Council grants owner $50,000 for face lifts

Taylor Rentals & Creative Events will get a face lift after being awarded $25,000 by the Bonita Springs City Council as part of a Storefront Grant program that will help business owners.


Council members in Bonita Springs are continuing their efforts to breed new life into the Old 41 corridor in Bonita Springs.

The city has awarded two storefront grants in the amount of $50,000 to George Ghanem, the owner of Bonita Mini Storage and Taylor Rentals & Creative Events.

The grant money will help Ghanem remodel the front of the two businesses and help the city with its plans to revitalize the area.

"Beautifying and changing the architecture of that building to be more of the vision (council has) is a great way to make it a better place," said Ghanem, who has owned the businesses for the last six years. "We just want to make it a little nicer."

Working to make the area nicer took 18 months, Ghanem said, because of the lengthy application process that had to be submitted to the city for approval.

"We do a pre-application and we talk about what they'd like to do and it's a quick way for us to be able to

get an idea of what their plans are," said John Gucciardo, the special projects coordinator for the city. "We are able to get an idea of what they want before they go out and spend a lot of money."

Gucciardo is in charge of evaluating the applications that include turning in pictures of the current structure and architectural drawings of what will be done with the grant money.

The property owners and the city do a 50-50 split up to $25,000. Because Ghanem owned two properties, the city had to approve a grant for each structure.

"We brought it up to the council that it was all part of one renovation project but it was two separate parcels," Gucciardo said about the grant that was created for one business at a time.

The two projects are estimated to cost Ghanem $200,000 and work should be completed by the summer of 2008.

Grant recipients have one year to complete the project and are reimbursed at completion time.

"It's still an outright grant but it's not a loan, but it is secured with a note and that is attracting more property owners," said Gucciardo, adding that owners who receive the money will get a 20 percent break on their obligation to the city if they keep the property for five years.

Ghanem is hoping the new storefronts and work being done in the Old 41 corridor will attract more people and more business.

"I think that its been a little run down for a while overall, but its not really been indicative of the true city and spirit of the area," said Ghanem who is also looking into possibly expanding the square footage of the structures as well.

"Bonita is a wonderful place to live and work and we feel we have an obligation to keep it a pleasant (looking) place."

Bonita Springs Resource House opens

Bonita Springs Mayor Jay Arend, Pat O' Donnell, Literacy Council of Bonita Springs Executive Director Susan Acuna, Cliff Smith of the United Way and Nancy Keefer of the Bonita Springs Area Chamber of Commerce cut a ribbon and pose for pictures in front of the new Bonita Springs Resource Center.

The Literacy Council of Bonita Springs has plenty of space for everyone willing to provide services in the Bonita Springs area.

The council, which has been located on Old 41 for several years, is opening a Bonita Springs Resource House to bring help to those who need it.

"We have a lot of students who live in the Bonita area that need our help ... this will help local programs partner up," said Susan Acuna, the executive director of the council. "Pairing up with local programs will give our students and others additional services."

The council announced the available space to local agencies recently at a ribbon cutting attended by Mayor Jay Arend and other members of the community.

"We have to keep working to get the services out there and that we need a family resource center," said Arend about an idea that has been tossed around among city council members and service agencies but no time line has been created for it. "It will happen eventually, we just need to find the place."

Community leaders are looking for space along the Old 41 corridor in efforts to make it a central location for agencies to offer their services.

The United Way is guiding the efforts along with the council.

"Space is not a problem as much as coordinating it all," said Cliff Smith, of the United Way about possibly opening similar Resource Houses in Bonita. "We are thrilled to help coordinate with other agencies ... they make it easier to help others."

Making it easy for groups to help is why the council was chosen by the United Way to help coordinate with groups interested in using the Resource House.

"We will work with them and work it out so they can use the space when we aren't," said Acuna who helped 1,549 students last year.

The Resource house, said Acuna, will be offered for group meetings, seminars for council students, or for events.

"We are trying to get other agencies that aren't here to move into this area and get help where its needed," Cliff Smith said. "This (house) is centrally located ... they already help so many."

Local service agencies have already begun to use the Resource House to offer classes about health and credit counseling to the mostly Hispanic students.

"When given space agencies work together more efficiently," Smith said. "Everybody can hook up and get the [locals] what they need."

10-year-old’s recipe tops ice cream contest

(left) Lydia Baker, 6, talks to Summer Shipe, 6, about the ice cream flavors they voted on at the Bonita Springs YMCA. Royal Scoop asked summer campers to create ice cream flavors and the winner received a year of free ice cream.

Raspberry Fudge Avalanche ice cream took the prize at the Royal Scoop ice cream contest where Bonita Springs YMCA summer campers were asked to create an ice cream flavor.

The white chocolate ice cream, fudge swirl, raspberry and pieces of brownie got the nod from judges and even campers who voted on their favorite.

“I got a little help because it was putting it all together,” said Austin Brown, 10, the winner of the grand prize of free ice cream for a year. “It was really cool and others could try it.”

In naming the ice cream, Austin said he thought about the ingredients, and the word “avalanche” was based on his favorite ice cream that’s on the market today.

