Ed Chiles ran waterfront restaurants on the shores of Anna Maria Island and Longboat Key for nearly half a century. 

His three popular restaurants, which specialized in sustainable seafood and farm-fresh produce, survived storms, global pandemics, prolonged hiring shortages, and red tide outbreaks that washed a blanket of dead fish onto the beaches where his customers dined.

But the son of former Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles sold his restaurant group Aug. 1 to slow down and spend more time with his new grandchild. For Chiles, the promise of rising seas and worsening storms just loomed too heavy.

Within weeks, his former Bradenton Beach restaurant was buried in a mountain of powdery-white sand dumped on the pristine barrier island by Hurricane Debby and the two storms that followed.

“I could never have imagined that six weeks later, we would have storms that did a lot of damage to the restaurant,” said Chiles, who now splits time between Anna Maria and his cabin in Montana. “This was the storm we all knew would come someday. We just didn’t know when.”

The trio of major storms last year produced nearly $1.5 billion worth of reported insurance losses along the Suncoast, flooded out homes and businesses, and trampled coastal buildings to rubble. The economic fallout remains months later.

Frustrated business owners forced to rebuild three times in three months say they’ve had enough. Along tourist hotspots like St. Armands Circle, where mom-and-pop boutiques rely on steady foot traffic from out-of-towners, storefronts remain boarded up – either closed for good or still trying to finish repairs.

From the onset of Debby through the immediate aftermath of Milton, businesses across the Suncoast suffered $187 million in direct revenue losses from customers compared to the same three months the year before, according to a Suncoast Searchlight analysis of sales tax data from the Florida Department of Revenue.

That’s the region’s worst economic setback since widespread quarantines from COVID-19 crippled traditional consumer spending habits.

Across the Suncoast, summer through early fall is among the slowest times of the year. Traffic on the roads and in stores begins to then pick up through winter snowbird season, considered Thanksgiving to Easter. 

Despite that annual lull, consumer spending grew by one-fifth during those same months in 2021. Gross sales again climbed – this time by nearly a tenth – during that period in 2022 and again by 7% in 2023.

The hurricanes reversed that growth in 2024. Shoppers reeling from the storms were more hesitant to open wallets last year on everything from food and new clothes to bigger-ticket items like vacations and motorboats. Less sales tax means less spending power for local governments.

Small business owners say the struggles persisted  months after the initial devastation. It’s unclear just how much the devastation impacted holiday spending, since October is the most recent tax data available. 

The sales tax reports break down transactions by more than 85 industries for every Florida county. The data has a three-month lag from the time sales are registered at businesses.

During a healthy economy, gross sales climb 2 to 5% each year to account for population growth and inflation, while still leaving room for actual spending increases.

Storm-battered merchants in Sarasota and Manatee counties had no chance. With a collective $10.17 billion in gross sales from August through October, the region instead saw a 1.8% year-over-year decline.

“Local Sarasota families, where this is their one business, they’re the ones who have the worst time dealing with anything like this,” said Christopher Westley, an economist at Florida Gulf Coast University. “They don’t have the revenue to deal with what was brought to them by the storms. Large chains did.”

Boarded up and empty: St. Armands Circle struggles to recover

Months after the storm, glass storefronts boarded with wood or taped over by paper protect dozens of vacant units on St. Armands Circle’s luxury shopping district. 

The circle’s 480-car parking garage sat empty as desperate retailers, who could still not use the insides of their shops, sold clearance shoes stacked in piles on the walkway, where parts of the facades showed cracking and store awnings were ripped to shreds. 

Many of the merchants that line the circle – along with other tourist destinations like Siesta Key Village or Bridge Street in Bradenton Beach – are smaller independent boutiques and gift shops. 

Some remain resilient. For others, the damage was too much to overcome. 

Shore shuttered its restaurant and clothes store on St. Armands in December after more than 15 years there. 

In a press release announcing the closure, Shore cofounder Tom Leonard blamed the city of Sarasota for a lack of urgency responding to the floods, citing up to 5 feet of storm surge. 

“It’s been a challenging time for us, especially given the extended recovery process after the storm,” Leonard said in the release. “The lack of urgency from the city in addressing the infrastructure issues — particularly the malfunctioning pumps that led to standing water remaining in the store for days after the storm — forced us to reevaluate our future here.” 

Mike Yaz, the manager of St. Armands Smoke Shop, said their business is staying on the circle for now. But he doesn’t think they can handle another storm.

“It’s been tough since the hurricanes, of course,” he said. “Definitely slow.”

At Hatley, a boutique on the quadrant closest to Lido Beach, manager Lisa James said the store was closed for two months as they gutted the interior. Since then, traffic is just not the same. 

She remembers when first opening eight years ago how cars would back up for an hour on the Ringling Causeway Bridge with tourists rushing to the circle. The city reinstating paid parking for her customers in January hasn’t helped, James said.

