SARASOTA, Fla. — As Lido Beach reopens today, Tuesday, May 19, stores and restaurants on St. Armands Circle hope to draw business back in.
“There’s no question in my mind it will,” Diana Corrigan said. “I think this is going to be tremendously helpful for our businesses.”
But for some businesses, it’s too late. The St. Armands Circle Association says six businesses have already closed for good due to the coronavirus pandemic and the closures that came along with it.
“It’s been extremely hard,” the Executive director of the St. Armands Circle association said.
Alicia’s Dream, Natural Discoveries, Bathing suit shop by Planet, Southern Tide, Zeno’s Candy, and Surf Shack & Terrace on Surf Shack are now all closed, permanently.
Diana Corrigan says there are currently four other stores that are in the process of closing and will likely be closed by the end of the month. Corrigan says she’s not permitted to release those names yet.
“The best way that I can describe it is, what we’ve gone through has been what I call the perfect storm because the past three years we’ve dealt with Hurricane Irma, then red tide, and last year the flesh-eating bacteria and now this year COVID-19,” Corrigan said. “Our businesses were still trying to recover from red tide.”
Corrigan says Natural Discoveries has been at St. Armands Circle for at least 30 years.
“It’s heartbreaking," she said.
Corrigan says multiple factors played into shutting these businesses down. The high rent of the property, the closures due to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ order and Lido Beach remaining closed longer than other beaches.
“When you don’t have money that’s coming in to help pay for those rents it’s a little bit difficult to keep your business afloat,” Corrigan said.
She says the association is working hard to get the message out to consumers that, “it is safe.”
“I think one of the things that sets St. Armands apart is the fact that we are an outdoor shopping and dining area and people feel safe when they are outside, especially now,” Corrigan said.
For those other businesses trying to stay afloat as they reopen and expand their capacity, Corrigan says making up for lost time and money isn’t going to happen overnight.
“A lot of our business on St. Armands Circle are very seasoned business owners and they had to readjust their business model and their business plan and they’ve had to cut back in a number of different areas and they know that this is going to take at least a year to 18 months for them to try to get back up where they should be,” Corrigan said.
To help some of these small businesses get back on their feet, the City of Sarasota and the County are offering grants.
“We’ve tried to help our businesses as much as we can, to give them as much information as we can to apply right away to get this financial assistance,” Corrigan said.
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