80 SARASOTA SCENE | FEBRUARY 2018
on the town
Is there something that you miss and
would like to bring back from Sarasota’s
past?
I would love to have circus performers
back on Lido Beach. My mom talks about
that, about going to the Lido Pavilion
when she was a kid and watching the
Ringling Circus performers practicing.
I think that must have been the coolest
and most unique thing to see. It’s not
something that I grew up with, but
something reminds of Sarasota’s rich
history.
How do you balance your time between
your roles at Visit Sarasota, the EDC and
your daily duties at MS & Co.?
My primary responsibility is at MS & Co.
I am on the board of the EDC and was
the past chair of Visit Sarasota County.
Part of being a real estate professional,
whether you are sitting in my seat or
Michael’s seat, or are one of the many
people that are in this company, is that
being engaged in our community is part
of our job. In some ways it’s not extra,
but both a privilege and part of what
you sign up for when you become active
and engaged. Early on I got involved
in community and evolved into many
layers. Visit Sarasota County provides
great insight into what drives our tourism,
which is often the front end of that future
buyer. The EDC, on the other side, is
what’s driving the underlying elements of
our economy. We know that retirement,
and certainly that demographic of
retirees, is what drives a big part of the
market. But when you look at the health
of the economy, you can’t not look at
how we are creating jobs for the future.
My day is balancing schedules. But it is
part of running a local company where
you are “owning the community” and not
just doing the job.
What most excites you about Sarasota’s
economic development and future?
We often think of job creation as big
game changers – like Amazon, for
example. Whether that happens or
not, who knows? When those types
of developments happen, they can
obviously shift the entire focus of
our local economy. I think there are
grassroots companies with 10 and 15
employees that grow to 20 and 30 that
we really don’t hear about that are truly
the strength of what the EDC does – the
small business. Or the entrepreneur that
starts off small and grows. I think that’s
truly our focus. We pitch for those big
projects and swing for the fences, but
I think that “money ball” of base, runs
and hits and growing to your strengths
is what a strong EDC does.
I think what’s most interesting to me
personally is that we are an educational
town. We are a college community
wrapped in a retirement destination.
How many communities have a college
town at the heart of their community?
They don’t. I think that energy, and
building into that energy and growing
it, is the focus of the heads of all
those organizations. I think that is
the most interesting long-term asset
that we have for job creation. There
is a trend for people moving back to
their alma maters. I say that’s nice, but
now you don’t have to move back to
“snowmageddon.” You can stay here in
your college town.
What are your biggest concerns or fears
regarding Sarasota’s economic growth?
Is our infrastructure keeping pace for
the growth so that people have that
sense of quality of life regardless of
where they are in the community? As it
When you meet a stranger, what is the
first thing you tell them about Sarasota?
I like to ask them what they fell in love
with first. I use that as a real estate
practitioner and general fan of our town.
I want to know what they are “in love”
with. It tells me what someone with fresh
eyes cues into. Is it arts and culture? Is it
the beaches? There are always the bigpicture
things you expect to hear, but
there are always those little things that
you never know may turn somebody’s
lens to make this their home.
Are you pleased with the path that
Sarasota is on as it pertains to growth and
development?
That’s a good and fair question.
Absolutely. We often in this community
get into a debate about growth, and
it’s a fair and healthy one to have. We
should always be concerned with the
direction of the community. I think that
you must first accept that there is no way
to prevent growth. In fact, if you look at
communities that aren’t growing, there
are so many symptoms of unhealthiness.
Look at the devastation of the Rust Belt
and so many other communities that
don’t grow. They are in reverse. The great
news about Florida and Sarasota is that
we’re in a forward direction. It’s more a
question of “how do you want growth to
look?” You have to be fair and ask, “are
we focusing on the core issues?” Or “are
we focusing on a symptomatic outlier?”
We often debate the thing that people
get emotional about, without focusing
on the long-term things that we ought to
think through. I tend to think that if we
spend more time in the “how do want to
manage growth from a macro level?”, we
would be better off than spending time
with some of the minutia that sometimes
occupies both the press and people’s
hearts and minds. We all relate to things
that we experience every day. The issues
on Longboat Key are different than those
downtown. We often regret the solution
we didn’t put into place ten years ago.
“We’re a college town wrapped in a retirement
destination.”
- Drayton Saunders