Chamber estimates: $2.6 million revenue lost in a week island-wide
Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce President Jacki Liszak sat at her desk Friday afternoon, telling a local business owner where to find links to water quality information.
“Go to our front page, click on that first hexagon, ‘beach conditions,'” she said.
It was one of hundreds of phone calls the Chamber has fielded about water quality.
Water quality issues have been hitting businesses on Fort Myers Beach – and other coastal areas – for weeks.
The Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce decided to quantify what exactly that meant.
For the past two weeks, the Chamber has been collecting data from beach businesses to see how much they were losing.
The results so far? An estimated $2.6 million in average estimated revenue lost from July 30 to Aug. 6.
Liszak said about 47 businesses have been participating.
According to Lee County records, there are 376 businesses in operation on Fort Myers Beach; Liszak culled the business list down to those dependent on tourism and visitors, and averaged the numbers she’d gotten from the 47 respondents to arrive at her average estimates. She said she thinks those numbers are light, as some larger businesses did not respond to the survey.
In addition, the estimated 4,500 employees of the 376 businesses have lost an estimated average of $560,000 in wages in the same time period, Liszak said.
“This is directly affecting the people who work here, and their families,” she said.
From the hotels, Liszak estimates they are sitting at about 20 to 50 percent occupancy. July is typically closer to 70 to 80 percent, with things slowing down by the middle of August.
“We’re getting cancellations through September, but we’re practically empty right now,” said Beverly Milligan, co-owner of Myerside Resort.
She said her priority is taking care of her employees. She and co-owner Roland Weinmann are cutting any non-essential expenses, like renewing memberships or doing any local advertising.
“We have to keep our staff. They’re our family, they’re first,” she said.
They’re focusing on social media and marketing themselves there. But she said it’s like a financial Irma – they’re locking all the doors and closing all the windows, but unlike last year’s hurricane, they don’t know when it will be over.
“I’m looking ahead to property taxes and flood insurance, these big bills that are going to be a problem,” Milligan said. “It’s worse than Irma ever was.”
Tre and Amy Gillette, owners of Tuckaway Bagel Coffee Cafe, said they had their best July ever. But at the end of the month, things started to nosedive.
“I anticipated a drop when school started back, I was looking for that, but coupled with red tide, it’s been pretty rough,” Tre Gillette said. “The biggest problem is, September is after this.”
August typically gets the last rush of vacationers before school starts, but that didn’t happen. The only plus in September is Labor Day – and that’s it until about mid-October, he said. For now, he said their store is in “survival mode.” They’ve cut their hours back for now and are trying to gear up for season.
The Gillettes moved their cafe from a different location on Estero Boulevard to their current location next to Royal Scoop last year; with the move came more indoor space, which has proved to be a positive for them. Besides an escape from the heat, the indoor space gives their customers an escape from the fumes and irritation of red tide.
The steep drop in tourism in August follows a stellar June and July, Liszak said.
The extra income in the beginning of the summer could be helping businesses stay afloat – but only if they planned ahead.
“It’s fast or famine here,” Liszak said. “Hopefully, businesses thought to save.”
Moving Forward
This week’s red tide forecast by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows an improvement for central Lee County; while the Gulf continues to record high levels of red ride, the bay region has stepped back to moderate. Sunday and Monday, the color of the Gulf water was looking a little less brown and a little more blue.
But Tre Gillette said it’s been hard for people to move on – people are still focused on the bad.
Amy Gillette is ready for people to stop posting the horrific images of bodies on the beach and start talking about solutions.
“You keep seeing these horrible pictures. I think everybody got it,” she said. “Everybody needs to start channeling that energy into fixing it and making it better. We’re beyond fighting about it, we need to move on and fix it. Pointing fingers won’t get anything done.”
On Monday, the Town of Fort Myers Beach made a decision at the end of its meeting to try to do something positive, too – it’s waiving parking fees until Sept. 10.
Council Member Anita Cereceda suggested the waiver during council member items at the end of a full day meeting. She said she’d looked at the numbers from last year and compared to this year – in 2017, the town had made $93,000 from parking meters. With less than 10 days left in August, the town’s only made $21,000.
“This number is terrifying to those of us who own businesses,” Cereceda said. She’s the owner of the Pier Peddler, Local Color and The Islander.
Council Member Bruce Butcher pointed out that the town raised parking fees last year from $2 to $3, making the difference even more staggering.
“I’ve been trying to patronize our community. It isn’t the businesses as much as the people who are working there and supporting their families,” Cereceda said.
Town Manager Roger Hernstadt said with the low numbers being recorded already, waiving the fee until the next council meeting wouldn’t have a significant impact on the budget.
“It pays off in the long run, for positive goodwill and for getting people here,” Vice Mayor Joanne Shamp said.
Mayor Tracey Gore also joined her fellow mayors with the Florida League of Cities last week in
supporting a resolution brought by Mayor Kevin Ruane of the City of Sanibel, which asks President Donald Trump to declare areas of Florida affected by red tide and cyanobacteria as a major disaster area.
A state of emergency has been declared on the local, county and state levels, and expanded last week. Governor Rick Scott issued another declaration to include red tide.
But so far, the funding released with those declarations has been $500,000 in public relations assistance and future marketing for tourism when the blooms clear up, as well as $100,000 for additional assistance in testing sea life for toxins.
Businesses have the option of seeking an emergency bridge loan. The website, floridadisasterloan.org, states that small businesses can qualify to borrow up to $50,000.
But rather than assistance, it’s temporary relief with potential long term consequences: the loan is interest-free if paid back within 180 days – so, by February 2019 if applied for now – or else the borrower gets charged 18 percent interest after the maturity date, and the loan will be considered in default, with the balance sent to a collections agency.
Both the Gillettes and Milligan said they’re not at the point where the “emergency bridge loan” is part of their financial consideration for now.
“To go out and get a loan, it’s going to eat up all of your revenues in season next year. So, what what do you do? How do you climb out of that?” Milligan said.
After Hurricane Irma, the community was able to come together and help each other out. But for this disaster, Milligan said the experience is more isolating. It’s difficult to be able to go out and support her fellow businesses when her own is suffering.
“I’m a glass-half-full person, but this one is tough,” Milligan said.