0:25

[inaudible]

0:26

Welcome to today's podcast, movers and

0:28

shapers. I am your host, Bruce Barone

0:31

Jr . The executive director of fifth avenue, south

0:33

business improvement district. Today,

0:36

we are speaking with retail legend.

0:39

Bob Gibbs Gibbs planning

0:41

group is a small, but highly regarded

0:43

urban consulting firm considered

0:45

one of the leading authorities on research

0:47

and planning of historic commercial districts

0:50

and neighborhoods, new urban town centers

0:52

and resorts.

0:54

Just in general, I've noticed that

0:57

downtown shopping areas are definitely making

0:59

a comeback because it's a privilege

1:01

now to walk into a place and

1:03

try something on it's a luxury

1:06

you don't even realize until it's

1:08

Gone. And

1:10

I think that's why our historic

1:12

main street on fifth avenue is so

1:14

special and unique. We have found that

1:17

many national retailers are

1:19

interested in the historic downtown

1:21

districts at Naples being one of them. And

1:24

we're looking to curate

1:26

our street in a very cohesive

1:28

way so that the retail, the

1:31

restaurants, the shopping experience

1:34

are at the highest level. And I'm excited

1:36

to talk to Bob Gibbs about

1:38

his approach, his really

1:40

storied career, starting out

1:43

in retail and working in this

1:45

industry for the last 30 years and being

1:48

one of the pioneers in new urban ism

1:50

. I think that we have a lot to learn

1:52

from Bob and he's seen fifth

1:54

avenue take shape over

1:57

a 30 year span.

2:03

[inaudible]

2:03

Well, thank you for joining us today. We have Bob

2:06

Gibbs in studio and we're

2:08

very excited to have and welcome Bob.

2:11

Thank you afternoon. Good afternoon to

2:13

you. We've been looking forward to his visit

2:15

here as he's on vacation and

2:17

doing some work in Naples, and

2:20

we had the opportunity for him to be in

2:22

our office here at 6

2:24

49 on fifth avenue. And we're going to take advantage

2:26

of Bob Gibbs when he's in town. So welcome.

2:28

And what is your thoughts of Naples and fifth

2:31

avenue as you've been here so far?

2:33

It's very lively and it's just

2:35

a very exciting place to be. And

2:37

it's nice to see the diversity in ages.

2:40

There's very young families getting

2:42

an ice cream, Collin and enjoying a walkability

2:44

area to millennials

2:46

and seniors.

2:48

Joking with Samantha that I've been studying

2:51

, uh, your work since my master's

2:53

thesis in 2005. And

2:55

, uh, you know, he was a legend at the time

2:57

and now he's sitting in of us and , um , we're able to

3:00

go for full circle and interview you

3:02

here. So it's exciting

3:04

in its own, right?

3:06

You've been a legend ever since. And

3:09

it's been an ongoing process of your name

3:11

being in many conversations. Thank

3:13

You. You're very kind to that honor to be here. Well,

3:15

We're glad we're glad to have you. And I

3:18

really want to get to the crux of everything

3:20

and get a feel of Bob.

3:22

What do you think about fifth avenue

3:24

and how does it compare to

3:27

other business districts around

3:29

the country?

3:30

The avenue has a very unique combination

3:33

of climate resort, urban

3:35

ism, and it mix great neighborhoods.

3:37

That's very, very rare in America.

3:40

Why do you think that it's so rare? That's a good

3:42

question. I think these sorts of communities

3:45

really weren't developed since world

3:47

war II and many of them were

3:49

destroyed by bad planting or traffic

3:52

design or something like that nature.

3:54

So there's only a handful of communities like this,

3:56

that Hamptons we've been working in the Hamptons extensively,

3:59

Carmel by the sea. There's probably less

4:01

than five places that have the combination

4:03

of urbanism , walkability,

4:05

great diversity of incomes and

4:07

ages, and just a great place to

4:09

hang out.

4:10

You're known as a pioneer

4:12

of new urbanism and that school

4:15

of thought. Can you explain a little bit

4:17

about what that is and tell us a little bit

4:19

also about Gibbs planning group and

4:21

how that fits into your , your protocols?

