Leadership change set at downtown Englewood agency as Dearborn Street improvement nears completion

ENGLEWOOD – When Debbie Marks first took the job as administrator of the Englewood Community Redevelopment Agency in December 2007, it was supposed to be a temporary assignment.

That turned into a 15-year fourth act of a career that started when she was an Army reservist working as a congressional liaison, answering soldiers’ concerns at the U.S. Army Soldier Support Center at Fort Benjamin Harrison near Indianapolis.

“I fell in love with it when I came down here and I have to be honest, when they first sent me down, I had never been this far south,” said Marks, who vacationed in the area with family and first moved to Bradenton from Indiana in 1984.

Before her “fill in” assignment, Marks hadn’t been farther south than the Venice area.

“I came down to fill in for a couple of weeks and after that I fell in love with the community and let my bosses know that when they advertised the job I’m going to apply for it,” Marks said.

“I fell in love with the community and the people and decided this was where I wanted to put my efforts,” she added.

Marks was working in the Neighborhood Services department for Sarasota County and had a hand in designing plans for Lake Sarasota, Kensington Park and Pinecraft.

That followed 19 years with the city of Sarasota, where she started as an office manager in the planning department, then got training to be a planner and went on to be a development review coordinator and conduct neighborhood workshops.

Related:Dearborn Street businesses put best foot forward to keep ahead of road reconstruction

“That’s what I thrive on most is that energy I draw from other people, just helping them and helping them get what they want,” Marks said. “I’m not a person who likes to say no, I like to keep everybody as happy as I can, so I kind of fell in love with that and when they created the neighborhood services office in the city, I did that.”

CRA advisory board member Keith Farlow, owner of Farlow’’s on the water and one of the partners involved in Buchan’s Bayside said Marks is going to be dearly missed.

“Debbie Marks is not only all about Dearborn and Englewood but she’s been there from the very beginning with the CRA – for the most part – and she’s just a wealth of knowledge and understands where we need to proceed and understand where we came from,” Farlow said.

A 30-year vision

The Englewood Community Redevelopment Area was set up by Sarasota County in 1998 and the first Englewood Redevelopment Plan approved on Dec. 14, 1999.

Those plans – which are revised every five years – guide redevelopment in an area that encompasses land as far north as Forked Creek and captures some of Manasota Key to the west and spans as far east as Morris Industrial Park.

Money generated by the annual increase in the taxable value of property in the CRA stays within the district to pay for more improvements.

A local CRA advisory board vets projects and makes recommendations to the Sarasota County Commission, which ultimately has the final say on how and where money is spent.

In the beginning, the CRA funded stormwater improvements and the purchase and improvement of land – especially along the waterfront – for public use.

Early on in the process, consultants concluded that the number of homes in the immediate vicinity of Dearborn Street was not enough to ensure the survival of a commercial district, so it would be key to make it a destination location.

Most recently the CRA funded the Dearborn Street Improvement project – which is scheduled for substantial completion on Jan. 10, 2023.

Marks is retiring on that day and has already been helping her successor, Marcie Castaneda, get accustomed to the job.

In her 15 years overseeing the CRA, Marks has helped shepherd through several key projects ranging from Veteran’s Memorial Park and the Freedom Pavillion and Cherokee Street Park on Lemon Bay and the key addition of two key parking lots for patrons of Dearborn street to a regional low impact development stormwater system that Dearborn businesses could hook into instead of holding stormwater on site.

And of course there’s the Dearborn Street beautification project and a makeover of Pioneer Park that created a modern place for events and the Dignam Family Stage.

“I don’t feel like they’re accomplishments,” said Marks, who prefers to concentrate on “the friend that I’ve made here.”

When she retires Marks, who lives in North Port, plans to spend time with her grandchildren and sees herself becoming an active volunteer in south Sarasota County.

Sarasota County Commission Chairman Ron Cutsinger – an Englewood business owner who got to know Marks when he served on the planning commission – asked her to stay at least through the Jan. 10 ribbon cutting for Dearborn Street project.

“She’s the heart of the CRA and she loves the Englewood community,” Cutsinger said. “She has just really built great relationships with the community, with the organizations, with the chamber, with the businesses along Dearborn.

“She's really done an excellent job.”

