The tour was organized by the Daytona Regional Chamber of Commerce to bring together beachside residents, local elected leaders, real estate professionals, investors and representatives of the city's largest businesses who have a stake in how the area fares and the power to help it.
DAYTONA BEACH — As a group of local leaders snaked through the narrow side streets of the beachside early one morning last week, they saw paint-starved homes being devoured by termites.
Once filled with families who lived in them for generations, some residences have been chopped up into multiple apartments, a reality evidenced by the clusters of cars parked out front and multiple gas meters lined up on exterior walls. Although some have ocean views from their top floors, they exist as low-rent housing.
As the group traveled down one alley-like street with a tangle of power lines hanging overhead, they walked past a sidewalk too buckled to walk on. They then moved toward an old livery building with a roof that looks like it has been beaten up by every tropical storm and hurricane that has hit Daytona Beach for decades.
"We can talk all we want to, but look at that roof," sighed G.G. Galloway, a partner at Ormond Beach-based Coldwell Banker Commercial Benchmark Properties. "Until we start to enforce codes, it's tough to do a cleanup or revitalization of an area that has seen finer days. If you're going to bark, you've got to put some teeth into it."
"Government has to look at regulations through the eyes of investment," chimed in another man taking the 75-minute neighborhood tour.
As the group got closer to the livery barn between Fern Lane and Coates Street, they saw a bright orange condemned sign attached to the wall. The city government notice that the structure has been deemed unsafe and unfit for occupancy was one of several indications that there has been at least some official action since some of those on tour walked the same area around Main Street a year ago.
They also saw other evidence of efforts to turn around the core tourist area that many believe has the potential to be one of the nicest parts of the city: New businesses, new planters, fresh paint.
The tour was organized by the Daytona Regional Chamber of Commerce to bring together beachside residents, local elected leaders, real estate professionals, investors and representatives of some of the city's largest businesses who have a stake in how the area fares — and the power to help it. A total of 15 people joined in, including officials from International Speedway Corp. and Halifax Health.
"This is really the opportunity for us to reshape the community," said Bob Williams, vice president of Population Health Business Development for Halifax Health and chairman of the Chamber's legislative committee.
"This has got to happen," said Volusia County Council member Billie Wheeler, whose district includes the beachside.
Mayor Derrick Henry, who joined the beachside walk last year and again this year, said the point of the tours and discussions that follow immediately after is to "iron out what needs to be done to make this the great part of our community that we know it can and should be."
'Like George Street'
The group walked part of Main Street, already roaring with a few motorcycles shortly after 8 a.m. They paused at one point to talk to longtime Main Street Barber Shop owner Ken Peters, who put down his scissors for a few minutes to share some candid opinions.
"Let's get this thing year-round like George Street," Peters said, referring to a famed corridor in Newfoundland that's lined with pubs and restaurants and is open only to pedestrians through most of the day and night.
Then Peters uttered what to some is sacrilege.
"The death of Bike Week will be the rebirth of Main Street," he said.
"That needs to be on a plaque or something," one woman on the tour said.
The Chamber is Bike Week's main sponsor. A few Chamber officials were on the tour, but they didn't dive into a debate.
The group also lingered at a vacant piece of county-owned property on Main Street near Peabody Auditorium to talk about possibilities.
"The county tells me if the city comes up with a plan, we'll be at the table," Wheeler said.
And they walked along the oceanfront, some not noticing 10 homeless people passing the time in the few shady spots at Breakers Oceanfront Park. They wound up behind the long-vacant Shell's Restaurant building owned by local investor Eddie Hennessy, who plans to tear down the decaying structure on State Road A1A and several others he owns nearby. Hennessy also recently finished a complete overhaul of the Streamline Hotel, the birthplace of NASCAR.
As Hennessy stood near a wall with large sections of its siding peeled off, the conversation turned to East International Speedway Boulevard, which the group could see from where they were standing. Although East ISB is the city's main gateway to the beach, it has been drowning in its own blight the past few decades.