4:23

Yeah. I was very lucky. I met Andreas

4:26

the whiny . I was his driver when he came

4:28

to Detroit and I

4:30

had been studying him. I was working for a major shopping

4:32

center developer at the time, the Todman company,

4:35

and we'd studied him. And I pointed

4:37

out to him, some of the shortcomings and his theories

4:39

for commercial development. And he said, well,

4:41

you're right. We planned these beautiful places, but

4:43

they never get built. So I was so

4:45

assertive as to tell them why they weren't

4:48

getting built. And he insisted I take them to a

4:50

Topman mall and I showed them the 5,050

4:53

to a hundred retail rules. I know . So

4:55

I was very, very lucky because he

4:57

was just starting the Congress for new urbanism

5:00

and he selected 20 people

5:02

to be the founders. And I was one of the 20, my

5:04

responsibility was the teacher urbanist

5:06

, how to develop successful and

5:08

competitive town centers and retail centers.

5:11

And the goal of the new organism is to create

5:13

walkable places that are

5:15

sustainable, and that offer a

5:17

quality of life as you can't get into suburbs

5:20

as an alternative to the suburbs, not

5:22

to replace the suburbs. And our goal

5:25

was to make the

5:27

newer pianism popular to make it

5:29

quite spread by making it more

5:31

profitable.

5:32

Tell us about your experiencing developing

5:34

the retail plan in the 1990s

5:37

with Andreas Duany . And DPZ

5:39

,

5:40

I've been very fortunate to work with Delani

5:42

for a long time. Andreas , the whiny entity

5:45

PPC team, and our third project we

5:47

worked on was Naples. And

5:50

he has told me and others that he considers

5:52

Naples to be probably his greatest,

5:54

most successful plan. We

5:57

really we're blazing new territory

5:59

because I know how to do shopping malls . So that the

6:01

group I worked with had the highest

6:03

sales and were their most profile, profitable

6:05

shopping center developer country in the world. So

6:09

my goal was to apply those principles

6:11

to walkable urban places, which

6:13

meant they had to be calibrated and changed a

6:15

little bit. We sort of learned on the fly.

6:17

We worked in Providence and we worked in west

6:19

Palm beach and then our third project was Naples

6:22

Smith avenue . Was this

6:23

One of the larger projects of those three?

6:26

Uh,

6:26

Probably it was one of the more

6:28

complicated ones at the time.

6:30

Naples was a sleepy village, all

6:32

one story buildings, there was a

6:35

grocery or on the street, there were two or three

6:37

restaurants and there

6:40

was a store that sold Brooks brothers, a

6:42

lot of seashells lamp repair

6:44

shops. It was a very nice

6:46

little sleepy village. So

6:49

we crunched the numbers and looked at

6:51

the demographics and the visitors and concluded

6:53

that there was an opportunity for a lot of growth

6:55

here at the time, there were

6:57

three restaurants and they were

6:59

small and we kept finding

7:01

a demand for a lot of restaurants on

7:04

fifth avenue. So much demand that

7:06

the city into wine, he pushed back and said,

7:08

you can't support that many restaurants

7:10

and Naples and the city at the time. And the

7:12

stakeholders said I was completely

7:14

wrong because everybody ate at the country club

7:17

or the yacht club. So we had to do our study over

7:19

three times and we kept coming up with bigger

7:21

numbers every time we did it . And so

7:23

what the wineries plan did was he

7:26

accommodated growth in a very sustainable

7:29

walkable way. The buildings were limited to

7:31

three stories and by enables

7:33

growing, it really stopped suburban

7:35

shopping centers from being built outside

7:38

of the town for awhile and had

7:40

the Duany plan not been built that

7:42

demand would have been absorbed with another

7:44

mega regional shopping mall or somewhere

7:47

else that demand always gets filled by someplace.

7:50

So his plan steered a lot of that

7:52

growth, especially the fine shops

7:54

and restaurants and galleries to

7:57

fifth avenue, but also the

7:59

city implemented this plan really quickly

8:02

and to a very high standard.

8:04

And so I think it's a credit to

8:06

fifth avenue to the bid and to the city

8:08

and policy makers that this

8:10

is considered one of the hallmark plans

8:13

for one of the greatest planners really of

8:15

our time. And it is

8:17

a model for other cities to aspire to.

