"Honest to God, customers were coming in crying."
Natalie Winslow had long aspired to open a gym on Tierra Verde, where retail space is limited.
She found an ideal spot two years ago at the strip near the island’s entrance on the Pinellas Bayway, the gateway to Fort De Soto Park with thousands of residents within walking distance. Her only hesitation was talk that the Tierra Verde Marina property, also home to a high-and-dry boat storage, would soon be redeveloped.
But the owners, Winslow said, assured her no project was imminent, so she inked a 5-year lease and invested $200,000 into launching her business.
Less than two years later, the property owners have essentially emptied the plaza after announcing plans to demolish it to make room for a much larger boat storage facility.
Numerous local businesses, some of them island staples for nearly thirty years, report losing tens of thousands of dollars as they scrambled to relocate, while others have been unable to reopen at all.
Read more at the Tampa Bay Times