There are plans to overhaul the road and add a roundabout at A1A if $25 million in state funding comes through. But for now many locals are so embarrassed by East ISB when they have out-of-town guests in the car that they contort their path to the beachside in order to avoid the corridor between the Halifax River and ocean.
Traffic count numbers reflect all the vehicles dodging the beaten down street. The Granada Boulevard bridge draws the highest number of motorists in the area, the Dunlawton Avenue bridge come in a close second and the East ISB span pulls up the rear in third place.
"This should be the aorta valve into our beach," said Galloway, who shared the traffic counts with Friday's group. "East ISB should be No. 1."
Galloway joked that "the largest amount of U-turns in Volusia County are right here at this intersection. They drive over and they U-turn and go back."
Everyone in the group agreed East ISB is key to the beachside resurgence local leaders have been trying to spark for decades.
"This is your area of first impressions," said Jim Cameron, senior vice president of government relations for the chamber. "No matter what they see elsewhere, no matter how nice it may be, hotel-wise and such, this will be in the back of their minds."
'Diamond in the rough'
Hennessy is buying up numerous properties between East ISB and Main Street, creating a block of land he'll control along State Road A1A and behind it. Several of those properties have aging and dilapidated buildings on them that Hennessy plans to topple in the next three to five months.
"Once we bulldoze all this, I think the town is going to realize something's about to happen," said Hennessy. "I feel once that's done, it's going to change everybody's outlook on this town and we're going to have people knocking on our doors wondering what's going to happen. I think that's when all the people will realize (East) ISB will be a street to recognize."
Once the decrepit structures are razed, people taking a left turn off East ISB onto A1A will only see "that beautiful gem," Hennessy said, pointing back toward his renovated hotel that's both modern and a celebration of Daytona Beach's auto racing history.
He said he understands some people are a little unnerved to hear buildings are being leveled in a key area of the beachside, but he said they don't need to fear the change that's coming.
"Change is good, especially when it's somebody like me, or another individual, that has the heart, the love and the passion of this town like I do," Hennessy said.
Without knowing yet what will happen with the plans for a roundabout at A1A and East ISB, and all the properties he wants that are still not in his possession, Hennessy said it's too early for him to share a grand vision for the future. He thinks it will take about five years for new development to materialize. He'd like to expand the art deco design of the Streamline, adopting a Miami Beach style and making new development "look old, but modern." Beyond that, he doesn't have a lot of detail yet.
Cameron said the chamber isn't "looking to point fingers at anyone." The business organization is trying to improve the city and involve local residents in its efforts, he said.
Daytona's beachside between University Boulevard and Silver Beach Avenue is a big part of the Chamber's top priorities for this year. The focus is on core area residential redevelopment, a makeover of East ISB, more off-beach parking and the planned extension of the Boardwalk.
"A healthy Daytona Beach core tourist district is vital to the success of convention business and traditional tourism, both of which are critically important to the east Volusia economy," chamber officials wrote in their two-page summary of their 2018 city-county priorities.
The document goes on to endorse the creation of an independent parking authority to operate publicly owned lots on Daytona's beachside, and it mentions coordinating with the county to build a multi-level parking structure around Auditorium Boulevard and Main Street. Also included is creating mid-block pedestrian crossings on A1A, improving the city's code enforcement process, and drafting an action plan for the core area that would track results.
The chamber also encouraged officials in Daytona Beach, Ormond Beach and Daytona Beach Shores to adopt the recommendations of the Beachside Redevelopment Committee, which had similar ideas.
Galloway sees Hennessy's plans as one of the first steps toward a beachside revival.
"I think we need 10 more Eddies because we're in a renaissance period, and we have the opportunity now in the next two to three years to make something happen," Galloway said. "We need incentives for investment in this area."
Hennessy said everyone in Daytona Beach needs to work together and expect great things for the beachside.
"To me it's a dream that will come true," Hennessy said. "I really have faith in our our local government and our town. Look at where we live. Look at the beach. It's a diamond in the rough."