8:20

And many cities come to fifth avenue

8:22

just to see how to do it.

8:24

Courtyards green spaces in

8:26

, in the main thoroughfare

8:29

at the building frontage. How does that impact

8:31

and change the pedestrian

8:33

experience?

8:35

An ideal combination of

8:37

a busy street with a lot

8:39

of people on it, and then having a narrow

8:41

via or courtyard off the street

8:44

is almost the perfect balance. The courtyards

8:46

allow for more affordable rental space.

8:48

So you can have more diversity in the quality

8:50

is shops and the more art galleries and things

8:53

that can't afford the main street.

8:55

Now I w I would be remiss if I didn't bring

8:57

up principles of urban

8:59

retail planning and development. This is

9:02

a one of the greatest books on

9:04

this subject. Bob , what issue

9:06

in addition is this ?

9:07

Yeah, this is, I think it's the fourth edition we're

9:09

going on the 10th year of publishing

9:11

it . Wiley was the publisher and the book

9:14

is a handbook for business improvement

9:16

districts for cities and planners

9:18

to design competitive shopping

9:20

districts that are beautiful and attractive.

9:23

So it has a lot of case studies. My next

9:25

chapter we'll need a case study on fifth

9:27

avenue that talks about the nuts

9:29

and bolts, the things that I do at , with shopping

9:31

center developers, how to apply those

9:34

for historic or new town centers.

9:37

What is your assessment of current

9:40

retail trends?

9:41

Yeah, retail always reinvents itself,

9:43

but this is one of the most radical reinventions.

9:46

Since the shopping center, the shopping

9:48

mall was invented and

9:51

hundreds of thousands of stores are closing.

9:53

The big boxes are closing because they're not

9:56

big enough because they can't carry

9:58

every color, every size of

10:00

paperclip that you can buy. You can buy that. And

10:02

Amazon can, it's expected that about

10:04

80% of the big box shopping centers

10:06

are gonna close. And , uh , about

10:08

80% of the malls are going to close by 2026.

10:12

And those retailers want cities.

10:15

They want walkable places. They want

10:17

real storefronts. And

10:20

there is a massive

10:23

search for cities to leave

10:25

the malls and the Golan to downtowns

10:28

and Naples is perfect for that. There

10:30

are very few places of this quality

10:33

of urban ism . So it's good

10:35

for cities. Unfortunately, many

10:37

cities are not ready for it. Um

10:39

, they don't have the parking that Naples have. They

10:41

don't have the public realm and

10:44

many cities are just opposed to any

10:46

national retailer. They don't want apple

10:48

or Williams-Sonoma or Warby Parker.

10:51

They want all local, one of a kind shops.

10:54

And I think that's not sustainable. Our

10:56

movement in the new urbanism was that downtown

10:58

should sell the goods and services that people

11:00

desire and want. And

11:02

that it's better to have a dollar store

11:05

in a downtown than it is to have

11:07

it out in the mall. Or it's better to have a Brooks

11:09

brothers in the downtown rather than out

11:11

in the mall. Charleston

11:13

is the only city that really has adopted

11:15

. We've been advising Charleston for years. Mayor

11:18

Riley embraced that idea. And

11:20

I think Naples is open to that. There's some really

11:22

great choice retailers here

11:25

and the city should be ready

11:27

for many, many high

11:31

quality retailers, even national retailers

11:33

to come into the downtown. That's going to,

11:40

To learn more about Bob Gibbs and Gibbs

11:42

planning group, visit their [email protected]

11:47

. Joining

11:50

us today is Kristen query the

11:53

founder and producing artistic director

11:55

of Gulf shore Playhouse . The

11:57

mission statement of Gulf shore Playhouse

11:59

is that it passionately is committed

12:02

to enriching the cultural landscape of

12:04

our region by producing professional theater

12:07

to the highest artistic standards and

12:09

providing unique educational opportunities

12:11

to diverse groups of people in a spirit

12:14

of service, adventure and excitement.

12:17

Kristin , can you tell me a little bit about your role

12:19

at Gulf shore Playhouse as the creative

12:21

director, founder Renaissance

12:24

woman?

