Everything’s bigger in Texas.
I’m hoping that attitude trickles down from the new partners at Marina Jack.
And no, I’m not talking about packing the marina with more boats seemingly larger than my apartment.
But I’ll get back to this in a minute.
We learned yesterday the downtown Sarasota staple has merged with Dallas-based Suntex Marina. Marina Jack has leased this land from the city for decades. Everyone is expected to keep their jobs. City officials expect everything at the marina, the restaurant and O’Leary’s Tiki Bar to remain status quo. Even the long-criticized lease¹ shouldn’t see any changes.
Boring, right?
While I’m thrilled to hear the only bayside bar downtown hasn’t hit the chopping block, wouldn’t it be great if we could mix the beauty of Sarasota’s bayfront with the the new partner’s everything-is-bigger-in Texas roots?
(With The Vue obnoxiously towering over U.S. 41 and Gulf Stream, we’re already heading that way anyway.)
So Texas, how about bringing us some big beer?
And big daiquiris?
And bigger shrimp baskets?
Just not a bigger bar tab, OK?
¹ A note about the Sarasota bayfront lease: Because of a rare court victory in the late 1980s, Marina Jack’s parent company dodged paying taxes for almost two decades. That came about because of a lease dating back to the 1960s that deemed the company’s operation of the bayfront a public good for the city.
(And hell, I’ve had a lot of good nights at O’Leary’s so maybe there’s some truth to that.)
Tensions increased in a lease the city signed with the company in 2009, which rented the bayfront to the company for 3 percent of what it earns each year — a lease critics have called a “sweetheart deal.”
(Still, not as sweet as a jumbo daiquiri, — I do like pina coladas and getting caught in the rain, thank you very much — but I digress.)
About four years ago, Marina Jack started paying taxes just like the rest of us, but still got a 50 percent break on its taxes.
(With that kind of cash floating around clearly they’ve got some room to add a few more ounces to my bayside Landsharks.)