Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/235968
Sarasota News Leader January 3, 2014 Two towers will be coming out of the ground soon. The Jewel condominium complex at Gulfstream Avenue and Main Street has received its first building permit, so construction can get started. And the hotel complex planned for the northern corner of Ringling Boulevard and Palm Avenue has received its initial approval to get under way. The building is expected to be an Aloft hotel, with European business-class accommodations. Two downtown commercial icons are undergoing radical rehab. The former Golden Apple Dinner Theater is being gutted. It will be rebuilt to the specifications of a new tenant. And the go-to place downtown for handguns and ammo — the Bullet Hole — is in the same Page 112 stage of indignity: being gutted before the next tenant moves in. Both were long-standing downtown business anchors for decades. It is doubtful we will see their likes again. By a 3-1 margin, the Sarasota City Commission agrees on Nov. 7 to settle a lawsuit claiming a violation of Florida's Government in the Sunshine laws. Vice Mayor Willie Shaw votes against the motion, and Commissioner Susan Chapman abstains because the outcome could affect her financially. She and Commissioner Suzanne Atwell were named personally in the suit after they met with downtown merchants to hear concerns about homelessness and vagrancy. Mayor Shannon Snyder passes the gavel to make a motion to offer the settlement, and Commissioner Paul Caragiulo Plans call for the vacant Golden Apple building on Pineapple Avenue to be gutted for a new tenant. Photo by Norman Schimmel