Podcast Features Bob Gibbs and Kristen Coury, local Naples Florida IconsEpisode 3: Urban Retail legend Bob Gibbs, CEO of Gibbs Planning Group - Gibbs has helped develop more than 1,000 town centers and historic districts worldwide. If architect Andres Duany is considered the Father and visionary of Fifth Avenue, then Bob Gibbs is its kindly Uncle who worked alongside Duany in the Avenue’s initial planning and has continued to shepherd it through expanded growth for decades. We will talk about Fifth Avenue’s attributes, including walkability, accessibility, natural beauty and urban retail in meeting the needs of the community. We will trace the Avenue’s historic beginnings, its case study development, and explore its future.
Episode 4: Kristen Coury, CEO and Producing Artistic Director, Gulfshore Playhouse - Gulfshore Playhouse has grown from fledgling artistic startup to world-class production company, with Coury’s visionary plans to build a state-of-the-art, 45,000 square foot new home for the theater, which is scheduled for completion in late 2023, as her priority. Kristen will discuss how the Playhouse has raised almost $60 million for construction and what this incredible undertaking means in terms of Naples’ culture and economic impact.
Podcast Features Bob Gibbs and Kristen Coury, local Naples Florida IconsEpisode 3: Urban Retail legend Bob Gibbs, CEO of Gibbs Planning Group - Gibbs has helped develop more than 1,000 town centers and historic districts worldwide. If architect Andres Duany is considered the Father and visionary of Fifth Avenue, then Bob Gibbs is its kindly Uncle who worked alongside Duany in the Avenue’s initial planning and has continued to shepherd it through expanded growth for decades. We will talk about Fifth Avenue’s attributes, including walkability, accessibility, natural beauty and urban retail in meeting the needs of the community. We will trace the Avenue’s historic beginnings, its case study development, and explore its future.
Episode 4: Kristen Coury, CEO and Producing Artistic Director, Gulfshore Playhouse - Gulfshore Playhouse has grown from fledgling artistic startup to world-class production company, with Coury’s visionary plans to build a state-of-the-art, 45,000 square foot new home for the theater, which is scheduled for completion in late 2023, as her priority. Kristen will discuss how the Playhouse has raised almost $60 million for construction and what this incredible undertaking means in terms of Naples’ culture and economic impact.
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Speaker 2:Welcome to today's podcast, movers and shapers. I am your host, Bruce Barone Jr. The executive director of fifth avenue, south business improvement district. Today, we are speaking with retail legend. Bob Gibbs Gibbs planning group is a small, but highly regarded urban consulting firm considered one of the leading authorities on research and planning of historic commercial districts and neighborhoods, new urban town centers and resorts.
Speaker 3:Just in general, I've noticed that downtown shopping areas are definitely making a comeback because it's a privilege now to walk into a place and try something on it's a luxury you don't even realize until it's
Speaker 2:Gone. And I think that's why our historic main street on fifth avenue is so special and unique. We have found that many national retailers are interested in the historic downtown districts at Naples being one of them. And we're looking to curate our street in a very cohesive way so that the retail, the restaurants, the shopping experience are at the highest level. And I'm excited to talk to Bob Gibbs about his approach, his really storied career, starting out in retail and working in this industry for the last 30 years and being one of the pioneers in new urban ism. I think that we have a lot to learn from Bob and he's seen fifth avenue take shape over a 30 year span.
Speaker 1:[inaudible]
Speaker 2:Well, thank you for joining us today. We have Bob Gibbs in studio and we're very excited to have and welcome Bob. Thank you afternoon. Good afternoon to you. We've been looking forward to his visit here as he's on vacation and doing some work in Naples, and we had the opportunity for him to be in our office here at 6 49 on fifth avenue. And we're going to take advantage of Bob Gibbs when he's in town. So welcome. And what is your thoughts of Naples and fifth avenue as you've been here so far?
Speaker 4:It's very lively and it's just a very exciting place to be. And it's nice to see the diversity in ages. There's very young families getting an ice cream, Collin and enjoying a walkability area to millennials and seniors.
Speaker 2:Joking with Samantha that I've been studying, uh, your work since my master's thesis in 2005. And, uh, you know, he was a legend at the time and now he's sitting in of us and, um, we're able to go for full circle and interview you here. So it's exciting in its own, right?
Speaker 3:You've been a legend ever since. And it's been an ongoing process of your name being in many conversations. Thank
Speaker 4:You. You're very kind to that honor to be here. Well,
Speaker 2:We're glad we're glad to have you. And I really want to get to the crux of everything and get a feel of Bob. What do you think about fifth avenue and how does it compare to other business districts around the country?
Speaker 4:The avenue has a very unique combination of climate resort, urban ism, and it mix great neighborhoods. That's very, very rare in America. Why do you think that it's so rare? That's a good question. I think these sorts of communities really weren't developed since world war II and many of them were destroyed by bad planting or traffic design or something like that nature. So there's only a handful of communities like this, that Hamptons we've been working in the Hamptons extensively, Carmel by the sea. There's probably less than five places that have the combination of urbanism, walkability, great diversity of incomes and ages, and just a great place to hang out.
Speaker 2:You're known as a pioneer of new urbanism and that school of thought. Can you explain a little bit about what that is and tell us a little bit also about Gibbs planning group and how that fits into your, your protocols?
Speaker 4:Yeah. I was very lucky. I met Andreas the whiny. I was his driver when he came to Detroit and I had been studying him. I was working for a major shopping center developer at the time, the Todman company, and we'd studied him. And I pointed out to him, some of the shortcomings and his theories for commercial development. And he said, well, you're right. We planned these beautiful places, but they never get built. So I was so assertive as to tell them why they weren't getting built. And he insisted I take them to a Topman mall and I showed them the 5,050 to a hundred retail rules. I know. So I was very, very lucky because he was just starting the Congress for new urbanism and he selected 20 people to be the founders. And I was one of the 20, my responsibility was the teacher urbanist, how to develop successful and competitive town centers and retail centers. And the goal of the new organism is to create walkable places that are sustainable, and that offer a quality of life as you can't get into suburbs as an alternative to the suburbs, not to replace the suburbs. And our goal was to make the newer pianism popular to make it quite spread by making it more profitable.
Speaker 2:Tell us about your experiencing developing the retail plan in the 1990s with Andreas Duany. And DPZ,
Speaker 4:I've been very fortunate to work with Delani for a long time. Andreas, the whiny entity PPC team, and our third project we worked on was Naples. And he has told me and others that he considers Naples to be probably his greatest, most successful plan. We really we're blazing new territory because I know how to do shopping malls. So that the group I worked with had the highest sales and were their most profile, profitable shopping center developer country in the world. So my goal was to apply those principles to walkable urban places, which meant they had to be calibrated and changed a little bit. We sort of learned on the fly. We worked in Providence and we worked in west Palm beach and then our third project was Naples Smith avenue. Was this
Speaker 2:One of the larger projects of those three? Uh,
Speaker 4:Probably it was one of the more complicated ones at the time. Naples was a sleepy village, all one story buildings, there was a grocery or on the street, there were two or three restaurants and there was a store that sold Brooks brothers, a lot of seashells lamp repair shops. It was a very nice little sleepy village. So we crunched the numbers and looked at the demographics and the visitors and concluded that there was an opportunity for a lot of growth here at the time, there were three restaurants and they were small and we kept finding a demand for a lot of restaurants on fifth avenue. So much demand that the city into wine, he pushed back and said, you can't support that many restaurants and Naples and the city at the time. And the stakeholders said I was completely wrong because everybody ate at the country club or the yacht club. So we had to do our study over three times and we kept coming up with bigger numbers every time we did it. And so what the wineries plan did was he accommodated growth in a very sustainable walkable way. The buildings were limited to three stories and by enables growing, it really stopped suburban shopping centers from being built outside of the town for awhile and had the Duany plan not been built that demand would have been absorbed with another mega regional shopping mall or somewhere else that demand always gets filled by someplace. So his plan steered a lot of that growth, especially the fine shops and restaurants and galleries to fifth avenue, but also the city implemented this plan really quickly and to a very high standard. And so I think it's a credit to fifth avenue to the bid and to the city and policy makers that this is considered one of the hallmark plans for one of the greatest planners really of our time. And it is a model for other cities to aspire to. And many cities come to fifth avenue just to see how to do it.
Speaker 2:Courtyards green spaces in, in the main thoroughfare at the building frontage. How does that impact and change the pedestrian experience?
Speaker 4:An ideal combination of a busy street with a lot of people on it, and then having a narrow via or courtyard off the street is almost the perfect balance. The courtyards allow for more affordable rental space. So you can have more diversity in the quality is shops and the more art galleries and things that can't afford the main street.
Speaker 2:Now I w I would be remiss if I didn't bring up principles of urban retail planning and development. This is a one of the greatest books on this subject. Bob, what issue in addition is this?
Speaker 4:Yeah, this is, I think it's the fourth edition we're going on the 10th year of publishing it. Wiley was the publisher and the book is a handbook for business improvement districts for cities and planners to design competitive shopping districts that are beautiful and attractive. So it has a lot of case studies. My next chapter we'll need a case study on fifth avenue that talks about the nuts and bolts, the things that I do at, with shopping center developers, how to apply those for historic or new town centers.
Speaker 2:What is your assessment of current retail trends?
Speaker 4:Yeah, retail always reinvents itself, but this is one of the most radical reinventions. Since the shopping center, the shopping mall was invented and hundreds of thousands of stores are closing. The big boxes are closing because they're not big enough because they can't carry every color, every size of paperclip that you can buy. You can buy that. And Amazon can, it's expected that about 80% of the big box shopping centers are gonna close. And, uh, about 80% of the malls are going to close by 2026. And those retailers want cities. They want walkable places. They want real storefronts. And there is a massive search for cities to leave the malls and the Golan to downtowns and Naples is perfect for that. There are very few places of this quality of urban ism. So it's good for cities. Unfortunately, many cities are not ready for it. Um, they don't have the parking that Naples have. They don't have the public realm and many cities are just opposed to any national retailer. They don't want apple or Williams-Sonoma or Warby Parker. They want all local, one of a kind shops. And I think that's not sustainable. Our movement in the new urbanism was that downtown should sell the goods and services that people desire and want. And that it's better to have a dollar store in a downtown than it is to have it out in the mall. Or it's better to have a Brooks brothers in the downtown rather than out in the mall. Charleston is the only city that really has adopted. We've been advising Charleston for years. Mayor Riley embraced that idea. And I think Naples is open to that. There's some really great choice retailers here and the city should be ready for many, many high quality retailers, even national retailers to come into the downtown. That's going to,
Speaker 2:To learn more about Bob Gibbs and Gibbs planning group, visit their website@gibbsplanning.com. Joining us today is Kristen query the founder and producing artistic director of Gulf shore Playhouse. The mission statement of Gulf shore Playhouse is that it passionately is committed to enriching the cultural landscape of our region by producing professional theater to the highest artistic standards and providing unique educational opportunities to diverse groups of people in a spirit of service, adventure and excitement. Kristin, can you tell me a little bit about your role at Gulf shore Playhouse as the creative director, founder Renaissance woman?
Speaker 5:So my title is actually CEO and producing artistic director. And so it's been fascinating to me in the last, I would say year it's actually been an interesting blessing, you know, because I am the artistic director. So I'm responsible for selection of plays for directing several of the plays. And if I'm not directing the play that I'm definitely watching over the shoulder of the director, you know, sort of making sure that the artistic quality of the players is up to our standards, et cetera, the new space, the main stage, and the new space is going to have a Broadway size stage, a fault. The city council approved us having a full size fly tower. So it's going to be 55 feet in the air and we'll be able to raise and lower drops or set pieces or all kinds of cool stuff. So we're going to be able to create Broadway quality musicals and plays. So we haven't done a huge amount of large scale musicals. And one of the models that we're really focused on is that we've got to Tony award-winning Broadway producers on our, on our, on our board. And my background is actually in commercial theater. So I'm looking forward to golf or play house becoming a tryout space for Broadway musicals.
Speaker 6:Absolutely. That's a tremendous amenity. That's almost, um, one, I think that that is so special and unique to have all of these components come together. You know, it does again, elevate neighbors.
