Scenes From an Interview

You’re sending a friend in Europe a postcard of Sarasota. What’s on the card and what does it say?

Particularly because Europe and the Northeast are experiencing such brutal weather, I would probably choose a postcard of that classic shot of someone with their toes in the sand, looking at a beautiful, sunny day and writing: “wish you were here.”

Your mother, Michael Saunders, is an icon in the industry and the founder of one of the great real estate companies. What is the greatest thing she has taught you about life and the business?

The most important lesson in life that applies to business is passion. Whatever you do, you better be passionate about it. To do anything less is to cheat the thing you’re focused on and your experience in and of itself. My lifelong goal is to be is as she is – a better listener.  

How are you most like her? 

Well, we both like to cook, but I grew up cooking alongside her. I don’t claim to have her skill sets. I think we both are detail-oriented. It’s about the entire experience — from the big picture to the smallest detail. We both believe in running things on our core values, which are very important, and you never sacrifice those even if it’s a really tough business decision. 

Tell us about where you envision the Sarasota Bayfront 20:20 project going?

When you look at downtown since the early 2000s, then the pause, followed by the restart and the last three years, people are amazed at how quickly we evolved out of nothing happening to everything happening. We’re seeing our downtown being built out from apartments to projects like Vue Sarasota Bayfront, which begins to finish off the other half of our downtown — everything west of 41. And if you look at that at as our “gold coast” of high-end condominiums, the Bayfront project gives us the opportunity to give that side some degree of integration. There’s never been a thought of what could be from the corner of Gulfstream Avenue to as far north as we can make that happen. But with the Quay property in play, it became the impetus to talk about all the possibilities that can be incorporated into this 42 acres that benefits everyone. If we as community aren’t ready to talk about this publicly-owned land, then we’re going to miss this important opportunity. That means talking about pedestrian bike paths, what happens on this side versus that side, roundabouts, etc. We’ve got to be on our A-game.

I give a lot of credit to Virginia Haley (president of Visit Sarasota County) for letting the board run with that topic. What would be more important for tourism than this centerpiece of our arts and culture? I think everyone realized that there had been a failed effort to develop the future of the Bayfront in the early 2000s. Nothing had really changed, and that only meant infrastructure was older, the need to focus on this had only become more acute. So we confronted the issue of how to bring forth this big, hairy, complicated 42-acre project with 12 leaseholders in a community that is also very concerned about change? 

We decided that this project’s first discussion couldn’t be “this is what is going to be built” otherwise all you’re going to do is argue about it. It is like trees on Main Street. I like Oak trees. You like Palm trees. And you have this Oak vs. Palm tree debate and miss the right discussion, and don’t see the forest for the trees. So that’s how we decided that it had to be a community discussion and it became Bayfront 20:20, a community effort of “let’s build a consensus of organizations with members who can vote and represent a constituency,” not just one individual’s voice, and let’s make sure that with a consensus of over a couple thousand people at this point, we create a bill of rights for any development. 

Those were the guiding principles and the hard work that came long before the SBPO (Sarasota Bayfront Planning Organization); principles adopted by both the SPBO and the city into the ethos of what has become a much more technical process of “how do we plan the thing.” And that’s where we are today. That planning effort, and the city’s wisdom not to make it a political process, allows for SBPO, a nonprofit, to deliver back to the community, and for the city’s approval of an implementable plan. We’re at that stage now. We are blessed to have so many talented people involved in a real team effort. I trust the team that is in play now. You could not have a better leader than A.G. Lafley (Sarasota resident and former chairman, president and CEO of Procter & Gamble), with the complexities and experience in his business career, and who has completed a similar process and project in Cincinnati. We are fortunate that he’s volunteering his time and talent. Everybody on the team is talented and comes with a unique perspective, yet all of them realize they must honor what the community created.   

How important is Bayfront 20:20 in defining Sarasota’s future?

I think everybody knows to do this right it has to be something that serves us well for the next 50 to 75 years. To do this piecemeal was something that we all wanted to prevent. I think that the true ability to transform that site into a fabulous park with amazing amenities, whether you go in or not, is going to be the true trick of the great horizontal plan. Whenever and whatever gets built there, it’s going to be built in phases. Some people will love it and some people will not. You’re never going to get 100 percent consensus with any architecture, but if you give the community the opportunity to create that, and it serves the community the next 50 to 75 years, we’re going to have a “high five” moment. 

Is Sarasota still a small town in your mind and heart?

If you’ve lived here for a couple of years, you’re always going to run into someone you know, so it still feels like a small town to me. It doesn’t live like a small town, not like it used to. We’re bigger than a town, but smaller than a city, and I think that’s a real cool place to be. 

When you look around, is there a place that makes you shake your head and say wow, look at this place?

I do. When I think of this town, one of my favorite places is that wonderful Ringling Bridge that was built through much debate, but with the vision of great man – the late Gil Waters. It connects and activates the community and is representative of someone would not give up fighting for something he believed in. 

As a family man, what kind of place do you want to leave to your children and grandchildren? 

I want my community to be greener, cleaner and with strong institutions, particularly educational, and at its core, an economy that allows people of all levels of their life to choose to be able to stay here.