Business Resiliency

St. Armands residents have chosen this island for many reasons, not least of which is the ability to walk to all of the wonderful shops and restaurants on the Circle.  We recognize that when these businesses thrive, so does our residential experience.  We support our local businesses, we shop and dine with them, and we enthusiastically hope for their success. 

We believe that commercial property owners and their business tenants need education, incentives, and/or new code requirements to enable them to re-open from flooding events more quickly. These include:

• Raising all power outlets six feet from floors
• Installing concrete or tile floors and waterproof walls (for easy cleaning post-flooding)
• Installing removable flood barriers
• Having evacuation plans which include raising up or removing inventory, equipment, and furnishings

For example, the owner of the new St. Armands Pinchers restaurant told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune (link) that there are plans for polished concrete floors in the downstairs area to prevent flood damage. The kitchen equipment can be removed and taken from the building by truck or brought upstairs in pre-storm preparation. After a storm passes, the equipment can be returned to its original place.  “We have learned quite a bit about storm readiness and making sure we can adjust when a storm is heading at us”.

For business spaces that must remain closed for an extended period, we suggest wrapping the windows with attractive graphics: