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LUNA SEA
IN THE PRESS:
August 18, 2006
Section: Local/State
Edition: Final/All
Page: B03
Hotel, restaurants cook up a deal
KING
QUILLEN
For Florida Today
COCOA BEACH -- Tourists can savor local
flavor along with their bacon and eggs thanks to a deal dished up by three
family-run businesses in Cocoa Beach.
Instead of a continental breakfast
in the motel lobby, guests of the Luna Sea Motel are treated to
morning meals at the Sunrise Diner or Roberto's Little Havana
Restaurant.
The breakfasts include drinks and choices of eggs, meat and
sides or cereal. About 120 vouchers are redeemed weekly at each
restaurant.
The plan, launched in July, was cooked up by Jessica Grentner
Perron. Her family has operated the Luna Sea on North Atlantic Avenue for 32
years.
"It's an innovative new spin that not only benefits the traveler,
but also the local community," Perron said.
"We can promote beachside
family businesses. And our guests can be around locals and get a real feel what
Cocoa Beach is like."
The program is good for all involved, said Rob
Varley, director of the Space Coast Office of Tourism.
"I think it's an
excellent idea," Varley said. "It's giving added value to customers and doing a
great service to the community by encouraging people to go out and see the local
flavor of the area."
Boyd and Luella Nagle said they appreciated the
free breakfasts they ate. But it was the Greek and Cuban specialties they found
on the participating restaurants' full menus that will likely bring them back to
the area.
The couple, who have lived near Tampa for 27 years, stopped at
the Luna Sea for their first vacation to the East coast.
"You can go to them any day you want," said Boyd Nagle, referring to
chain restaurants. "We like going out and trying different food."
Roberto
Barrial said many of his voucher customers return for additional meals at
Roberto's, the downtown restaurant his family has operated for 26
years.
Local businesses can use those contacts to turn tourists into
repeat customers, according to Dimitri Zourdos, whose family has operated the
Sunrise Diner on West Cocoa Beach Causeway for almost 10 years.
"People
walking in the door is all we need. Then they're hooked," Zourdos said. "When
people come to visit again, they will come back here."
December 15, 2004
Section: Local;State
Edition: F Final All
Page: 01
New signs must be smaller
R. NORMAN MOODY
Florida Today,
Staff
A small "Luna Sea" canvas banner is attached to
the motel's sign post, the business' only roadside identifier until a permanent
replacement sign can be installed.
It is one of dozens of signs in Cocoa
Beach wrecked by hurricane winds and among hundreds in Brevard County that must
now conform to regulations put in place after they were erected. Eventually all
signs must be smaller and lower by about one third.
"We've been hindered
without it," said manager Jessica Perron, whose family has owned the
Luna Sea Bed and Breakfast Motel for 30 years. "We're trying to
get it replaced."
Since the motel's sign was erected years ago, Cocoa
Beach's ordinance reduced the permitted sizes from a maximum of 300 square feet
and a maximum height of 35 feet to 84 square feet and a height of 15
feet.
Business owners who expected to keep their signs for years are
disappointed they have to reduce the size drastically, said Don Reilly, part
owner of Art Kraft Signs.
Until all signs meet the new standards during
the next 10 years or so, the larger older signs will tower over some of the
newer smaller ones. The damaged signs will have to be replaced if the cost to
repair is more than 50 percent of the replacement.
"This modern
ordinance does have a more stringent requirement," said Tony Caravella, the
city's director of development services.
The new rules were put in place
in part because of a move by residents to clean up cluttered appearances, he
said.
In Melbourne, many signs were damaged in the storms, but only about
a half dozen that were erected before 1980 -- the time of the latest city
regulations, said Dan Porsi, the city's code enforcement director.
Signs
must be no more than 72 square feet in Melbourne.
"Back then they could
be 300," Porsi said.
In Melbourne as in Titusville and other Brevard
County cities, businesses also face conforming to the latest codes.
The
American Legion Post 1, just north of Titusville, for years had two signs. So
when one blew over and was destroyed by Hurricane Charley, veterans thought they
would simply replace it the same way it was.
"We really couldn't believe
we couldn't put our sign back," said Ferril White, a trustee at the American
Legion. "That was a big shocker. We won't be able to keep everybody
notified."
The option of changing its remaining sign to compensate for
the one lost was just too expensive, White said. The group will try to find
another way of advertising or notifying passers-by about its functions and
events.
The organization's signs must meet the same regulations as a
business, said Tom Ramsey, a code compliance officer for Brevard
County.
"They have to be brought under the new more stringent code," said
Dennis Berry, whose family owns Berry Signs. "In some cases, it is creating some
hardships."
Some business like the small motels that don't have the
reservation and advertising resources of the big chains must rely more on their
signs to attract drive-by customers.
Having to lower the height, would be
a strain, said Perron, who acknowledged to having one of the largest signs on
State Road A1A in Cocoa Beach.
"It would be a tremendous blow to my
business," she said. "We are reducing the size. I think it's a much more
attractive sign. We're still working on the design."
The current sign has
two panels, one above the other. Luna Sea plans to remove the
top panel, which would reduce the size to about 100 square feet. Even so, the
sign could cost from $8,000 to nearly $30,000, depending on the final design,
Perron said.
Other family owned businesses such as Roberto's Little
Havana Restaurant are relying on a banner in the window to direct newcomers
while they negotiate with the city to get their storm-destroyed roof-top sign
replaced.
"We give people direction but they still have trouble finding
it," said Roberto Barrial Jr., whose family owns the popular Cuban restaurant on
Orlando Avenue.
In addition concerns about meeting new regulations,
businesses also have been waiting because of the volume of work of the sign
companies following the hurricanes.
"We're just super busy," said Kendal
Mullen, owner of Kendal Signs.
Before the storms hit, the company had 10
employees. It now has 18, Mullen said. Keeping up after the storm has also kept
Berry Signs and others very busy. In Melbourne Beach, meeting regulations has
not been an issue, town manager W.D. Higginbotham said.
"The biggest
problem they are encountering is finding someone to replace their signs," he
said. "I haven't had any request from someone wanting to rebuild a sign the is
now prohibitive."
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