12:25

So my title is actually CEO and

12:27

producing artistic director. And so it's

12:29

been fascinating to me in the last, I would

12:31

say year it's actually been an interesting

12:33

blessing, you know, because I am the artistic director. So

12:36

I'm responsible for selection of plays

12:38

for directing several of the plays. And if I'm

12:40

not directing the play that I'm definitely watching

12:42

over the shoulder of the director, you know, sort of making

12:44

sure that the artistic quality of the players

12:46

is up to our standards, et cetera, the

12:48

new space, the main stage, and the new space

12:51

is going to have a Broadway size stage, a

12:53

fault. The city council approved us having a full

12:55

size fly tower. So

12:57

it's going to be 55 feet

12:59

in the air and we'll be able to raise

13:02

and lower drops or set

13:04

pieces or all kinds of cool stuff. So we're

13:06

going to be able to create Broadway quality

13:08

musicals and plays. So we haven't done a

13:11

huge amount of large scale musicals.

13:13

And one of the models that we're really focused

13:15

on is that we've got to Tony award-winning

13:17

Broadway producers on our, on our, on our board.

13:20

And my background is actually in commercial theater. So

13:22

I'm looking forward to golf or play house

13:24

becoming a tryout space for Broadway

13:26

musicals.

13:27

Absolutely. That's a tremendous amenity. That's

13:29

almost , um, one, I think that that

13:31

is so special and unique to have

13:34

all of these components come together. You know,

13:36

it does again, elevate neighbors .

13:38

Thank you for saying that. I think you might be aware that

13:40

we are in the almost, almost

13:42

final stage of , um , getting approval on,

13:44

on doing a land swap with the wind family

13:47

when properties owns the acre next

13:49

to our parking acre. Um,

13:52

and that's where their catering has been and

13:54

they, they have like a north south parcel.

13:56

And so do we, so we're gonna we're proposing

13:58

turning it so that they then take

14:00

the whole strip along

14:02

the first avenue front, and we would

14:04

take the strip behind them to the south

14:06

of them so that we can then give that

14:08

to the city to build a parking garage on and have

14:10

that muscle behind

14:13

first avenue. So it's not a garage on a street.

14:15

So that means that the winds will

14:18

put in a beautiful restaurant with a terrace

14:20

and, you know, lots of outdoor seating, et cetera, et cetera,

14:22

right across the way from our lobby

14:24

and our gardens. It's just going to be fantastic

14:27

synergy. And , um, I yesterday

14:30

the , um , city council voted you

14:32

, uh , well sitting as the CRA, they voted unanimously

14:35

for a three-story for Decker eyes . So

14:38

thank you very much. We'll be able to do valet parking

14:40

on top. So it's not just even for our

14:42

patrons, but for anybody who shows up in that parking,

14:44

you know, the valet parking stock we'll park

14:47

their cars for them, but it's been 17 years in

14:49

the making. You know what I mean? We've been working really, really hard 17

14:51

years, and now it's all finally coming to fruition.

14:54

Um , it's very

14:55

Exciting actually, where, where will

14:57

this higher piece be the

14:59

garage and the facility.

15:01

So on the corner of first avenue,

15:04

south and Goodluck Frank road. So

15:06

if you're coming down to LA towards downtown,

15:08

it would greet you just after you pass central

15:10

avenue. Okay . Um , so it will be

15:12

facing, you know, facing north. So the,

15:15

as you drive downtown and you'll see this beautiful

15:17

, um, lit sort of beacon of light

15:19

coming out of this performing arts center,

15:22

and we'll have beautiful gardens, lush, tropical

15:24

gardens in the front with lots of shady spaces for

15:26

people to sit and relax. Our lobby

15:28

will actually be open throughout the day. So

15:31

I find, you know, for me, it's like theaters

15:33

and churches, they're always closed unless

15:35

you're there for the thing, you know, and you're kind of,

15:37

you know , banging on doors, like , can I get in and see this beautiful

15:39

space? So our lobby will actually be open all day.

15:41

Our cafe bar will be open as well.

