses. This is linked to data on the top 25 women business builders and where they choose to live. The communities they live in all have a high "creative class index" (think Richard Florida), low cost of doing business and lots of affordable housing. They conclude with this statement: " Keep that in mind the next time you hear city leaders claim that investing in swanky stores and luxury apartments will be good for your city's economy in the long run"

Yesterday's topic at this same site featured Bradenton's new subsidized housing development.