Spending at clothing and accessory stores like Hatley dropped by $32.2 million across the two counties between August and October. That’s a 20% decline from the previous year – more than any other spending category analyzed by Suncoast Searchlight. 

“There’s just so many stores still closed,” James said. “But we have hope.”

Last call for many waterfront bars and restaurants 

In the days and weeks following the storms, many Suncoast restaurants went without a penny in sales. 

No customers to serve after the disasters, some instead paid waitstaff and bartenders to help clean up or swing a hammer. Even those without flooding or major damage faced sustained power losses that spoiled food inventory and kept doors closed. 

These blows during August, September and October alone equated to $30.7 million in year-over losses for local restaurateurs. That’s a 5% decline from the same timeframe in 2023, according to the state tax data.

The brutal storm season for restaurants was then followed by historic winter cold fronts across Florida that left snow on Pensacola Beach and the state capitol in January – once again bruising the allure of outdoor waterfront dining.

The bleeding extended to bars and nightclubs. Between the two counties, spending out on booze fell 17%, or what equals about $5.6 million.

Caddy’s waterfront restaurant on Bradenton’s Riverwalk closed after Hurricane Milton’s winds crunched the outdoor tiki bar like an empty beer can. 

Tucked on a thin stretch of Manasota Key between the Gulf and Lemon Bay, staff at Lock ‘N Key have spent the months since Helene clearing out wet wood, sawing off rotten drywall, sanding down walls and installing new kitchen equipment. By mid-January, the restaurant and pub had not reopened.

Many restaurants with no other source of revenue launched merch shops online. Some even crafted specialty cocktails with proceeds helping their less fortunate competitors rebuild. 

“There’s just nobody around – no tourists,” said Vinny Jurin, general manager of the Blu Kouzina restaurant on St. Armands, where the storms destroyed irreplaceable Greek artifacts. The kitchen alone cost more than $250,000 to rebuild.

“It has definitely been our worst year,” Jurin said.

Resorts and hotels face uncertain tourism season

Florida tourism was paused while the catastrophic damage from storms flashed on TV screens across America. 

Some of the inland cancellations were filled by homeowners fleeing a flood zone. But for the cottages and small sandy resorts that have long been a staple of beaches from Anna Maria south to Englewood, there was no saving grace.

The Suntide Island Beach Club in Lido Beach has yet to reopen after Helene and Milton stirred four feet of sand into ground-level rooms. Nearby, the Sandcastle Resort – dating back to 1953 – also remains closed from hurricane damage.

In south Manatee County, the Sheriff’s Office released bodycam footage of deputies rescuing about 100 guests staying at the Ramada Inn on U.S. 41 after Helene sent rushing water from the bay right into their rooms.

All of the lost bookings left area hotel operators with $14.9 million less than the same months the year prior. 

That’s a 5% drop in the revenue reported to the state, which also leaves less lodging taxes for local governments to use on tourism-related infrastructure. 

Heather Nibert has managed the Beach Shack and another vacation rental property on Manasota Key since 2017. The family business has never seen anything like last year’s storms. 

Despite the devastation to the island, Nibert said some loyal guests are still calling to try to fulfill future bookings. She hopes to reopen in February.

“We still have some bookings, but it’s been a process,” Nibert said. “If this is your first visit to Manasota Key, this is probably not the time to come.”

Winners and Losers

Jacksonville-based economist Paul Mason said despite the temporary pain, a hurricane can improve a community’s GDP in the long-run by spurring an uptick in new construction, often paid by big insurance companies. 

But the service industry closures and lack of work can send low-wage earners into dangerous financial positions, often creating winners and losers, he said.

Spending at auto dealerships, for example, increased 4% during the painful storm months, as shoppers replaced cars wrecked by the hurricanes, records show. 

More companies also are moving away from the coastal districts prone to flooding to more inland areas like UTC or Lakewood Ranch, leaving the region’s historic beach shops to languish while business booms toward the newer developments out east.

“The biggest question is how much is rebuilt and how much is not,” Mason said.

The stormy Gulf appears to even have local consumers thinking twice – or at least postponing – that big toy to take out into the water after seeing boat lifts and docks destroyed.

Sales of motor boats and yachts between Sarasota and Manatee counties dropped 11% through the three storms, or $21.4 million less than that time in 2023.

“We’ve heard from a lot of fellow dealers in our area that there have been slowdowns from the storms,” said Derek Adamski, one of the managers with the Viage Group marine dealership in Sarasota. “People are still picking up the pieces of their homes, so a lot of people are just considering this winter season a wash.”

Josh Salman is deputy editor/senior investigative reporter for Suncoast Searchlight, a nonprofit newsroom of the Community News Collaborative serving Sarasota, Manatee, and DeSoto counties. Learn more at suncoastsearchlight.org.