15:43

So people could come in and do have a coffee,

15:46

or

15:46

Sure . I think that's, you know, that's essential to

15:48

all of this, you know, that the community aspect

15:51

of it. So it's bringing people in, it's giving

15:53

them another reason to go there, which is,

15:55

you know , causes engagement, which is really

15:58

top of the list of, of wanting to have

16:00

a , you know , a public private type of entity

16:02

like that. And to have it be a resource,

16:05

I think that will be transformative

16:07

for that , uh, area of , uh , the community

16:10

and just in the downtown area. And so

16:12

I think that matched with, you know,

16:14

the, the amenity of

16:17

the building and the, the style

16:19

and all of those things, I think it's just going to be

16:21

a great, a great addition. And we don't,

16:24

there's nothing like this. I haven't seen any things you've

16:26

been in terms of like Miami with this

16:28

type of architecture and

16:31

functionality with it. I mean, I was really delving

16:33

into the designs and renderings cause that's what

16:35

I love. And so seeing this, it's just,

16:37

it's so unique. Did you play

16:40

a major role in that ? What I'm assuming that you

16:42

did, you know what I'm saying, Hey,

16:44

I want this here, you know , and that

16:47

there ,

16:47

So yeah, so what's interesting is that we always

16:49

knew we were going to have a main stage theater about 3

16:52

50, 400 seats. We weren't sure exactly the right size. And we did

16:54

that through the, through the design, which

16:56

took about two and a half years. We figured that out, we

16:58

think three 50 is the perfect amount

17:01

of seats because it's twice

17:03

as much as we have now, but it's still intimate

17:05

enough to enjoy a play. You know, if

17:07

you go to a 1500 seat theater,

17:09

unless it's stacked in the seats or up and

17:11

down, which of course we aren't , um,

17:14

you're so far away, if you're in the back

17:16

a few rows that you're just falling asleep here , the people

17:18

are like this tiny, you know, so we're just, you just

17:20

don't enjoy it. So our , all our seats

17:22

will be perfect. The acoustics will be perfect. And so

17:24

we feel like that was a good, a good size. And

17:26

then our second space was

17:28

we're calling the small space, even though

17:30

it's bigger than what we've got at the north center

17:32

now is , um , 125

17:34

seats, but flexible. So they could be all on one side.

17:36

They could be all around. They could be on two sides, you know, however

17:39

we want to set it up or take them all out and

17:41

do a , like a, Cadbury's like a jazz club, you know, little

17:43

tiny tables with little lights and do

17:45

a band or something, you know? So we always knew those two

17:47

spaces. But to your point

17:49

, um , we have a really cool architect.

17:52

Um, it's actually a merged firms . So H

17:55

three is , um , Hugh Hardy's from

17:57

there out of New York. And they built tons of theaters

17:59

all around the country. So there's that, and

18:02

then merged with Bernardo for brushes company,

18:04

which is architect Tanika, and he's out of Miami.

18:06

So he's got the Florida knowledge,

18:08

he's got the humidity, water table, all that

18:10

kind of stuff and beautiful signature

18:13

architects . So all the beautiful Curt lines and the representations

18:15

of the golf and the sand and all of that is all, all

18:17

him. And then , so we're excited

18:19

about that, but one of the, I think

18:23

it's you, to your point about, did

18:25

, did you know, did I help scope ? It's like

18:27

one of the most, I feel like significant stories

18:29

is that I've been asked for example, to do

18:31

speech speaking engagements all over town. And

18:34

very often they're not easy places,

18:36

you know, because of maybe it's in a restaurant where

18:39

the chefs are cooking behind the line, they don't even have

18:41

a microphone. I'm trying to scream over, over

18:43

there, the clicking and the talking and right

18:45

. Or they don't have a proper AVS

18:48

system . So I can't show up , um, PowerPoint

18:50

or, you know, whatever. We don't

18:52

have a lot of meeting spaces and Naples, I mean,

18:54

this is, I think we don't have a convention center. We

18:56

don't have, you know, now that innovation hotel and Arthrex

18:58

is up there. Everyone's like, all right . So

19:02

for me, it was really important to add

19:04

, uh, we obviously we needed a rehearsal

19:06

room and by their very nature rehearsal rooms

19:08

are the same size as the size of the stage.

