Pet Luxuries

There are no pins to knock down at the Bayside Pet Resort and Spa, a onetime bowling alley, but Bob Huff still hopes to strike success with the Manatee County business venture.

In the process, Huff, who built up a $70 million nursing home administration company in Ohio, can accomplish a critical feat for the Gulf Coast commercial real estate market: a successful creative reuse of an old, abandoned and shuttered property.

The reuse trick could be complicated, and costly, but commercial real estate agents say it's an integral part of any real estate market rebound. In Huff's case, he turned the former Rip Van Winkle Lanes, a 22,000-square-foot facility on U.S. 41, near the Sarasota Bradenton International Airport, into a high-end kennel. It's scheduled to open in early June, with 25-30 employees.