- April 25, 2024
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Mark Smith isn’t worried about diluting the value of the name Siesta Key anytime soon.
From Westfield Southgate Mall to a forthcoming Benderson Development mixed-use project on Stickney Point Road, mainland properties are appropriating the island identity. This month, the owners of the Paradise Plaza shopping center at U.S. 41 and Bay Road announced plans to rebrand as the “Shops at Siesta Row.”
Smith, chairman of the Siesta Key Chamber of Commerce, welcomes the spread of the Siesta Key name across the water. He said around 40% of the chamber’s members are off the island, and says residents and businesses on Siesta frequently interact with others on the mainland.
“I’d like to look at it almost as a state of mind — a Siesta Key state of mind, similar to Margaritaville, I guess,” Smith said. “When I think of Siesta Key, it always makes me smile. I’m guessing folks will see that in their name and they’ll smile, too.”
For Drew Gorman, senior vice president of Paradise Plaza ownership group ECHO Realty, the new name provides an opportunity for a fresh start. ECHO Realty bought the plaza for $27 million in 2014 and is spending $600,000 on renovations to go along with the name change. Current tenants at the plaza include Publix, Petco and CVS.
The new name creates distance from previous ownership group Paradise Ventures. Beyond that, Gorman hopes the name will create synergy with the mall across the street, which is also undergoing renovations as it rebrands as Westgate Siesta Key.
Aligning the names with the nearby bridge to Siesta Key can help establish the shopping centers in the minds of consumers, Gorman said.
“It’s creating that ability to identify a place — in this case, we can go to the Shops at Siesta or Westfield Siesta Key,” he said. “There’s this whole new identity going on as both centers also go through a redevelopment and renovation.”
Longtime tenants at Paradise Plaza have gone through the name change experience before. A pair of neighboring storefronts illustrates the challenge of attempting to create a distinct identity for the shopping center.
Crossroads Optical still bears the original name of Paradise Plaza, the Crossroads Shopping Center. Owner David Divincenzo is excited by the renovations currently underway, but he doesn’t know if the new name is a particularly big deal.
“I don’t think it has anything to do with it, really,” Divincenzo said. “It’s a great location, and they’re fixing it up. It’s all positive for me.”
A couple of doors down, South Gate Shoe Repair gets its name from the mall across the street, a name for the broader neighborhood that doesn’t register for everyone. The proprietor of that business, Michael Synn, has been in the area for more than 35 years.
He’s skeptical about the Siesta-inspired name — the center has entry points on Bay Road and Bee Ridge Road, not Siesta Drive. But the Paradise Plaza name doesn’t click with customers, either.
“When the customer asks where we are, we say Bee Ridge and 41 or in front of the Sunset Chevy dealer,” Synn said.
Employees at Chicken Kitchen, which just moved into the plaza, thought the new name was a good idea because of the growing popularity of Siesta Key. Combined with the renovations, employee Paul Beardsley believes the rebranding effort would effectively create an identity for people unfamiliar with the shopping center.
“It’ll put a new face to it,” he said.
As ECHO Realty works to complete its renovations by March 2017, Gorman acknowledges that the work to improve the storefronts is going to be a bigger deal for customers than a simple name change. But he doesn’t minimize the value he believes the Siesta name will bring to the shopping center.
“People, first and foremost, like to come to certain stores that provide them what they need,” Gorman said. “But secondarily, they like to come to an environment that is comfortable and pleasing. If you can create another recognition point through the branding effort, I think it just strengthens the underpinnings.”
And for Smith, the spread of the Siesta name just strengthens the growing profile of the island as a destination.
“We’re all very proud of Siesta Key and the No. 1 beach and the No. 1 tourist attraction in Sarasota County,” he said.