19:10

And our stage is now like 50 by 50. So we've

19:12

got this 50 by 50 room that we

19:14

were planning on doing. And I'm sitting there at a table

19:17

full of 22 consultants,

19:19

most of which, if not, all of which

19:21

were male, and they're all, like,

19:23

you are insane that you want to put your rehearsal

19:25

room right off the lobby. And I was like, absolutely,

19:28

I want to put it off a lobby and I'll tell you why. And they were like, nobody

19:31

does this, no regional theater we build with you , you

19:33

know , use up all that prime real estate off the

19:35

lobby rehearsal rooms belong in the back

19:37

on the second floor, way back there, where you can make

19:39

them with, you know, bad quality

19:42

finishes and nobody cares because nobody's ever gonna see it . And

19:44

I was like , we're going to make ours with fine finishes and beautiful

19:46

wood floors and gorgeous windows looking out over

19:48

the other Frank road and, you know, et cetera, et cetera. And I'll tell you

19:51

why, because we're going to put a catering kitchen behind

19:53

it. And we're going to have the ability

19:55

to rent this space as well. And we're not rehearsing in

19:57

it. So it's little, you know

19:59

, for everything from a rotary club meeting to

20:01

a little get wedding, you know what I mean? We can

20:03

, we'll be able to see it about 150 seated

20:05

and then we'll have the catering kitchen behind. So it will become,

20:08

they'll have access to the lobby and to the gardens.

20:10

And we've got beautiful event plazas and outside

20:12

bars and things.

20:13

That's great. Uh, what are you doing in

20:15

terms of this summer for your

20:17

slate? I was looking at the calendar. It seemed like you had

20:19

quite a bit of things going on and still for the

20:21

stars for the children and yeah . W

20:24

w what are the projects that you're focused on in the short

20:26

term as , uh , as now we are into

20:28

summer and we're kind of gearing up for season.

20:30

Yeah. So you asked me a question earlier

20:33

about, you know, how much do I spend focused

20:35

on this project versus maybe,

20:37

maybe you asked this question, but one of the way I heard it

20:39

was, you know, how much do you spend on the business versus the art?

20:42

And , um, it used to be half and half. And

20:44

, um, when we went into the pandemic, suddenly it was

20:46

like, you know, all the theaters

20:49

were closed across the country within three days

20:51

of each other, you know, and we had had

20:53

our gala , um, on March

20:56

2nd, 2020, and we raised more money than we've ever raised. And we just

20:58

thought the world is bright. Our future is bright.

21:00

Isn't this great. And two weeks to the day later, I

21:02

stood outside of separated

21:04

from all my colleagues and laid off three quarters

21:06

of our staff. I mean, it was just, and we canceled

21:08

the show. We were rehearsing. We canceled the rest of our season.

21:11

We canceled the show on stage, and

21:14

I really thought this is, you know, we're done.

21:16

This is the end of culture class who ever dreamed it

21:18

would come to this. You know? So my

21:20

focus was just, how do I get

21:23

the staff back? How do I get back to our , how do I put

21:25

our on the stage again in the middle of this crazy pandemic?

21:27

And we had slowly but surely brought our staff

21:29

back and we were keeping them employed,

21:31

and God bless the fundraisers. You know what I mean?

21:34

Because we are a 5 0 1 C three, we're also able

21:36

to ask for donations. Um,

21:38

60% of our ticket buyers turned their

21:40

tickets into donations. Other people

21:42

stepped up and really kept us alive. And

21:45

we were able to bring the staff back so that when

21:47

actors equity association said, yes, we will allow you to

21:49

produce in January. We were ready on a

21:51

dime to get your show. And

21:53

therefore we were, I believe we were the only

21:56

theater in the country, the only professional theater

21:58

in the country that was actually producing onstage

22:00

inside , um, throughout this pandemic.

22:02

Because when I look at the list of who was approved by actors'

22:05

equity, it's all out outdoor stuff, or

22:07

it's for filming, not with an audience. And

22:09

so we were able to do two plays

22:11

in January and in March. And , um, I

22:13

was sort of host of cabaret shows as well throughout.

22:16

So we actually had kind of a little mini season, you

22:18

know , th

22:18

That's really fantastic when you're what you just

22:20

said. Uh , you know, on fifth avenue,

22:22

it was a struggle. It

22:24

was a , the pandemic,

22:27

you know , brought us all to our knees in terms

22:29

of, you know , evaluating what are we doing?

