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Hello Ed, Hope all is well, here’s our little bio and mission statement going out - If time coming up would like to hear how the safety meeting went downtown…. unfortunately before the last shooting - lets chat. Thank you!

Hello! It’s been great to hear the community show appreciation for this special row of downtown buildings. If you haven’t heard of us, our group has been growing businesses downtown for many years. These include The Wooly Events, The Florida Room, Pop A Top, Arcade Bar, The Dime, Cardinal Workspaces, and our flagship restaurant The Top - which turns 25 in August. The service industry is a labor of love, and like all restaurants downtown, we work diligently beside our talented staff to provide a solid experience for our patrons. We are part of the fabric of this special downtown.

Our involvement here with this project began a year ago, when we were approached to purchase this charming row of buildings, two of which date back to the late 1800s. Old is a good thing! We were interested, but busy opening our Florida Room brunch spot, and figured another buyer would jump in the save the day. A couple months ago, we were surprised to hear from a local preservationist that the block was ready to be demolished. This set forth a dash of events that involved many helping hands in the community along side crucial support from The Foundation of the Church. Together, we were able to find a workable solution to save the vintage properties. Our property and leasing company, Cardinal Workspaces, is now on a timeline to get these buildings ready for new merchants and we are excited about the task ahead. Each building will endure its own barrage of cleaning, painting, facade work, woodworking, electrical, and plumbing hurdles to come to fruition. As well, we will register the two old houses for Historic status, to insure they will be preserved for many years to come.

Cardinal Workspaces has been developing a mission downtown to provide affordable, smaller sized spaces for local tenants. We have been curating a mix of professionals, artists, beauty services, makers, and more... in each of our buildings. With this current North Main project, we hope to focus mainly on independent retail shops, which downtown desperately needs and especially during the day. We see the future health of downtown directly tied to establishing more small retail options for people to come enjoy as a destination. Retail is alive in many other comparable towns... so why not here?

Ultimately, we make corn nuggets, not policies but we believe the key to re-vitalizing downtown is to bring more daytime foot traffic. This could include GCRA funds fostering retail downtown, and city commissioners improving daytime parking opportunities such as a timed free parking options. and opening up blocked parking areas that are only used periodically. We believe striking a balance of daytime and nighttime activity is essential to healthy growth in the City core. We see downtowns like Winter Garden, Dunedin, Mount Dora, and Ocala, as more suitable examples to follow. Sure they are smaller cities, but their downtowns are doing much better than Gainesville currently with an obvious concentration on retail shops attracting customers throughout the whole day. It’s the idea of being a healthier small city, so we can one day grow bigger.

If looking for downtown space for your business or craft, please check out Cardinalworkspaces.com or email or us at Cardinalworkspaces@gmail.com. If you support fostering daytime growth, please let the Gainesville City Commissioners know what you think. We’ll keep cooking good food, and serving good drinks.

Thank you to all,

Scott and Hal / Cardinal Workspaces

Date Received:	7/9/2025 5:10:08 PM
To:	Book, Edwin A
Cc:
From:	scott shillington
Subject:	[EXTERNAL] Downtown Buildings
Attachments:	N Main11.PNG
Message:	Hello Ed, Hope all is well, here’s our little bio and mission statement going out - If time coming up would like to hear how the safety meeting went downtown…. unfortunately before the last shooting - lets chat. Thank you! Hello! It’s been great to hear the community show appreciation for this special row of downtown buildings. If you haven’t heard of us, our group has been growing businesses downtown for many years. These include The Wooly Events, The Florida Room, Pop A Top, Arcade Bar, The Dime, Cardinal Workspaces, and our flagship restaurant The Top - which turns 25 in August. The service industry is a labor of love, and like all restaurants downtown, we work diligently beside our talented staff to provide a solid experience for our patrons. We are part of the fabric of this special downtown. Our involvement here with this project began a year ago, when we were approached to purchase this charming row of buildings, two of which date back to the late 1800s. Old is a good thing! We were interested, but busy opening our Florida Room brunch spot, and figured another buyer would jump in the save the day. A couple months ago, we were surprised to hear from a local preservationist that the block was ready to be demolished. This set forth a dash of events that involved many helping hands in the community along side crucial support from The Foundation of the Church. Together, we were able to find a workable solution to save the vintage properties. Our property and leasing company, Cardinal Workspaces, is now on a timeline to get these buildings ready for new merchants and we are excited about the task ahead. Each building will endure its own barrage of cleaning, painting, facade work, woodworking, electrical, and plumbing hurdles to come to fruition. As well, we will register the two old houses for Historic status, to insure they will be preserved for many years to come. Cardinal Workspaces has been developing a mission downtown to provide affordable, smaller sized spaces for local tenants. We have been curating a mix of professionals, artists, beauty services, makers, and more... in each of our buildings. With this current North Main project, we hope to focus mainly on independent retail shops, which downtown desperately needs and especially during the day. We see the future health of downtown directly tied to establishing more small retail options for people to come enjoy as a destination. Retail is alive in many other comparable towns... so why not here? Ultimately, we make corn nuggets, not policies but we believe the key to re-vitalizing downtown is to bring more daytime foot traffic. This could include GCRA funds fostering retail downtown, and city commissioners improving daytime parking opportunities such as a timed free parking options. and opening up blocked parking areas that are only used periodically. We believe striking a balance of daytime and nighttime activity is essential to healthy growth in the City core. We see downtowns like Winter Garden, Dunedin, Mount Dora, and Ocala, as more suitable examples to follow. Sure they are smaller cities, but their downtowns are doing much better than Gainesville currently with an obvious concentration on retail shops attracting customers throughout the whole day. It’s the idea of being a healthier small city, so we can one day grow bigger. If looking for downtown space for your business or craft, please check out Cardinalworkspaces.com or email or us at Cardinalworkspaces@gmail.com. If you support fostering daytime growth, please let the Gainesville City Commissioners know what you think. We’ll keep cooking good food, and serving good drinks. Thank you to all, Scott and Hal / Cardinal Workspaces

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