Farmers Market makes plea to save Pineapple Park

From live music to bungee jumping to a petting zoo, the area around Pineapple Park was buzzing with activity during the Sarasota Farmers Market Saturday.

During the event, market Manager Phil Pagano frequently stood in front of the park’s distinctive fountain and under a tent bearing a simple, direct plea to that day’s patrons: Save Pineapple Park!

The event was organized as the city negotiates with real estate firm Hembree and Associates, the group contracted to purchase the “pad parcel” next to the State Street parking garage at the corner of Lemon Avenue. According to Hembree and Associates President Joe Hembree, that land is too small to construct his planned mixed-use residential, commercial and office project.

As a result, Hembree wants to acquire a parcel located in front of the Northern Trust parking garage — a grassy stretch adjacent to Pineapple Park used weekly by the farmers market.

City administration is still in the process of agreeing on a deal with Hembree and Associates for commission approval, according to City Attorney Robert Fournier. In the meantime, Pagano hopes to establish resident support for the preservation of the current state of Pineapple Park. Saturday’s event was a good start — he gathered 540 signatures backing the cause.

“I had an image of what they were talking about building, mapped out with the space they wanted to use,” Pagano said. “A lot of people were sort of in shock that some of the green space was going to be used.”

Tim Norwood, a market patron rocking a red hard hat with "GOP" in big, bold letters, was one of the hundreds to sign the letter of support. He acknowledged he might seem like an unlikely advocate against selling land to private builders, but with the growth ongoing downtown, he said it’s important to preserve the public realm in certain circumstances.

He suggested the market develop a competing vision for an enhanced Pineapple Park — with an improved fountain — to sway more supporters.

“I agree a lot with development and creating new jobs and making new spaces, but this particular one is the wrong place,” Norwood said. “We need this open node of green space to work with all the buildings that are here.”

Pagano pointed to the construction of the State Street garage and the potential second phase of Pineapple Square as projects that could reduce the footprint of the farmers market. As a result, he felt it was important to voice concern about the shrinking space available for the popular Saturday event.

“I think it's good to be prepared,” Pagano said. “Losing space, it gets tough logistically.”

Now, Pagano is working alongside the Sarasota Farmers Market board of directors — as well as the green space advocacy group Save Our Sarasota and merchants in Burns Square — to further explore a plausible route to preserving Pineapple Park in its existing configuration.

Although the land in question is technically designated as a right of way by the city, which opened the door to potentially sell the space to a private interest, Pagano believes the development of that parcel would forever change the face of Pineapple Park.

“It looks like a park to me,” Pagano said. “It looks like a park to everybody else.”