“I wanted to put stuff that I like into it,” said Austin, who was one of more than 50 who used a list provided by Royal Scoop to create their flavor.

Royal Scoop owner David Zimmerman turned to the campers to create a flavor because he wanted to expand his kid offerings.

“I’ve never done this before, but we always look for new flavors and kids can combine things very well,” said Zimmerman after seeing the entries.

Judges who included some members of the YMCA and Royal Scoop picked the top five entries and brought the flavors in tubs for campers to taste.

“I like the chocolate one,” said Summer Shipe, 6, while tasting ice cream in numbered cups.

Other entries in the contest included ingredients with nuts, cherries, chocolate ice cream and pieces of chocolate.

“We will make some of the others as time goes by but we wanted something that would be marketable for now,” said Zimmerman, who enjoyed an entry called Mintopia. “The Mintopia was just so good but a very specific flavor. I’d like to make it eventually.”

Along with winning free ice cream for a year, Austin will see his flavor sold to customers. The display will feature his name, age and ingredients on it.

“It was really cool to put everything together and see that others could try it,” Austin said.

Hyatt Regency uncorks wine label

Tom Carlos is served a Canvas wine by Kristen Palazzo, a wine consultant for the distributor who will be providing Canvas to the Hyatt's Florida hotels.

The Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort & Spa has launched Canvas, a new signature wine label, that is sure to take customers’ taste buds to a new level.

At least that’s what Tom Carlos, the director of food and beverage at the hotel, has been hearing from customers who have tasted the three new wines of the label.

“Our list now is just so much better than before,” Carlos said about adding the new wines and increasing their offerings to 26.

The new wine, which comes in a cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay and merlot, is being served at all the Hyatts companywide.

“It was a corporate partnership and it’s an exclusive brand for the Hyatt,” said Kelly Olsen, the hotel spokesperson.

The label was created for Hyatt by Folio Fine Wine Partners, a Napa Valley, Calif. -based company owned by the Michael Mondavi family.

“I think that the credibility of the craftsmanship of the wine maker and his family ... make it special,” said Carlos about the acclaimed wine making family that will produce the wines. “These wines are easy drinking and even if you don’t know technical terms of wine ...”

The wine label was named Canvas after the “art of living” and refers to the artisan approach taken when making the wine including using only quality fruit from the top growing regions in California to the blending process.

“We are now representing ... in our wine list ... every region in the world, in the old world and the new frontier,” Carlos said.

The hotel hosted a staff wine tasting night so employees could better sell the wines to customers and chefs could create new menus.

“Everybody can become an expert in the list that now has Canvas,” said Carlos about the wine tasting that offered a variety of cheeses as well.

The wines are also available for sale at the Hyatt but are only being sold in 750 milliliter bottles but are available by the glass throughout the property.

“The wines are still young because they were just bottled but they will open and it’s affordable for just about anyone to try,” said Carlos about the label that has been in planning for more than a year. “This wine goes down easy and appeals to the masses.”

Florida Builder Appliances opens showroom

Local contractors and builders have a new shopping option when looking for brand-name appliances in Bonita Springs.

Florida Builder Appliances has recently opened a new 8,000-square-foot showroom of appliances for new construction and remodeling projects.

“We sell mostly work with contractors and a lot of it is referred business ... majority is designers too,” said Carla Eubanks, the sales selection consultant at the new showroom. “This new showroom is twice as big.”

The brand name giant sells all types of appliances from ranges to refrigerators but does not sell General Electric products.

“We can show more of our vendors,” said Eubanks about the store that sells every brand except GE. “It’s a lot easier for customers to make selections when they can see the product and not rely on catalogs.”

The showroom is unique because the appliances are not lined up in rows and prices vary from high end to lower priced models.

“Everything is set up the way it would look in a home ... people can see visually what it will look like,” she said.

Florida Builder Appliances moved its store to Bonita Springs after discovering that contractors and growth were moving north.

“We had an office in North Naples but the building industry is not centralized in Naples anymore,” Eubanks said of the store that is also open to the public.

The public and members of the building industry were recently invited to check out the new space during an Iron Chef competition on Food Network.

“Duck was the mystery ingredient and we just wanted to draw people’s attention,” said Eubanks about the idea to host the competition between Denis Meurgue from Patio 33 and Chef Will Ratley of the Westye Group.

Both chefs created four dishes and were judged by local foodies from the media.

“There are so many good restaurants down here and we’d like to see more local people compete,” Eubanks said of the cook-off that served as a fundraiser for The Soup Kitchen.

The Soup Kitchen is an outreach of the Community Cooperative Ministries Inc. that serves lunch six days a week to homeless and at-risk individuals and families.

“We raised $5,000 and it was good to give back,” she said adding that a raffle was held for dinner at the showroom to be cooked by Chef J. Warren, a TV host personality. “The local foodies that came really seemed to enjoy it.”

Florida Builder Appliances’ showroom is hoping to host more events in the future.

“I’m hoping that we can use the facility to draw in a lot of people and showcase some local talent,” she said.