Miss Susie's Newtown Kitchen restaurant nixed in Sarasota after years of financial woes

Miss Susie's Newtown Kitchen, a restaurant and job training concept that was poised to create access into the hospitality and food industry for residents of Sarasota's historically Black neighborhood of Newtown, has been nixed through an agreement by the parties involved, including a nonprofit and the city of Sarasota, after years of construction delays and financial woes.

A three-party settlement agreement between the city, property owner Thelma Upshaw, and Tableside Cares, the fundraising nonprofit arm of Miss Susie's, was approved on Nov. 6 by the City Commission.

The city had issued $150,000 in a loan for the venture, but had no oversight role of the business or construction project that would have seen the restaurant and training facility constructed in Newtown.

Tableside Cares sought the settlement agreement and is to tear down the unfinished shell building. The property owner will now own all intellectual property for Miss Susie's after releasing all parties from a ground lease for the venture, according to the arrangement.

The city of Sarasota also will own the Miss Susie's food truck that had begun operation in 2021 to raise money for the food kitchen and training facility.

Jay Castle, legal counsel for Tableside Cares, revealed during the meeting that the project costs continued to rise and with no current investors would have to be abandoned.

"It was intended to be a teaching food service facility... There was a loan agreement and lease with Ms. Upshaw as part of the initial effort to start it up and fund it. Unfortunately, things fell apart shortly after Mr. (Steve) Seidnsticker's death in 2018. Since that time, the pandemic has affected the economy, particularly the restaurant and hospitality economy profoundly, and the work on the project. The Seidensticker family tried to make this work but found some undisclosed issues with the project which increased the scope of costs. They ultimately concluded that it's just not viable," Castle said.

The collaborative project was originally designed to provide hospitality training and jobs to local residents, in addition to an economic boost to the underserved Newtown community, and was initiated by the late restaurateur and philanthropist Steve Seidensticker as a passion project.

"His entire business plan was the menu; there was not a solid business plan in place, but it was Steve’s personality and he could sell it," said friend of Seidensticker and community advocate John Annis.

"He really wanted to make sure underprivileged folks had those opportunities and it was off to a good start."

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Progress began on Seidensticker's vision in 2018 when officials broke ground on construction at 1741 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way with support from the city and the Newtown Community Redevelopment Agency. However, multiple financial challenges and setbacks, including the unexpected passing of Seidensticker that same year, halted the project multiple times after its inception.

Following his passing, Seidensticker's adult children worked with Upshaw and the Newtown CRA to honor their father's vision, hoping to raise enough funds through Tableseide Cares, the nonprofit set up to raise money for Miss Susie’s construction. However, the cost ballooned from what was once budgeted as a $600,000 project to $1.1 million, according to city documents.

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Newtown native and community leader Walter Gilbert said the decision to pull the plug on the project was unfortunate.

“Miss Susie’s would have been huge in revitalizing that business corridor,” Gilbert said. "It’s sad those three entities couldn’t come to some sort of agreement. Now you have a shell of a building with a sign that says coming soon and there is likely nothing coming.

"Seidnesticker's daughter got involved with Miss Susie's and there are a lot of residents that were excited and wanted to keep it going, but it became a push-and-pull with the city of Sarasota," Gilbert said.

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Construction at the site was halted in 2019, and two years later in June 2021, Miss Susie's food truck concept was launched as a marketing tool for Miss Susie’s Newtown Kitchen with aspirations to boost the restaurant's fundraising efforts. The food truck had a successful run over the past two years but was sold to the city for $1 as part of the settlement agreement on Nov. 6.

Now, the building shell stands empty in the heart of the historically Black neighborhood with no current investors or financial backing, a remnant of the failed deal that will also have to be torn down.

"Every time I drive by there I think of Steve and that smile and everything he wanted to do. I also wonder what we do now with this concept of job training. I don’t know how we do that effectively," said Annis.

"You feel bad for the community that has been let down so many times before, they broke ground and we thought 'Yes, it's really going to happen,' but it stalled and it ran out of money. I don’t think there were any ill intentions with this project, at all. I really do think this is a case of a personality bigger than anyone else’s and Steve would’ve made it happen."

Gilbert, a native of Sarasota and resident of Newtown, echoed the feelings of Annis and other local advocates.

"It’s a very huge loss of opportunity for our community and hopefully somebody somewhere, maybe the city or some business investors or just a group of people from the community, can find some resources to establish a restaurant in that area or somewhere along the MLK corridor."

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota ends plan for Miss Susie's hospitality job training concept