As a recent example of Marks dedication, Cutsinger noted that when drove down Dearborn Street to survey damage two days after Hurricane Ian impacted he was surprised to see Marks’ car in the parking lot at Banyan Court, where the CRA offices are located.

“She was back in the office already working to get things back, working with the businesses and working with staff to get people back on their feet,” Cutsinger said.

Keith Rowley, owner of Rowley Insurance and a member of the Englewood Community Redevelopment Agency Advisory Board, called Marks the backbone of the CRA

“She has been a sounding board and a person that’s been able to get things done and work and coordinate with the businesses around the downtown area with the construction crew,” Rowley said.

“We’re going to miss her terribly but I’m looking forward to working with Marcie (Castaneda).”

A flair for business development

Castaneda brings with her an extensive background in business and community development that may be a perfect fit for the next few years the CRA remains in effect.

It was designed to sunset after 30 years.

Prior to signing on with Sarasota County Castaneda worked as the Business & Community Development Manager for former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan.

Her responsibilities included economic revitalization on a statewide level, fostering the development of affordable housing and mixed-use development – the latter of which is seen as a cornerstone for the continued revitalization of the Dearborn Street corridor.

“So it is very similar, especially with the CRA having a storefront program and hopefully we will have the hurricane relief tied into that,” Castaneda said. “Working with the merchants association, there’s a lot of similarities. Just at a local level and not a state level.”

Castaneda, who started working with Sarasota County Nov. 7, has been able to work side-by-side with Marks through a transition period.

Castaneda grew up in Catonsville, Maryland and graduated from Drexel University in Philadelphia with a bachelor of science degree in communications – concentrating in corporate public relations and marketing, with a double minor in sociology and anthropology.

She is in the process of becoming a Certified Economic Developer through the International Economic Development Council.

Castaneda, her husband Erik and their two children are currently living in the Venice area.

She lived in Port Charlotte in 2010-2011 and worked remotely then moved to Maryland in 2013 to work as part of Hogan’s team.

She wanted to return to Florida because most of her family has since relocated to the state – including Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville, and Tampa – and she wanted her daughters to be able to know their cousins and chose to return to southwest Florida specifically because of her experience living in Port Charlotte.

In January, Castaneda will start the public process of soliciting community input to formulate the final five-year plan for the CRA.

The 2018 planning process coalesced the vision incorporating mixed-use development to further ensure the viability of Dearborn Street.

Marks noted that properties along the east-west corridor that includes Cocoanut Avenue, Dearborn Street and Green Street are eligible for mixed use zoning, which would allow an owner to develop a commercial use on the first floor and up to 25 units per acre on the second floor.

“That, above anything, is going to be a catalyst for the rest of the street to take off,” Marks said. “You're going to see at least two to three other mixed use developments coming in over the next two, three years.”

She referenced the recently approved miniature golf course planned by YouTube personality Danny Duncan to replace structures that now occupy 114 and 120 W. Dearborn Street as something that will attract families downtown.

The last five-year plan will address other needs residents and business owners come up with during public meetings.

Both Farlow and Marks pointed to the likely need for additional parking.

Earlier:Destination restaurant planned for Dearborn Street waterfront

Marks noted that about $3.5 million once earmarked for a drainage improvement project for a section of McCall Road is available for new projects.

Once envisioned as an $8 million project – the balance of the funding would have been financed – it was shelved once it was established that only three or four properties would have benefitted and the fooding may have shown that better maintenance of existing culverts would suffice.

“Had we, I think, done more studies early on, we would have identified that  there aren't really flooding issues down there,” Marks said.

“The flooding that got calls on during ian, we checked and it was culverts  that were plugged,” Marks said.

Castaneda said Infrastructure items could include more sidewalks, comfort stations or place-making amenities and programming – all depending on the results of the meeting.

All improvements, she added, are considered as a balance between modernization and preservation of the historic character of the area.

“I’ve worked with a lot of nationally designated historic main streets,” Castaneda said. “So I know that’s extremely important, to keep the historic charm of any community – especially if the community wants it.

“With this being Old Englewood Village that’s definitely something they want to keep but modernizing the streets, the place-making, I think, makes a big difference.”

Earle Kimel primarily covers south Sarasota County for the Herald-Tribune and can be reached at earle.kimel@heraldtribune.com.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Marcie Castaneda to succeed Debbie Marks as Englewood CRA manager