Just in time for last-minute shoppers, We Are Downtown Sarasota has launched an interactive online guide to dining and retail establishments in the Sarasota city core. Norm Gollub, downtown economic development coordinator, says the hope is to create an exhaustive guide to every storefront and eatery in the shopping district. “As more merchants sign on, it will be a more comprehensive directory,” he says.

But already, the site boasts some 350 businesses. That includes 73 restaurants, 57 beauty- and health-related businesses, 49 clothing and apparel stores, 31 home furnishing and gift shops, 20 art galleries and many more establishments. Any restaurant or retail company located in downtown has a free listing, Gollub said, and with that listing will get a spot on the interactive map designed by Sarasota-based Footguides. The entire guide can be found at WeAreDowntownSarasota.com, a site being publicized through media buys and window decals posted by participating businesses. Visit Sarasota County will also publicize the site through materials distributed through area hotels and resorts.

What is in the listing besides an icon on a map depends on how involved the business owner gets in making an elaborate listing. Louies Modern has a menu available on the guide itself, and State of the Arts Gallery has included a video virtual tour when you click the business on the map. 

The boundaries for downtown for the site are the same as those of the Downtown Community Redevelopment Agency, the source of the $6,000 in startup costs for the directory. The CRA is sunsetting in October, but from here, Gollub will maintain the existing infrastructure as part of his job as downtown economic development coordinator, a position funded jointly by the City of Sarasota, Downtown Improvement District and the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce.

We Are Downtown Sarasota