Keeping the St. Petersburg Pier afloat
March 23, 2009 at 8:37 am by Ben Luongo
By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor
Ben Luongo is a USF political science graduate student. He will be graduating this spring.
Talk of the St. Pete Pier has dominated a lot of local discussion. Last week the City Council approved $40,000 in rent reductions to help out business owners. There is still talk in town, though, as to how much more the city should do to keep the pier afloat.
The Pier provides St. Pete with shopping, dining and tourism, and its upside down pyramid shape makes the Pier a landmark in the city. However, the Pier has a history that predates the retro-70s architecture that we have all come to know and love.
The Pier was originally built in 1889 and has gone through several renovations since. It was badly damaged by a hurricane in 1921 but reopened as the Million Dollar Pier in 1926. Over the years it started to deteriorate and was demolished again. It wasn’t until 1973 that the city erected the pier that we have now. You can read more about the history here.
I always enjoy going to the Pier. My girlfriend and I always want to visit it more often and, unsure of its future, obviously before the city lowered the rent, we decided to go there again this weekend. After the city council approved the rent reduction, I decided to spend some of my time there talking to the shopkeepers to see how they felt about the city stepping in and helping out.
“I love it” said Brian Evenson, who owns the store Lost In Time. Lost In Time is a store that sells very unique and interesting artifacts, fossils, fragments of meteors and so on. Brian is an outgoing guy who comes right up to you with his hand reached out holding a tooth of a Megalodon and says “You ever seen a tooth this big? It’s a good thing this thing is extinct.” He also said that it’s a good thing that the city lowered the rent. He was afraid that some stores would have to leave because they couldn’t afford to stay.
I also talked with Bob Goodman, one of the proprietors of Just Hats. Just Hats is the hat store on your left when you first walk in. Bob said that he spoke up and worked on getting the rent for tenants lowered. He said plainly that vendors “won’t stay if they can’t pay for rent”.
Many at the Pier were happy about the city’s decision. One of the reasons was because that many of the vendors were unique. Rose, who was working at Lost In Time, said that “these stores don’t sell stuff that you can get anywhere else”. I had conversation with another shopkeeper at the Pier who said that she loved how unique each store is and that they all have their own “personality.”
I personally am happy that the city approved the rent reduction. I know some argue that they city is already spending too much on maintaining the Pier’s foundation, which is eroded from salt water. However, I feel as though the city made an important decision on creating a task force that would study how to make the Pier more profitable.
The Pier has a long and rich history and has provided St. Pete with a source of revenue for a long time. Everything is suffering from the economy that we’re in now, and that includes the Pier. However, our economy is not going to be in a state of recession forever. Just like everything else in the U.S., the Pier will persevere through the hard times and prove to be a worthy and important investment.
If you get the chance, you should visit and help out with its business. It’s having its Florida international jazz and blues band performance on March 28 and its local, classic rock Sound Wave on March 29. For more info on events go here
