Bar's Keeper

Bar's Keeper

Carolyn Heath-Hausmann took her inheritance o a small historic tavern o and put together a team to develop an important and complex mixed-use project in Sarasota.

By Sean Roth

Real Estate Editor

The payoff sounds small, just a few shovels full of dirt, but with that Carolyn Heath-Hausmann took a significant step in her almost decade long crusade to transform The Broadway Bar in downtown Sarasota into so much more. The result o at this point still pen on paper although construction is commencing o is the planned Broadway Promenade, a mixed-use development of 187 condominiums, several thousand square feet of retail space centered around a new Publix Super Market and a larger Broadway Bar restaurant building.

The project is now being developed by the joint partnership of RMC Property Group Inc. and RAM Real Estate, but the development is still Hausmannis baby.

It was Hausmann who saw her Broadway Bar on Tamiami Trail, an inheritance from her uncle Tony Armento, as key to bringing a downtown grocery store back to Sarasota to revitalize the area, and it was Hausman who acquired the additional 5 acres to make it a reality.

Hausmann, who worked as a graphic designer in the Washington, D.C., metro area for most of her life, took a chance on her uncleis old neighborhood o the trustee of her inheritance in 1990 wanted to sell and walk away because of the surrounding decrepit neighborhood. She didnit.

Along with ownership of the new bar building, a financial interest in the larger project and a contract on a condominium on the projectis park side, Hausmann still has a huge stake in the developmentis future.

GCBR caught up with Hausmann at her wellness-focused office building on Robinhood Drive called the Lotus Garden.

How did you get the idea to develop the Broadway Bar?

Since college I was sensitive to the fact that design effect was needed. I graduated from Purdue University and worked on a project in Columbus, Ind., to draw people to the Cummins Engine Co. facility (in 1969).

I worked with other design students assisting J. Irwin Miller, who owned Cummins Engine. It was his vision to transform Columbus, Ind., into a cultural and academic environment so he could attract engineers of the highest quality O I saw Columbus become a success and stay a success.

I have noticed recently in Sarasota some of the planners have started studying the model of Columbus, Ind., after all these years. So I had a good basis for how good design affected a community.

In between there, I moved around a lot; I lived in Los Angeles, Chicago, Cincinnati and northern Virginia. In northern Virginia, I became involved in historic preservation. I was president and development director of the Friends of the Manassas City Museum. We were involved in a business expansion program.

When I inherited the property from my uncle (in 1990), I started to look at it as far as what the highest and best use of the property would be, and how we could bring something to enrich the northern part of Sarasota.

I think I was trained to look at real estate the same way you look at a piece of paper. What can you design here to be functional and a welcome addition?

I was fortunate enough to have conversations with Gateway 2000. That really gave me the confidence that what I was thinking was moving in the right direction. They had already planted the seeds for development of the North Trail to be the gateway to Sarasota. I was just trying to find a way to fit into that. O It was a learning experience.

What were you doing at the Broadway Bar?

I oversaw the operation.

When Publix closed its store in the North Trail, how did that influence your decision?

I was president of the North Trail Association when they pulled out. I think the building they were in just wasnit adequate for their needs any more, and they werenit able to find another piece of property to support their needs at the time. And during those meetings was when I got the idea that possibly I had the piece of property that they would be looking for o if I could assemble it.

How did you find the funding necessary to hire a consultant and acquire the additional property?

I was fortunate enough to have some other investments besides the Broadway Bar when I came here. I was also fortunate enough to have a cousin, Don Carlson, who I approached to get his guidance and to see if he wanted to be an investor in assembling (the land). Fortunately, I received both the good guidance and the financial support from him. And he has now left the project and retired to Hilton Head, S.C. But he is still available to bounce things off.

While he was involved we interviewed many developers, and I think we were fortunate enough to choose one that shared our vision. Rather than choosing one that wanted to just put up a cookie cutter Publix O and move on.

We were able to convince Mitchell Rice (CEO of RMC Property Group) that the Broadway Bar was worth saving, and he has been very gracious working with us. ... Helping I guess make my vision a reality.

