With the Republican National Convention coming to Tampa, some local businesses are expecting an increase in business while others are concerned it may hurt. Michael Vanderburg, owner of Café European, a small restaurant located on Hyde Park Avenue just outside U. Tampa’s campus, said it’s the unknown that concerns him. “We’re not sure what’s going to happen,” he said. “We don’t know the security angle of things yet.” He said some roads are going to be blocked off to downtown Tampa, but he doesn’t know which roads as of yet. He said he expects security to be strict and not knowing how strict that security will be is a concern. “We might have to have proof that we have a business here to be able to drive in and park,” he said.
Vanderburg said he hopes some of the visitors find their way to his restaurant that week as it is expected to bring in more than 350 charter buses and more than 500 private vehicles. According to a handout given to local businesses from Marriott Execustay-Tampa, “the RNC is the largest media event in the world except for the Olympic Games.” Vanderburg said he plans to be open the week of the RNC and is planning for it as best he can with the little information he has been given.
Georgia Xanthoudakis, owner of Samariá Café on Tampa Street, said she is excited about the coming of the RNC. “We need something like this,” she said. Xanthoudakis explained the RNC is a good opportunity for out-of-town visitors to see what Tampa has to offer. “It’s going to bring a lot of business to everyone,” she said. “My partnership downtown doesn’t want me to do to advertising . . . He said don’t waste your time and gave us free posters.” With the large number of people expected to come through downtown and her business being within walking distance from the convention center, Xanthoudakis has prepared for an influx of new customers.
Samariá Café will be extending its regular business hours from 6:30am to 4:30pm to closing shop at 9:00pm, from Aug. 17 through the rest of the month. “We have a lot of regulars who come and they are so excited we are going to open our doors until 9:00pm because they would love to come here at nighttime,” she said. Xanthoudakis can’t wait for the RNC and expects the extra four and a half hours of business to pay off driving back and forth to her home in Safety Harbor. Though she joked, “I’ve been thinking of bringing a cot!”
Deron Thornton, partner of Hayman Jewelry Co. on Madison Street, said accessibility to his business is going to be difficult that week. Thornton will be closing up shop the week of the RNC. “Being located in the police headquarters, they’re putting an eight foot barricade around this whole building,” he said. “They will still allow access to our store if we wanted them to, but based on the feedback we are getting from TPD [Tampa Police Department] and other sources, they’re saying you probably want to be closed.”
Hayman’s Jewelry Co. has been family owned and operated since 1930 and is Tampa’s oldest retail location. The business started when grandfather Solomon Hayman started selling jewelry from the trunk of his car during the Great Depression. Thornton said he expects to lose two weeks worth of business, which for Hayman Jewelers means up to an $8,000 to $10,000 loss. An eight foot wall will be going up around the jewelry store three days prior to the RNC, but he’s going to try to keep the business open while the wall is being assembled. “We’ll have to have signs and customers will have to go through a screening in TPD in order to allow them in the building,” he said. “From what I understand, it’s going to be that way when you go into these big corporate buildings too.”
Thornton said that a lot of businesses can expect an increase in revenue that week, and for restaurants, hotels and transportation businesses he can understand why. But for a small mom and pop shop like his, that’s not the case. “It’s not like we can just cut salary checks to our employees,” he said. “We have to have income coming every week.” He said there is no way to know for sure what the final effect will be. “Maybe they’re hyping it up more than it really needs to be, but we won’t know until afterwards,” Thornton said.
Alfredo Castro, owner of Spain Restaurant on Tampa Street, said the extra security measures are inconvenient. “We’re not going to have garbage cans outside,” he said. “They’re going to have secure garbage areas and we’ll get a key to where we need to take garbage every day.” He said extra security measures are being taken to keep protesters from becoming violent. “We’ve been told that if we normally put tables outside, to [not] put them out because they’re trying to get anything they can use as projectiles off of the street,” he said. Castro said the sidewalk grids outside of his businesses were welded closed too.
He said TPD is trying to implement lessons learned from other convention locations.Castro explained that a lot of the locals are leaving town so he expects a lot of new out-of-town customers to be coming through. “It’s kind of like Gasparilla,” he said. “They tell us that parking is going to be a nightmare, that there’s going to be a lot of congestion, a lot of traffic restrictions and closed streets and barricades, so that scares away our regular customers.” He said the best thing he can do is wait and see what happens that week and prepare for it as best as he can.“We’ve heard some of the city jobs are either being relocated to other city locations or they’re telling people to take time off,” said Castro, and that some financial businesses will be closed that week including BB&T and the court house downtown. “We’ve been told if you don’t need to come down here then don’t come because it’s going to be complicated.”