City reaches agreement on new Thunder by the Bay site

The organizers of Thunder by the Bay will have the opportunity to keep the motorcycle festival on Main Street in downtown Sarasota, for city staff has given initial approval to a new layout for the event.

Although the event would remain on Main Street, the changes would shift the event largely east of the roundabout at Five Points. A significant portion of the three-day festival would be located east of Orange Avenue, a response to complaints from businesses on lower Main Street and Palm Avenue.

Since January, the city has been negotiating with Lucy Nicandri, executive director of Suncoast Charities for Children, regarding the future of the event in the downtown core. In addition to complaints from residents and businesses, city officials began to question whether the festival had outgrown its traditional footprint and needed to move.

Currently, Thunder by the Bay is one of two events with a special exception from a temporary moratorium on street closures west of Orange Avenue on Main Street. In March, the City Commission declined to make any significant changes to its special events regulations, and staff agreed to continue negotiations with Thunder by the Bay organizers.

At Monday’s City Commission meeting, Deputy City Manager Marlon Brown reported that staff was comfortable with the upper Main Street configuration, one of three alternate site plans proposed by Thunder by the Bay representatives.

“Looking at this from a staff point of view, it seems to have addressed all of the concerns expressed,” Brown said.

That doesn’t mean the event is guaranteed to take place on Main Street in 2017. Thunder by the Bay organizers must obtain approval from at least 67% of the businesses affected by the street closures before the city permits the event.

Nicandri is optimistic that the new location, which has a slightly smaller footprint than this year’s event, will be a good match for Thunder by the Bay. Suncoast Charities is currently preparing for the Powerboat Grand Prix Festival, which begins June 25. After that event concludes July 4, Nicandri said she would begin meeting with businesses impacted by the street closures to discuss the motorcycle festival.

“It should lend itself well,” Nicandri said. “We just have to make sure we plan it out properly with our team of volunteers.”

Already, some storeowners along east Main Street are beginning to form opinions on how Thunder by the Bay will affect them. Robert Ladieu is the owner of Hamilton-Ladieu salon, and he believes he’ll have to close his business for the weekend if the festival closes the 1600 block of Main Street.

“It disrupts my business,” Ladieu said. “My clients can’t come in, they can’t park.”

“I’m thinking, there were so many complaints on the other end, so why is it OK to impact us?” — Kate Alton

Kate Alton, the owner of the clothing store Samba, shares some of Ladieu’s skepticism. Still, she’s waiting to get more details before making a judgment. If the event moves forward, she’s optimistic that the crowd — an estimated 90,000 visitors attended this year’s Thunder by the Bay — will be a boon for business.

“I’m thinking, there were so many complaints on the other end, so why is it OK to impact us?” Alton said. “Still, anything that brings a lot of people has to be good.”

Rob Commissar, the studio manager at Orange Theory Fitness, was excited by the prospect of Thunder by the Bay moving east of Orange Avenue. The central part of Main Street typically generates less pedestrian activity than the ends near U.S. 41 and U.S. 301, so Commissar thought the event could introduce visitors to a segment of downtown with which they might not otherwise be familiar.

“I think it helps promote local businesses here,” Commissar said. “It does open up Main Street more to make it a little more commercial, which I think will be good for the area.”

In addition to businesses, the commission asked Nicandri to go over the plans with representatives from First Church and the Rivo at Ringling condominium building. Nicandri said those meetings are already scheduled for early May.

Next year’s Thunder by the Bay, the 19th annual iteration of the festival, is scheduled to take place Jan. 5 through Jan. 8. Even with a new site in mind, there are still crucial questions surrounding the event’s future. Will businesses sign off on the street closures? If not, will Suncoast Charities be allowed to stay downtown by using Payne Park as an alternate location?

The answers will be revealed in the coming months. For now, Nicandri is just happy to have the opportunity to pursue a permit on Main Street.

“I was very, very pleased that we at least got a go-ahead to move forward with an option,” Nicandri said.