Five Questions

For the past several months, gloria Kovacs has been more

than a retailer on Naples’ popular Fifth Avenue South. She’s head of the Fifth

Avenue South Association, a group of merchants and business owners that

encourages the development of Fifth Avenue and coordinates events such as the

Fourth of July Firecracker Festival and Evenings on Fifth.

Kovacs also runs The Name Game, a gift shop specializing in

personalized items that she owns with her husband, Gil. She moved The Name

Game, which she describes as a “mom-and-pop” shop, from the Dockside Boardwalk

to Fifth Avenue five years ago.

What drew you to Fifth Avenue?

I live a few blocks away, and downtown Naples has always

been part of my neighborhood. In New York, my shop was a neighborhood store. I

got to know all of my customers and their kids. I missed that. I had regular

customers at the Dockside Boardwalk, but it’s definitely more tourist-oriented.

Here, you can get to know your customers. Sometimes I’ll have lemonade and

we’ll chitchat.

Describe the state of Fifth Avenue when you moved here.

There were a lot of empty stores, a lot of real-estate and

financial institutions. There was just nothing to keep you here after hours.

Then we started seeing the

incredible changes, with Andres Duany’s plan and the revitalization.

The Miami-based urban planning firm Duany Plater-Zyberk

& Co. also has drawn up a plan to continue the revitalization of downtown

Fort Myers. Any advice for planners in Fort Myers?

Revitalization is great, but it has its ups and downs. When

people invest in properties and enhance them, or tear them down and build

something better, rents increase. When that happens, you’re in danger of losing

your special niche as a “Main Street.” Chains start to come in. There’s nothing

wrong with national retailers. But for that you can go to the mall. Starbucks

did just open on Fifth Avenue, and we welcome them. They were very aware of

making their store fit into the look of a main street.

One of the philosophies of the Main Street Program (a

state-sponsored downtown redevelopment initiative that Naples and Fort Myers

Beach are part of) is to keep small specialty shops and boutiques.

Did the events of 9-11 hurt retail along Fifth Avenue?

It affected everyone. I had customers who were residents

here who canceled their trips to Europe. At the same time, a lot of my English

customers refused to let this stop them from coming to the United States. Some

booked a trip right away to support the economy.

The association went ahead with our plans. We started our

Evenings on Fifth in October. We said, “Life has to go on.” We hope to continue

our Evenings on Fifth through the summer.

Sales-wise, it’s been a good year so far, although 9-11

affected us initially.

Has Fifth Avenue reached its prime, in terms of the

revitalization?

The best is still to come. The development on this street is

very good. We have a lot of restaurants on this street and they’re all busy. We

have some wonderful art galleries. I’d like to see more retail. But we have a

nice mix.