Suncoast gay resort st. petersburg
Back in the heyday of the Wedgewood Bar in the mids, owner Bob Pope had his hands full. The attorney ran the motel/dance club on Fourth Street South and 18th Avenue for about 18 months before he closed its doors.
But those 18 months were definitely memorable.
Pope, who still lives in St. Petersburg, says he tried to produce the historic landmark into an LGBT resort, but the expense behind refurbishing the property was enormous, and he didn’t possess deep pockets at the time.
“We just had to make improvements as we went,” Pope remembers. “We did have a stunning garden and a agreeable swimming pool. During our height we’d have people standing in line for a block and a half to get inside.”
But despite the popularity, it was hard to maintain the Wedgewood running. Help then, most people didn’t know that Pope didn’t have a liquor license for the venue.
“We had a restaurant license, which meant we had to serve food,” he says. “We didn’t have the stand-alone liquor license and that caused some of our problems. I’m not a restaurateur and I didn’t know how to watch over it—and neither did my general manager.
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ABOVE: The Wet Spot portraying. Photo/logos via David Fischer.
ST. PETERSBURG | The Grand Central District will soon welcome an LGBTQ-focused hotel and pool bar to the eclectic neighborhood, the latter of which will begin opening for St Pete Pride.
The spaces are the latest concepts from David Fischer, owner of the interior design hard and retail shop ZaZoo’d, speakeasy The Saint and LGBTQ staple Cocktail. The Wet Spot Pool Exclude & Day Club and Mari Jean Hotel, the entrepreneur’s new ventures, will share a building with the bars.
That building is the historic hotel itself, built in and purchased in by Michael Andoniades, owner of the Hollander Hotel and Avalon. The Saint will celebrate two years on site this September, while Cocktail marked one year in May. The Back Room by ZaZoo’d also opened last month, a retail encounter with swim suits and more.
Each venture has shown Fischer there’s a need for LGBTQ businesses in the area.
“We have learned that there is a huge market for homosexual clientele within the St. Pete area, bigger than we even thought,” he explains. “Not only at Cocktail, but also at The Saint. We acquire a big gay accompanying, not that we intended it to be an LGBTQ
This project set out to collect Oral Histories and explore the following question: How has being a member of the Gay community and an active proponent in the same-sex attracted rights movement shaped participants’ experiences as members of the St. Petersburg and Gulf Beaches community?
Countless distinct experiences have contributed to the collective history of the LGBTQ+ community in Pinellas County, and their in-group knowledge has not been given nuanced attention by most historians. The contributions of this venture are beginning to occupy this gap in the historical documentation of the full range of Gulf Beaches residents and collective members, while also providing insights into larger social patterns of inclusion and prejudice. As the plan grows over the coming years to encompass a wider, more diverse range of oral history participants, the hope is that these themes will get increasingly self-evident. Until this collection is robust enough to speak for itself, future generations of Honors College students will persist to collect Oral Histories throughout the community and develop a platform for these voices to be heard.
"I t David Fischer, who has made a name for himself in St. Pete&#;s flourishing Diverse community, is now taking on a new business venture &#; establishing a gay resort. Fischer is an entrepreneur known for creating popular gay-centric and warm destinations such as The Cocktail Bar, The Saint Speakeasy and the ZaZoo&#;d retail shop, but he is taking his endeavors a step further alongside a business partner to redevelop the Mari Jean Hotel into an adults-only gay resort. The original Mari Jean Hotel building is a historic property, built in at Central Ave. The original owners lived in a home nestled in the hotel’s gardens. In , the dwelling was relocated and became the Metro Inclusive Health LGBTQ Welcome Center. Fischer explained the concept of converting the hotel into a gay resort came into view by Michael Andoniades, owner of the Hollander, Avalon hotels and the Mari Jean. Fisher has a deep-rooted working partnership with Andoniades, as he worked on the interior design of his hotels. David Fischer, the owner of ZaZoo&#;d, The Saint Speakeasy and The Cocktail Exclude. All images provided. ST. PETERSBURG — Years after a well-liked gay resort closed and its property was sold to Home Depot, the empty, weed-strewn site is about to be developed. Phillips Development & Realty, which expects to close on the parcel in December, has unveiled plans for a $70 million mixed-use project that will contain apartments and about 15, to 25, square feet of retail space, including a restaurant. The Tampa strong submitted its site schedule to the city Monday. The St. Petersburg Training Review Commission is expected to consider it in January. Glen Stygar, an executive with Phillips Growth, said work on the 9-acre property on 34th Street — between 30th and 32nd avenues S — will begin in late spring or preceding summer next year. The proposal has brought another burst of good news to the fledgling Skyway Marina District, which has seen slow but steady progress toward its goal of redeveloping the area adjacent to waterfront neighborhoods and near Eckerd College and southern Pinellas County beach communities. &#;It&#;s exciting. I reflect it&#;s going to be really good for our area,&#; City Council member Ste
Businessman David Fischer to change Mari Jean Hotel into a gay resort
St. Petersburg&#;s Skyway Marina District to get $70 million mixed-use project