Shopper's Paradise

Jaclyn Koc knew she was getting desperate when she had to put a flashing police light in the window of her store to attract customers.

Koc and her mother run Needful Things, a collectibles shop in the Tahitian Gardens shopping plaza on Sanibel Island. Until recently, many of the neighboring stores were vacant-victims of slow business in the months and years after Hurricane Charley hit the island in August 2004. Vacant stores mean less foot traffic, and that translates to fewer sales.

"I would say 90 percent of the stuff in our store is an impulse buy," Koc says. "Without people wandering through, it can really cut into your profits."

So Koc put the light in her window to let shoppers know she was still open. It helped, but so did something else-the sale of the shopping plaza to Ohio-based R.L.R. Investments and its founder, Ralph L. "Larry" Roberts Sr. The company purchased Tahitian Gardens in July 2005. Renovations that are under way have been bringing in new tenants.

These days the plaza is nearly full, and Koc couldn't be happier.

"We have stores that are full now," she says. "People see that stores are open, and they come in from off the street."

Tourists and residents on Sanibel aren't the only ones opening their checkbooks. R.L.R. Investments didn't buy just one major Sanibel shopping center in the past 18 months or so. It bought almost all of them.

According to the Sanibel & Captiva Islands Chamber of Commerce, the company now owns six of the largest retail shopping outlets on Sanibel.

R.L.R. has gone on a veritable shopping spree-$7.5 million for Tahitian Gardens, more than $8.7 million for most of the Village Shopping Center, $2.9 million for the Olde Sanibel Shoppes, $920,000 for the Tarpon Bay Center, $750,000 for the Towne Center Plaza and more than $1.3 million for half of the units in The Promenade, according to the Lee County Property Appraiser's Web site.

Although there are many other smaller retail centers, the only major shopping center not controlled by R.L.R. is Periwinkle Place, owned by the Dahlman family of Ann Arbor, Mich. R.L.R. Investments also owns The Island Store on Andy Rosse Lane on Captiva and has an office building-its new local headquarters-under construction right across the street, on the site of a former art gallery and restaurant.

Together that's more than $26 million in Lee County property and doesn't include tens of millions more the Roberts family has invested in homes, warehouses, even a Fort Myers Beach motel.

"Those [shopping center] transfers really marked a fairly significant transfer of property on the island," says Robert Duffy, Sanibel's planning director. "There's been great interest in the future of those properties."

A local company representative assures islanders R.L.R. will help the Sanibel and Captiva retail scene get back on track after a series of setbacks that have included causeway construction, higher tolls, damage from Hurricane Charley and the subsequent long shutdown of the islands' largest resort, South Seas Island Resort on Captiva, which reopened in March.

R.L.R. has already attracted a handful of new stores to the Sanibel properties, including an art gallery, high-end clothing stores and a bakery. "We're trying to upscale [the shopping centers] a little bit from the mom-and-pops so they can stay in business during a hurricane," says Lois Warner, a property manager for R.L.R. "We're a little strict on who we allow to be our tenants."

That's what apparently worries some movers and shakers on the islands.

Keeping the Character

"The City of Sanibel, partly in reaction to the acquisitions and partly just in reaction to some of the other market conditions here on the island, is already in the process of having public hearings on the issue of what's called 'formula retail,'" says Steve Greenstein, former executive director of the Sanibel and Captiva Islands Chamber of Commerce.

Formula retail, translated into everyday lingo, means chain stores-something many islanders want to leave back on the mainland. Some years ago, after McDonald's came looking for land, Sanibel's leaders passed ordinances making it very hard for chain restaurants, especially fast-food restaurants, to set up shop on the island. Now under discussion is whether to put restrictions on retail outlets, too. Greenstein says these would likely involve limiting the size, number and location of such shops in the hope of avoiding chains like the Gap, Williams-Sonoma and Sephora-all popular in tourist areas.

"People here don't want to be just like anywhere else. They want to maintain their unique character," Greenstein says. "There is a fairly extensive part of the residential community here that would believe the infusion of all these types of formula retailers represents a loss of community character."

Sanibel Vice Mayor Mick Denham believes the push to control chain stores on the island predates the recent property purchases by R.L.R. He says the push really got going when the drugstore chain Walgreens came quietly looking for a spot to set up shop on the island.

"I don't think certain formula retailers would be appropriate for this island," Denham says. "It isn't to say that we won't have them, but we need to have some means of controlling it."

In 2005, the Sanibel City Council adopted a set of interim zoning regulations-so called "zoning in progress"-that restricted formula retail outlets on the island until the situation could be more fully explored.

Currently the city's planning commission is reviewing a new series of revised commercial zoning regulations. The regulations would also need to go through the city council and public meetings this fall before they could become law.

"That's a ways down the road," Duffy says.

The crux of the debate: Should formula retail be restricted and, if so, how far should the restrictions go?

R.L.R. managers say they are aware of the concerns on Sanibel and Captiva.

Roberts Sr., of Wilmington, Ohio, founder of R.L.R. Investments, owns several homes on Captiva Island and reportedly visits there often. Local reps say someday he'll retire here. One of his sons, a principal in the company, already lives on Captiva full-time. Several attempts to reach the Roberts were unsuccessful.

Warner knows local residents initially had fears, but believes that has passed.

"At first, there may have been [concerns] because we were new and came in from another state, but now they know we're good and that we're here to help and to beautify and to get this place back on its feet," she says.

While the company's managers might not be thrilled about the prospects of new retail outlet restrictions, Warner says if they pass, it's fine with them. They'll just look that much harder for tenants that fit into the community.

Pardon the Dust

Major renovations are planned for at least four of R.L.R.'s properties on Sanibel.

"They brought over a layout of what our shopping center is going to look like," Koc says. "They're going to give it a facelift, add a grand staircase. They're going to add details to the top of the roof, give it a paint job and add some skylights."

In some cases, new roofs, decks and siding as well as spruced-up landscaping are in the works.

"To date, their work has been consistent with our land development code," says Duffy, including city-approved renovations on a historic building at the Olde Sanibel Shoppes on Tarpon Bay Road. "We're certainly excited about the improvements and investments they have been making."

Doug and Amy Horton own Amy's Over Easy Café in the Olde Sanibel Shoppes. Work has already begun at the center and, despite some occasional noise and a bit of dust, the couple is excited about what R.L.R. has planned.

"The owners are in here for breakfast two or three times a week when they're here. It's a good working relationship," Doug Horton says. "They're hands-on and they have the money to do things right."

In fact, Warner boldly predicts that R.L.R.'s efforts could pay off for all retailers on the islands. "None of the plazas has been renovated in 20 years or longer," Warner says. "I think once we do it, a lot of the other plazas will follow suit. This will attract the tourists more."

Local tenants in the R.L.R. properties certainly hope that's the case-so they can keep up with the rising rents the company reportedly is charging.

"I am absolutely very, very, very concerned," says Pamela King, owner of Designer Consigner of Sanibel located in the Tarpon Bay Center.

She has spoken with neighboring tenants who say R.L.R. has doubled the rents for some businesses while working with others to move them to less-expensive, vacant storefronts.

"They're putting a million-dollar renovation in. When you put in a million-dollar renovation, it only means one thing-increase the rent," King says. "When they raise your rents as much as these people are doing, you either have to close or you have to raise your prices. If the market can't bear the price increases, it would be the demise of the business."

Rumors of R.L.R. negotiating with high-end chain stores such as Gucci and Coach are circulating on the island, but no one seems sure where they came from or if they are true. "That is not true," Warner says. "Everybody thinks that, but it's just a rumor."