B'GoSH in the News
Two stories in the news about the Business Guild of Seminole Heights. This Guild has already started helping business owners. One propective business owner is getting some help with her business plan.
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http://centraltampa.tbo.com/centraltampa/MGBDEUS0UFE.html
Nov 10, 2005
Business Guild Lures Members As It Organizes
By KATHY STEELE
ksteele@tampatrib.com
SEMINOLE - HEIGHTS -- A new business association is almost ready to launch.
A name -- Business Guild of Seminole Heights, or B'GOSH -- is in place. Last week, about 40 people gathered at The Coffee Bean Cafe for a second organizational meeting. That's a boost from the first meeting that drew about 25 people.
Among those attending were area residents, business owners and city Councilwoman Rose Ferlita, who has a drugstore on Nebraska Avenue.
"I want to include as many people as possible for the initial molding of what this can become," said acting President Jay McGee, owner of a Seminole Heights marketing company.
The range of business owners, from home-based to real estate agents to restaurant owners, was a good sign, he said.
In January, a by-laws committee will present proposed rules and regulations for membership. Officers probably will be elected in February.
Ferlita reminded many of years past when Seminole Heights was in decline. The three neighborhood associations for South, Southeast and Old Seminole Heights did not think they shared goals, she said.
"We have collectively come together," Ferlita said. "This is very constructive. I'm very impressed with what I see."
A list of Seminole Heights' assets was put together, as well as a list of problems that needed solutions.
Among the positives were the neighborhood's name recognition, bungalow architecture and a strong artist's community.
Problems include traffic, a lack of parking and insufficient marketing of area businesses.
The guild is inviting artists and home-based businesses, as well as storefront business owners, to join.
The next meeting of the guild is scheduled for Jan. 12 at The Coffee Bean Cafe, 4715 N. Florida Ave.
This story can be found at: http://www.tampatrib.com/News/MGBDEUS0UFE.html
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Article in St. Pete Times
Business owners gather in new group
Putting their minds together, they discuss good points and bad points in commercial development.
By MICHAEL CANNING
Published November 11, 2005
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/11/11/Citytimes/Business_owners_gathe.shtml
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Seminole Heights merchants are really getting down to business.
A new group of neighborhood business owners has formed, the Business Guild of Seminole Heights, known as B'GoSH. It joins other groups with similar missions, the Seminole Heights Business Alliance and the Seminole Heights Business Advisory Committee.
The way B'GoSH acting president Sherry King sees it, there's room for another merchants association in Seminole Heights. B'GoSH held its second meeting Nov. 3 at the Coffee Bean Cafe on N Florida Avenue.
"When I moved to Seminole Heights, I did not detect a lot of cohesiveness," she said.
King moved her business, Sherry's Yesterdaze vintage clothing and antique shop, to Seminole Heights from South Tampa in February 2004. While meeting her new business neighbors and garnering support for a neighborhood attractions brochure, King realized the area's commercial element felt disorganized and underrepresented within city government.
After King distributed her brochure, "Antiques, Art, Shopping and Dining in Historic Seminole Heights," in summer 2004, fellow merchants asked her whether they should form a new neighborhood business alliance.
She agreed in December, though the group didn't hold its first meeting until last month.
B'GoSH is taking shape at a key moment in the neighborhood's history. Regentrification of the historic houses started in the late 1980s and continues unabated. Though Seminole Heights' commercial profile has lagged far behind, new shops, restaurants and art galleries have sprouted among the predominant car lots, pawnshops and motels.
Now that a Starbucks coffee shop is scheduled to open along Hillsborough Avenue tentatively in April, residents and merchants are buzzing about a new day for the neighborhood's commercial development.
But there's still work to be done. During last week's meeting, the 35 people in attendance discussed Seminole Heights' good points and bad points, commercially speaking. A unique neighborhood identity, historic architecture and a strong grapevine among business owners were mentioned as positives.
The negatives: unsightly businesses, lack of bank branches, and poor parking and pedestrian access. Randy Baron, president of the Old Seminole Heights Neighborhood Association, said the area has the perception as the "car lot capital of the city."
The points will help determine B'GoSH committees, to be formed at the next meeting scheduled for Jan. 12 at a location to be determined. The group also will create bylaws and elect officers.
City Council member Rose Ferlita, a longtime Seminole Heights merchant, offered words of encouragement to the new group.
"I've seen where we were and where we are now," she said. "The buzz downtown is Seminole Heights is tough. Don't mess with them. Nobody else comes down to (City Council) as strong as you do."
For more information about the group, call Sherry King at 231-2020.
2 comments:
Great news! It would be nice to see this group focused on working with the city's planning department to get to a workable plan, with empahsis on changing the land use guidelines and INCENTIVES for redevlopment in the urban core- rather than giveaways to the developers now cranking through build out (which is slated to happen within the next 3 years). After county is built out, they have already approved MANY vertical developments.
We need to get serious about the future of our commercial corridors. See Tampa Heights- and what the neighbors AND the business investors have done down there.
I hope this group does not go the way of previous efforts, or devolve into just another gossipy social group, with personality issues...and focus well meaning but misguided.
My personal impression of the group is that they (we) are highly focused professionals that are interested in a balanced set of businesses in the area. To me, "balanced" means some industrial, some resident-servicing, some mixed-use, some mom-and-pop, and some corporate. Right now we have Industrial. So anything is an improvement.
One thing to note about Nebraska is its near lack of multi-unit business/office space. The only two spaces I'm aware of are on Powhatan and Osborne. The former is a brick strip mall and the latter are a string of small, connected commercial buildings (in bad need of rennovation). This is a significant problem where businesses on a tight budget are concerned. (Read "mom and pop" into that.) The Starbucks cost close to $1 million to buy and build on that small lot. Who's Mom and Pop can afford that?!
So while I am emotionally attached to the idea of an eclectic, non-corporate, fun shopping cooridor with street cafe's and oft-used services, logically, I don't really expect to see anything like that for a very long time. And if it does happen, it'll be because corporate developers came in and spent the big cash to build a multi-unit retail/office/residence building and lease out the space.
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