Speaker 5:Thank you for saying that. I think you might be aware that we are in the almost, almost final stage of, um, getting approval on, on doing a land swap with the wind family when properties owns the acre next to our parking acre. Um, and that's where their catering has been and they, they have like a north south parcel. And so do we, so we're gonna we're proposing turning it so that they then take the whole strip along the first avenue front, and we would take the strip behind them to the south of them so that we can then give that to the city to build a parking garage on and have that muscle behind first avenue. So it's not a garage on a street. So that means that the winds will put in a beautiful restaurant with a terrace and, you know, lots of outdoor seating, et cetera, et cetera, right across the way from our lobby and our gardens. It's just going to be fantastic synergy. And, um, I yesterday the, um, city council voted you, uh, well sitting as the CRA, they voted unanimously for a three-story for Decker eyes. So thank you very much. We'll be able to do valet parking on top. So it's not just even for our patrons, but for anybody who shows up in that parking, you know, the valet parking stock we'll park their cars for them, but it's been 17 years in the making. You know what I mean? We've been working really, really hard 17 years, and now it's all finally coming to fruition. Um, it's very
Speaker 6:Exciting actually, where, where will this higher piece be the garage and the facility.
Speaker 5:So on the corner of first avenue, south and Goodluck Frank road. So if you're coming down to LA towards downtown, it would greet you just after you pass central avenue. Okay. Um, so it will be facing, you know, facing north. So the, as you drive downtown and you'll see this beautiful, um, lit sort of beacon of light coming out of this performing arts center, and we'll have beautiful gardens, lush, tropical gardens in the front with lots of shady spaces for people to sit and relax. Our lobby will actually be open throughout the day. So I find, you know, for me, it's like theaters and churches, they're always closed unless you're there for the thing, you know, and you're kind of, you know, banging on doors, like, can I get in and see this beautiful space? So our lobby will actually be open all day. Our cafe bar will be open as well. So people could come in and do have a coffee, or
Speaker 6:Sure. I think that's, you know, that's essential to all of this, you know, that the community aspect of it. So it's bringing people in, it's giving them another reason to go there, which is, you know, causes engagement, which is really top of the list of, of wanting to have a, you know, a public private type of entity like that. And to have it be a resource, I think that will be transformative for that, uh, area of, uh, the community and just in the downtown area. And so I think that matched with, you know, the, the amenity of the building and the, the style and all of those things, I think it's just going to be a great, a great addition. And we don't, there's nothing like this. I haven't seen any things you've been in terms of like Miami with this type of architecture and functionality with it. I mean, I was really delving into the designs and renderings cause that's what I love. And so seeing this, it's just, it's so unique. Did you play a major role in that? What I'm assuming that you did, you know what I'm saying, Hey, I want this here, you know, and that there,
Speaker 5:So yeah, so what's interesting is that we always knew we were going to have a main stage theater about 3 50, 400 seats. We weren't sure exactly the right size. And we did that through the, through the design, which took about two and a half years. We figured that out, we think three 50 is the perfect amount of seats because it's twice as much as we have now, but it's still intimate enough to enjoy a play. You know, if you go to a 1500 seat theater, unless it's stacked in the seats or up and down, which of course we aren't, um, you're so far away, if you're in the back a few rows that you're just falling asleep here, the people are like this tiny, you know, so we're just, you just don't enjoy it. So our, all our seats will be perfect. The acoustics will be perfect. And so we feel like that was a good, a good size. And then our second space was we're calling the small space, even though it's bigger than what we've got at the north center now is, um, 125 seats, but flexible. So they could be all on one side. They could be all around. They could be on two sides, you know, however we want to set it up or take them all out and do a, like a, Cadbury's like a jazz club, you know, little tiny tables with little lights and do a band or something, you know? So we always knew those two spaces. But to your point, um, we have a really cool architect. Um, it's actually a merged firms. So H three is, um, Hugh Hardy's from there out of New York. And they built tons of theaters all around the country. So there's that, and then merged with Bernardo for brushes company, which is architect Tanika, and he's out of Miami. So he's got the Florida knowledge, he's got the humidity, water table, all that kind of