22:31

How do we approach this ? How do we effectively

22:33

keep all these businesses in place

22:36

for that? And it was made up of so many restaurants

22:38

and the staffs of those restaurants and

22:40

just keeping things going,

22:43

and really what set us apart was the

22:45

residents who lived here and

22:47

focused on us to support all of these

22:49

businesses. And without them,

22:51

it just would not have been, the success

22:54

has been, and in a

22:56

real blessing, the fact that not only has

22:58

it materialized as we kind

23:00

of grinded through the 2020,

23:03

it's produced a 2021

23:05

that has been, you know, feedback that we

23:07

get from merchants is that it's one of the best

23:10

Sears of their existence that not,

23:12

you know , to even have that even

23:15

as a concept is just

23:17

so great. It's such a wonderful thing to

23:19

hear. And not just one, you know,

23:21

it's many that are saying these things.

23:23

And so to have that momentum,

23:25

I think is also a big part of

23:27

this and it , for people to support

23:30

you for people to donate to this process,

23:32

or to learn about cultural

23:35

playoffs , what are the best ways to kind of

23:38

learn about that? How , how do they go about

23:40

and doing that for you?

23:41

Yeah, so actually, that's, that's

23:43

really the combination of the story, right, is on

23:46

4 21 , uh, April

23:48

21st, we had a big party out on our land and

23:51

we were so excited because we were very close

23:53

to him having the amount needed to break

23:55

ground. And we therefore knew we were going to be ready

23:57

to in terms of schedule and getting all the permits in place

24:00

in design reviews and all that stuff by September,

24:02

that we would be able to break ground. And so we decided

24:05

to have a big party thank all of our donors

24:07

and say we're only $6 million away.

24:09

Um, we, $40 million was our break ground

24:12

amount , um, where at which we knew

24:14

we could access , um, bridge

24:16

financing for the rest of the whole project, total

24:18

of 60 million. And , um,

24:20

so we knew 40 million was the number. So we said, we're going to have a big

24:22

party and just show a really announced

24:24

the bigger theater and education center and show

24:27

them all of our spaces. And , um, we had a Broadway

24:29

singer come down and sing and we made speeches

24:31

and, you know , um, it

24:33

was a great night and it just

24:36

like, the rain just held off, like everything about the night

24:38

was magical and we did it and

24:40

it was on our land. And I got to talk about the fact

24:42

that when I first moved here, my first 10

24:44

years that I was here, I lived in Bayfront.

24:46

So I used to stand on my balcony and Bayfront and look across

24:49

the street at the empty land, which at that point was

24:51

grand central station. And he said, visualize

24:53

a theater coming out in that land. And

24:56

now there is going to be right. So

24:58

it's so exciting. And , um, what

25:00

we didn't know is when we had asked Patty

25:02

and Jay to speak because they were offending Jay

25:04

baker because they were our first, they

25:07

were thanks to them. The reason why we're

25:09

here, because back in 2015,

25:12

we were still a very small organization, but I

25:14

still had that vision. And so I got them in the

25:16

room and I said, we want to buy a piece of land over

25:18

there. We want to build a Tony

25:20

award, winning Broadway, you know , um , regional theater.

25:22

And we , um, would like you to

25:25

give us a million dollars in and name the building.

25:27

And they said, yes, God bless them. And

25:30

it took us three years to match the

25:32

$10 million, which they wanted to do was he said, I'll

25:34

say yes to that, but you have to raise 10000001st.

