Last Daytona Bike Week on Beach Street for itinerant vendors

March 13--DAYTONA BEACH -- About 340 days of the year, Riverfront Park on the north end of Beach Street is nearly silent. But during Bike Week and Biketoberfest, the number of engines -- and potential customers -- roaring down the avenue multiplies exponentially.

That scene looks to be coming to an end as city leaders embrace big changes downtown.

City commissioners on Jan. 3 voted to terminate a contract with Biker Threads LLC, the company that hosts itinerant vendors at the park during Bike Week and Biketoberfest events. Vendors were permitted to set up shop for Bike Week's 77th year and will be allowed back once more in the fall for Biketoberfest.

In a December letter, Daytona Beach City Manager Jim Chisholm informed a company that runs the Bike Week events at the park that the city is terminating a contract about halfway through a five-year extension, saying it is "modifying elements of motorcycling events" in the city.

"The Biker Threads lease was terminated because the city wants to implement improvements detailed in the Riverfront Park Master Plan," Daytona Beach spokeswoman Susan Cerbone wrote in a statement to The News-Journal. "The agreement necessitated a one-year notice clause for termination by either party. This year's lease for Bike Week and Biketoberfest will be the final year."

Lyle Kramper, partner and general manager of Indian Motorcycle Daytona Beach, 390 N. Beach St., said the termination caught him completely off guard. The customers who visit the itinerant vendors also frequent his business.

"I just signed a five-year lease," Kramper said in his packed showroom Tuesday morning. "I found out about four days ago. I'm upset that not a single person reached out to me."

Kramper said he hasn't had much time to think about what he'll do, specifically if vendors no longer want to set up shop on his property because of the lack of vendors across the street. He said people pay $800 to lease a space on his property, largely because of the draw of many more across the street.

"Eighty-five percent of my revenue comes in 14 days," Kramper said. "For it not to exist anymore ... I just don't know."

"It was a shock to us," said Brian Holt, owner of Biker Threads, describing how he felt in December when he got the letter from the city notifying him they wanted to terminate the contract early. "I paid for three crosswalks. Special event officers were paid for by us. But what could we do? There's nothing we could do."

Scene has grown

As far as the bike scene on the river goes, Holt hopes eventually the city can work something out maybe in another area.

He said he began with four vendors in 2008 and this year has 61 at the park. He pays about $9,600 for the city workers for the week, he added. According to the city's contracts, Holt was expected to pay $100,000 to the city in advance of the event this year. The city agreed to drop that to $75,000 after Holt asked for a reduction.

But the end of motorcycle vendors and events at the park isn't the only change happening on Beach Street soon.

The Riverfront Master Plan aims to invigorate Daytona Beach's economic base by enhancing the 14-block park along the Halifax River, which stretches from Main Street to Orange Avenue. The 2010 master plan describes the northern end of the park as a "nature" area. That's where vendors have traditionally vendors have set up shop near the historic Josie Rogers House and the shuttered Manatee Island park. The city in 2016 built the Sweetheart Trail, a walking path that's one of a number of planned new amenities for the park.

More recently, insurance giant Brown & Brown, Inc., has announced plans to build a 10-story headquarters on Beach Street across from Riverfront Park. The new headquarters is expected to bring hundreds of new jobs to the area.

Following that news last year, Carl and Diane Morrow got a cash offer for their massive building on Beach Street north of the planned new headquarters and jumped at it. Carl's Speed Shop will be closing.

Next door to Morrow's shop, another building is under contract for sale.

Buddy Budiansky, vice president of Realty Pros Assured and recent chair of the Downtown/Ballough Road Redevelopment Board, brokered both property deals. He said that while anything could happen with those buildings, there is strong interest in residential uses for the properties. He said he could not release more information.

Brown & Brown: The catalyst

Robert Merrill, an attorney representing Brown & Brown, hosted a neighborhood meeting for about 50 people in his Cobb Cole office on Ridgewood Avenue on Monday night to ask for residents' feedback on the 10.5-acre site and the building plans.

Brown & Brown is about to submit its first rezoning application to the city, Merrill said. He and others, including architectural firm Zev Cohen & Associates, shared plans to improve water and sewer infrastructure, a pedestrian walkway on the property's west side and beautification plans for Riverfront Park.

Amy Pyle, a candidate for City Commission, told Merrill one of the main concerns residents have is that the firm aims to set limits on public property.

Merrill said that was one of the rumors he aims to quash.

"We're not looking to take away any access to the park," Merrill said. "It's simply a zoning agreement, not an ownership agreement."

The company expects to make some final tweaks from the suggestions posed by residents and submit a request to rezone the property to planned development at a later date.

Retirement sale

At Carl's Speed Shop, the opportunity to sell was fortuitous.

"It's time," said Diane Morrow, 75, as she pointed out pieces of history made by her 80-year-old husband Carl, the king of carburetors and land-speed record setter. The couple have co-owned the business since 1969 and been at the Beach Street location since 1997. They plan to sell off his inventory over the next five months before retiring.

Diane Morrow said she is hopeful for what's to come on Beach Street. But other businesses aren't as welcoming of change.

"I'm not happy," said Brigit Duncan, owner of Brigit's Custom Works, a bike builder and seller who rents a space in the building next door to Carl's Speed Shop.

"I probably make 50 percent of my money in those weeks," said Duncan, who's going to have to move -- probably to a place that will let her keep her important Daytona Beach address. "I'll definitely drop if I move."

A for-sale sign on the building, owned by Ameris Bank, showed it was now under contract and Budiansky, who is also brokering that building's sale, confirmed a deal is in negotiations.

"There's thoughts in their minds about residential," Budiansky said. "But whether that happens, who knows? It could be a chain restaurant. It could be a number of things."

Another Beach Street building owner -- William "Barney" McCarthy, the Barney of Barney's Leather -- said change is good and suggested perhaps the Bike Week events could be moved to Ballough Road, where biker businesses such as Red Ember Cycles, Black Gold and Santos Cycles have settled. It might feel more like the Leesburg and DeLand bike rallies, closing traffic to all vehicles but motorcycles, he said.

"Keep it going there," McCarthy said. "That's where all the motorcycle shops are anyway."

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