Entrepreneur's call: No incentives

A brewing controversy over incentives to woo businesses into downtown Bradenton has come to an end — for now.

And in this case, the potential recipient of the $250,000 in subsidies, local restaurant owner Donna Eason, turned down the offer partially due to the negative publicity it generated.

In a Feb. 20 email to city officials, Eason, who owns the Ezra Cafe in west Bradenton, says she “didn't expect the publicity and public sentiment.”

The sentiment, according to at least two Bradenton City Council members, was that several residents didn't want incentive money to be used to help a restaurant move three miles to downtown. Officials with the Bradenton Downtown Development Authority, which made the offer to Eason, previously defended the incentives as a way to boost the diversity of restaurants downtown.

The incentives included build-out costs and a break on rent if Eason moved Ezra Cafe to the SunTrust Building on Third Avenue West. But Eason, citing the negative feedback and the perception that the process to offer the incentives was closed off to city council and the public, nonetheless backed out.

“Since the information regarding the offer was released to the public, I have received a tremendous amount of feedback from my customers and fellow business owners,” Eason wrote.

“Based on their response, I am not confident that I will have the support of my customer base to be successful at this location,” he wrote.

While Eason is out, the larger debate over who gets incentives, and how much, remains in. Officials with the DDA tell Coffee Talk they are determined to accomplish their mission to revitalize downtown, so the issue could come back sooner than later.