I couldnit have done it without Mitchell.

Your consultant Joel Freedman, of the Freedman Consulting Group, says the Broadway Bar is the most complex project he has ever worked on. What made it so difficult?

Sometimes when you put a project together it is not just two-dimensional. And when you apply that to this property, it has to do with the fact that it is close to the water. Weire in a velocity zone according to FEMA guidelines, which imposes restrictions on the way we can develop on certain sections of the property.

There are a lot of engineering and environmental concerns that I think the developer used a lot of sensitivity to. The materials that they are choosing to use on the project are as environmentally friendly as they can find. They are sensitive to the environment. They are sensitive to the needs of the city. They are sensitive to the needs of the little Broadway Bar.

With numerous component problems and conflicting interests how did you keep people from abandoning the project?

We would look at it from another dimension. We would go on the boat, over by the 10th street boat ramp and look back at the property. Letis keep focused. Yeah, itis worth it.

We were fortunate to have the best engineers in South Florida, the best developers (RMC and RAM), Joel Freedman. And with all of these good minds getting together we managed to find solutions to the problems from the quality of the parking to retail to the affordability of the condominiums. These minds came up with a really good solution to the best use of the property

Sometimes, good cooking takes time.

The basic components of the project o office, retail condominium and grocery o have remained fairly constant over the developmentis eight-year planning process. Yet the mixed-use principals had to be somewhat progressive for Sarasota in the early i90s. Why develop a mixed-use project instead of a less design-intensive condominium tower?

We thought about having kind of a village concept, where all of the different components complemented each other. If you lived there you really didnit have to go off the block for your basic needs. I had experienced that in urban environments I had lived in before coming to Sarasota. It is not a new concept that Andres Duany had. It is just being utilized more in Florida to revitalize the urban areas.

Was acquiring the additional property difficult?

If (the project with Publix) were ever going to happen we needed to knock on doors. A lot of the individual landowners were out of state. A lot of property was rental property. But most of those owners were ready to have someone approach them, and I think they enjoyed the fact that the owner of the Broadway was going to look out for it.

What is the biggest challenge of developing the Broadway Promenade, and what did it teach you?

I look at the Broadway the way I looked at a historical museum. I know you can preserve certain aspects and protect the reputation.

The biggest challenge is opening the new home of the Broadway and retaining the neighborhood feel of an independent restaurant. I think itis going to be very difficult to compete as an independent restaurant in a market of franchises and bigger chain restaurants.

(But) I think that density that is coming to the area will make the Broadway convenient for people. We are hoping to expand service to add delivery to the surrounding high-rises and neighborhoods. You have to design with the new demographics in mind.

Do you expect to get a lot of new employees from the surrounding area to receive the tax benefits of being in an Enterprise Zone?

Absolutely. That is essential to giving it a neighborhood feel.

What will the region surrounding the Broadway Bar look like 10 years out?

My sense is there will be more residential opportunity, but I also feel there will be more pressure from the growth of the schools: Ringling School of Art and Design, New College and USF. We are going to need more commercial services on the North Trail too. More upscale retail.

It is already happening in the Rosemary District. It is kind of a link between the north side of Sarasota and downtown. It seems to have a creativity all its own. There are just a lot of new businesses starting in Rosemary.

What should someone do if they think they have a real estate gem?

If they have a gem then people are already approaching them and they need to go slowly and not make a fast decision. They need to get involved with the city and become educated in what realities they may have. They need to be realistic.

So what do you plan to do after you finish the promenade? Do you go back to managing the Broadway Bar or are you planning to do more development?

I donit know if I have huge aspirations for more development. I want to see the broadway be preserved and open its new doors. And I want to be around to make sure it maintains its original quality of being welcoming to the community around it. Hopefully, sometime soon I will be able to pursue my artistic side again.

I will probably stay on at the Broadway Bar for a few more years until I feel itis time to let someone smarter have a turn. But I am open to younger innovative management. Do you know somebody?