Conversation with LeeAnne Swor

In addition to her role as owner of L. Boutique and L. Spa on Pineapple Avenue, LeeAnne Swor is president of the Burns Court Neighborhood Association. The merchant group has brought together businesses in the neighborhood in a crucial way, Swor says, creating a sense of community and allowing Burns Court to promote itself more effectively.

We talked to Swor about the impact of nearby construction, striking a balance between the old and the new and the need to stand out in a competitive market.

With construction going on all around you in the downtown core, how is Burns Court affected?

I would say, from what I’ve heard, everyone’s really excited about the new developments that are going up. It’s going on all around us — on Ringling, Palm, the end of Pineapple and right here across the street (on Pineapple). I’m super excited about it. There are always some construction delays or construction headaches, but nothing we’ve not been able to deal with, for sure.

A lot of the projects close to you are residential. How does that impact the merchants?

I think it’ll be great for our business. All of the new residents coming downtown will be great for us. We have always been off the beaten path of downtown, and if we could have more traffic, that would be great.

We have always been off the beaten path of downtown, and if we could have more traffic, that would be great.

Going forward, how might continued growth in the city affect the neighborhood?

I hope we can kind of maintain that balance between the historic Burns Court — keep some of the history and nostalgia and the creativity and the mom and pop stores — and that blends with the new. That’s always the perfect mix, when you get old mixed with new. As an independent retailer, big box stores have taken over in malls and things like that. It’s taken over so much that I think (the historic dynamic) is what keeps it unique, it keeps it Sarasota. It keeps it from just being the same old same everywhere. There are chain stores in every mall — if that’s what you want, you can go there. I think what makes Burns Court so unique is all the independent stores, the art galleries, the restaurants, the non-chain businesses.

How did the mall opening affect this area?

For me personally, for my stores, it’s been a great thing. A lot of people come to Sarasota for that smaller-town feel, but they still want the service, they still want the selection. They’re more boutique shoppers as opposed to mall shoppers. With a lot of the mall stores moving out to University, it’s been great for us, because we’re still close. We’re close to Siesta Key and we’re closer to Longboat; it’s more convenient for our clientele. And I think we’ve gained a lot of new clients that just don’t want to make that drive.

That’s always the perfect mix, when you get old mixed with new.

How do businesses in the neighborhood work together?

In the neighborhood, we created the Burns Court map. Collectively, it’s 33 different businesses just in our neighborhood. They’re all privately owned, all small businesses. We’ve come together and created our own shopping destination. We formed the Burns Court Neighborhood Association, and every year, it’s grown. We’re now at about 50 members. We’re trying really hard — we advertise together. We try to do group advertising, which helps us a lot. The neighborhood map has been super successful. We’ve had a lot of support from the hotels and other businesses that we frequent outside of our neighborhood; they’ve helped by passing out our maps. I think it’s been a win-win for everybody.

In competing with other shopping districts, how do you make Burns Court stand out?

The logo on the front (of the map) — we have it say shop, dine, arts, live. We want to promote the new condos and the new living in our district, but we also want to keep the historic and smaller businesses. Keeping that balance is important to everybody in the neighborhood, I think.

We want to promote the new condos and the new living in our district, but we also want to keep the historic and smaller businesses.

We’re having monthly events that different merchants on the street are sponsoring each month — our second Friday, we call it Sip, Shop and Stroll. We’re having our “Meet Your Neighbors” meet and greet on Wednesday, Sept. 23. We hope all of our neighbors will come out  — businesses, residents, property owners — just to meet each other. I think that’s been the biggest plus about forming the BCNA. We, as a neighborhood, just starting meeting one another and communicating, and it’s been great. We refer each other business all the time. It’s all volunteer — aside from running our own business, we try to make time at least once a month to get together and talk to one another, which has been hugely important. That one hour a month is really beneficial, I think.