25:37

So we could at least say, we know that we've got

25:39

the 10 million coming from time to Jay , but we,

25:42

we did a feasibility study. We had the higher and better

25:44

staff we had to staff up, you know, we had

25:46

to , um , buy the land. We had

25:48

to get , get, you know, negotiate with, with

25:50

, uh , those guys over there and get the land and, you

25:53

know , do all of that. And it was, it was, you know,

25:55

it was little by little and, you

25:57

know, taking the pickax and just kind of

26:00

walk, working your way up the mountain. And

26:02

, um, three years it took us to raise the first

26:04

10 million to match that , that gift. So

26:07

by, by, by April

26:10

of , of this year, we had had, we had 34

26:13

million on the night of that event. And we knew

26:15

we had six to go to get to 40 . And what we didn't

26:17

know is that Jay baker

26:19

was going to announce another $10

26:21

million match. And this time he said,

26:24

God bless him at this time. He said, but

26:26

I want to make it short because we want to see this thing

26:28

come out of the ground. And so

26:31

I will match dollar for dollar, all gifts

26:33

given by July 4th, up

26:35

to $10 million. And

26:37

we raised 10 million in 42 days

26:40

and six weeks to the day from that event, we matched

26:42

his, his gift. So

26:44

now we're at like 54 and change . So

26:46

we're almost done. And it's so exciting

26:48

in that. I'm sure it was helpful when I went to stand

26:50

in front of city council when they were like, how do

26:52

we know you're going to build this thing? I'm like, we're ready.

26:54

Like the only thing we're waiting for now is city approvals.

26:57

We got the money, we're ready to put it on

26:59

the ground, come on, stop delay. You know? So

27:01

, um, so that's super, super, super

27:04

exciting. And so for people who do

27:06

want to get involved and help us

27:08

get to the end , um, cause like I said, at

27:10

the total of 60 million , um,

27:12

we can go to ball sharp playhouse.org

27:15

, and we've got a micro-site there. They can

27:17

click on next stage campaign and look

27:19

at, we've got renderings, we've got a fly through,

27:21

we've got the video we used on that

27:23

April 21st event, which sort of just announced

27:26

the building and really showed , you know , how exciting

27:28

it's going to be and what we're going to do inside of it. And that's,

27:31

that's the best way for them to get up . That's

27:33

Correct . I think that's , uh , something that we

27:35

will showcase on fifth avenue and go to a Playhouse

27:38

and make that available to everyone. But I think

27:40

that not only to be able to see those

27:42

things, to, to recognize the community,

27:44

support the legitimacy of the project

27:47

and then to take that over that

27:49

the next time, please just , uh , that's great

27:51

news. And just to see you again, that's

27:54

how we started the interview of, you know, fundamentally

27:57

you're just bulldogging

27:58

It. That's

28:00

Just so awesome to, to continue

28:03

regardless of positive

28:06

or negatives, which I think is very, very

28:08

difficult. And I think that's what is

28:11

a great separator of people. And

28:13

I think that if you have

28:15

that ability to, you know, have

28:17

that grace under pressure, essentially

28:19

to go through

28:21

that trial and continue to

28:24

have the vision, the focus

28:26

and the determination to do something because not only,

28:29

you know, it's right, but it's because something

28:31

it'll be so impactful for

28:33

so many millions

28:35

of people probably eventually that

28:38

you have to do it. And that's why I

28:40

say those things. And I mean, it sincerely because

28:42

I do see that the amount of

28:44

creativity that goes into this, but just the

28:47

fundamental willingness

28:49

to devote yourself to it is

28:51

a great separator of people who

28:54

make it happen. And those who don't, those

28:56

who talk about it and those who actually have

28:58

it on their mantle. So

29:01

I think that's very cool and I'm very happy

29:03

to see you and B6 so successful. And we're

29:06

supportive of you here on fifth avenue.

29:08

And I know our community is because if they

29:10

weren't, we wouldn't be having this

29:11

Conversation. That's right. You know, it's , it's

29:13

$54 million worth of private money that

29:16

from through philanthropy that we have raised. So

29:18

to your point, you know, I sat at the table

29:21

a few nights ago with a woman who

29:23

survived the Holocaust. And

29:25

I mean, she lived under floorboards and you know what I mean?

29:27

It was, she was young, a little kid and

29:29

, um , she made it through and she sat there and she raised

29:31

a glass . It was me and several of the major

29:34

arts donors in the community. And she said, thank

29:37

you so much to the people who make the arts

29:39

and support the arts because they

29:43

Thank you, Kristen, for joining us. And for

29:45

all of those that are interested in learning more about

29:48

the Gulf shore Playhouse, you can find them directly

29:50

[email protected]

29:54

or on social media. Again,

29:56

thank you for joining us for movers and

29:58

shakers.

30:09

Remember to download, follow, and share

30:11

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30:14

or most importantly at fifth avenue, south.com.