Entrepreneur has no fight left

After eight years and more than $10 million, Oscar Parsons has given up on his dream to turn a deserted Sam's Club near the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport into a thriving convention center.

“I'm too old for this,” Parsons, 87, tells Coffee Talk, “and I don't see any future in it.”

Parsons' decision was based on more than the financials, which were tough enough to swallow. But even worse, his wife of five years, Rose Parsons, died May 14 of ovarian cancer. Rose Parsons, who was 58 when she died, was Parson's second wife — his first wife also died of cancer.

“She was a wonderful, smart and vivacious woman,” Parsons says of Rose Parsons, who he says was the inspiration and can-do spirit behind his Herculean efforts to turn the Sarasota-Bradenton International Convention Center into a winner.

Adds Parsons: “I don't have the zest or the enthusiasm for this anymore.”

Parsons was in a different frame of mind in 2003. Back then he had just bought a shuttered Sam's Club, a 120,000-square-foot warehouse shell, for $3 million. He hoped to transform the building into an all-purpose events and convention center that would host everything from boat shows to concerts to weddings. He spent more than $6 million in upgrades in the first four years.

But the effort was a struggle right from the start. Tourism and government officials from both Manatee and Sarasota counties never embraced Parsons or the concept — despite a near-consensus belief that the region needed a convention center. And by the time the recession hit in 2007 and 2008, Parsons barley made 20% of what he needed to just to break even.

Over the last year alone, for instance, Parsons says he lost $250,000 on the center.

Parsons is now trying to sell the building. He's had a few offers — including one for $7 million — but he says he's looking for $100 a square foot, or $12 million. It's a hefty price, some local commercial real estate brokers say, given the current market.

If Parsons can't sell the center by the end 2010, he will likely just shut it down. He's not booking any events for 2011.

For more on Parsons, search the Business Review's website for Oscar Parsons.