ENGLEWOOD – On any given Thursday during season, West Dearborn Street is bustling – with part-time residents patronizing Olde Englewood Village Farmers Market at Pioneer Park and three other farmers markets that draw customers to the area before fanning out for lunch, or perhaps browsing the shopping district's 400 block.

Terri and Scott Hesse, owners of The Market on Dearborn at 232 W. Dearborn Street and their team office for Paradise Exclusive Realty at 200 W. Dearborn Street, can show you a far emptier shopping district on most other days.

“We have video we took, it was on a sunny Saturday about 10 a.m. and it was quite literally a ghost town because there were no events going on,” Terri Hesse said, stressing that patronage for many of her neighbors in brick-and-mortar businesses is event driven.

“It gives us stress,” she added. “There should be people on these streets, there should be people in these stores.”

While the market may bring more people to Dearborn Street, the concept is not in line with what was envisioned when the Englewood Community Redevelopment Area was set up by Sarasota County in 1998 and the first Englewood Redevelopment Plan approved on Dec. 14, 1999.

Money generated by the annual increase in the taxable value of property in the CRA stays within the district to pay for more improvements. Since then, improvements to the area – including Dearborn Street – were paid for with funds generated by the increase in the tax base, so the act of demolishing Kelly’s Tavern to clear the lot for the market technically reduced the taxable value within the district, though the hope is the increase in foot traffic will offset that loss.

Stuart Thomas, who owns a 2.2-acre vacant parcel where as many as 300 people illegally park to attend farmers markets and special events, felt the special exception initially sought was overly broad.

“I do believe this creates an unequal playing field in that a less permanent structure is a fraction of a cost vs. a brick-and-mortar that the rest of us are investing in,” said Thomas, who later added that when his property is eventually developed, the loss of those spaces will create a parking problem.

A three-year experiment to increase foot-traffic

The Hesse family received approval May 7 from the Sarasota County Commission on a three-year special exception that will allow them to expand use of the property from hosting a farmers market twice a week and four special events a year – which is allowed by right in Englewood’s Main Street District – to add as many as 104 special event days annually.

Scott Hesse, Terri’s husband, added that, “Our main thing is to drive traffic and give opportunities to young people, young families to have something to do right here in Englewood.”

They point proudly to an Easter egg hunt on March 30 – one of their special event days – that drew 500 children and their parents.

While the exception they received will allow the Hesses to sign up a lower percentage of vendors selling food than at the farmers markets, the goal is to host small performances that would be out of place at Pioneer Park, and more family events.

“When Waterfest is in town we can be open, we can be open Pioneer Parade, we can have a Fourth of July celebration,” Scott Hesse said. “The nice thing about that is we have some flexibility.”

A family history of successful marketing

Before moving to Englewood, the Hesses operated a landscape company and regional garden center in Illinois and battled big-box stores by what Terri Hesse referred to as guerrilla marketing and hosting events.

They moved to the area in 2014, bought their real estate office on the northwest corner of McCall Road and Dearborn Street in 2021 – while Sarasota County was improving Dearborn Street – and the former Kelly’s Tavern structure at 232 W. Dearborn Street in 2023 and bulldozed the defunct bar to clear space for the open-air marketplace.

By then, Scott Hesse said, they were already operating a small Thursday farmers market with six vendors.

Ryan Hesse – Scott and Terri’s eldest son – noted that they tried a Saturday this past March but that halted because there was some debate as to whether the twice-weekly permit allowed for any two days in a calendar week or two consecutive days.

Ryan Hesse said the design for the market space is patterned after Boxi Park at Lake Nona – an open air food court using shipping container spaces for food vendors in the Orlando area – that he patronized while courting his wife, Kalehli Hesse.

“It reminded me of how it was before the pandemic,” he said. “I saw families and I saw people out having a good time, like I've seen families at community events, fairs.

There are a few differences, though. The entire market property would be gated, with tiki hut-style roofs over food trucks in each corner.

Marketplace growth keyed on bathroom construction

A brick-and-mortar restroom/storage facility/bar would be anchored at the northern portion of the property, with the center courtyard that would be available for vendor tents or special events.

The Hesses plan on pursuing a beer and wine license, since none of the food trucks can offer beer.

The bathrooms must be built and functional for the three-year window allowing the 104 additional days to start.

That window is actually a reduction from what the family had originally requested – 260 operational days without the restriction of being a farmers market.

The board approved that special exception on a 4-1 vote with Commissioner Neil Rainford in dissent. He pointed to aerial images of a hodgepodge of tents visible in the existing farmers market hosted by the Hesses and concern that there was not enough assurance that the envisioned standards would be met.

Commissioner Mark Smith offered two words of advice for vacant lot owners frustrated by illegal parking: “Paid parking.”

“On Siesta Key, every lot now is paid parking and they’re making a ton,” he added.

Out of step with the original redevelopment intent

Longtime Englewood businessman Taylor Meals Jr., attributed the lack of foot traffic on the street to the lack of density in the neighborhood.

Meals recently sold the former Buchan’s Landing resort at the western end of Dearborn Street to Scott Libertore, who plans to build a mixed-use project, Buchan’s Bayside, on the site.

He reminded the commissioners that when the Englewood Business District was created 24 years ago, the hope was that mixed-use properties would be developed, with retail on the ground floor and residences above.

Scott Hesse later said at the meeting that his grandchildren may one day pursue that type of use for the market but the current plan called for generating more traffic.

Other property owners in the business district – notably Jacqulyn Mack-Majaka and Thomas – pointed to a lack of downtown parking in the Dearborn area, especially in-season on Thursdays, when the farmers markets were open, despite the fact that there are 424 county-owned parking spaces on Dearborn.

A hope for diverse options on Dearborn Street

Proponents of the Hesses proposed expansion pointed to the need to now travel to Downtown Wellen Park or other areas for family friendly activities.

Jeannie Joyce noted that her “What’s Happening in Englewood, Florida,” Facebook page has 75,000 followers and, “I have so many people asking what activities are there? What kind of things can we do as a family?

“The Hesse family, in my eyes, is bringing stuff for families, bringing stuff for all the long-term residents of Englewood, other than just the restaurants,” she added.

Scott Hesse stressed that the goal is to host more daily activities not unlike the Easter egg hunt.

Terri Hesse added options like “a Christmas tree lighting, meeting Santa, and having hot chocolate.”

Scott Hesse said the key to help West Dearborn Street thrive is volume.

“The more days of operation you have, the more you can say ‘Let’s go down to Dearborn Street, because there’s always something going on on Dearborn Street,'” he added. “That’s what we need and that’s what all our retail people need – retail people need traffic.”

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Market owners hope more events boost traffic for Englewood's downtown