stuff and beautiful signature architects. So all the beautiful Curt lines and the representations of the golf and the sand and all of that is all, all him. And then, so we're excited about that, but one of the, I think it's you, to your point about, did, did you know, did I help scope? It's like one of the most, I feel like significant stories is that I've been asked for example, to do speech speaking engagements all over town. And very often they're not easy places, you know, because of maybe it's in a restaurant where the chefs are cooking behind the line, they don't even have a microphone. I'm trying to scream over, over there, the clicking and the talking and right. Or they don't have a proper AVS system. So I can't show up, um, PowerPoint or, you know, whatever. We don't have a lot of meeting spaces and Naples, I mean, this is, I think we don't have a convention center. We don't have, you know, now that innovation hotel and Arthrex is up there. Everyone's like, all right. So for me, it was really important to add, uh, we obviously we needed a rehearsal room and by their very nature rehearsal rooms are the same size as the size of the stage. And our stage is now like 50 by 50. So we've got this 50 by 50 room that we were planning on doing. And I'm sitting there at a table full of 22 consultants, most of which, if not, all of which were male, and they're all, like, you are insane that you want to put your rehearsal room right off the lobby. And I was like, absolutely, I want to put it off a lobby and I'll tell you why. And they were like, nobody does this, no regional theater we build with you, you know, use up all that prime real estate off the lobby rehearsal rooms belong in the back on the second floor, way back there, where you can make them with, you know, bad quality finishes and nobody cares because nobody's ever gonna see it. And I was like, we're going to make ours with fine finishes and beautiful wood floors and gorgeous windows looking out over the other Frank road and, you know, et cetera, et cetera. And I'll tell you why, because we're going to put a catering kitchen behind it. And we're going to have the ability to rent this space as well. And we're not rehearsing in it. So it's little, you know, for everything from a rotary club meeting to a little get wedding, you know what I mean? We can, we'll be able to see it about 150 seated and then we'll have the catering kitchen behind. So it will become, they'll have access to the lobby and to the gardens. And we've got beautiful event plazas and outside bars and things.
Speaker 6:That's great. Uh, what are you doing in terms of this summer for your slate? I was looking at the calendar. It seemed like you had quite a bit of things going on and still for the stars for the children and yeah. W w what are the projects that you're focused on in the short term as, uh, as now we are into summer and we're kind of gearing up for season.
Speaker 5:Yeah. So you asked me a question earlier about, you know, how much do I spend focused on this project versus maybe, maybe you asked this question, but one of the way I heard it was, you know, how much do you spend on the business versus the art? And, um, it used to be half and half. And, um, when we went into the pandemic, suddenly it was like, you know, all the theaters were closed across the country within three days of each other, you know, and we had had our gala, um, on March 2nd, 2020, and we raised more money than we've ever raised. And we just thought the world is bright. Our future is bright. Isn't this great. And two weeks to the day later, I stood outside of separated from all my colleagues and laid off three quarters of our staff. I mean, it was just, and we canceled the show. We were rehearsing. We canceled the rest of our season. We canceled the show on stage, and I really thought this is, you know, we're done. This is the end of culture class who ever dreamed it would come to this. You know? So my focus was just, how do I get the staff back? How do I get back to our, how do I put our on the stage again in the middle of this crazy pandemic? And we had slowly but surely brought our staff back and we were keeping them employed, and God bless the fundraisers. You know what I mean? Because we are a 5 0 1 C three, we're also able to ask for donations. Um, 60% of our ticket buyers turned their tickets into donations. Other people stepped up and really kept us alive. And we were able to bring the staff back so that when actors equity association said, yes, we will allow you to produce in January. We were ready on a dime to get your show. And therefore we were, I believe we were the only theater in the country, the only professional theater in the country that was actually producing onstage inside, um, throughout this pandemic. Because when I look at the list of who was approved by actors' equity, it's all out outdoor stuff, or it's for filming, not with an audience. And so we were able to do two plays in January and in March. And, um, I was sort of host of cabaret shows as well throughout. So we actually had kind of a little mini season, you know, th
Speaker 6:That's really fantastic when you're what you just said. Uh, you know, on fifth avenue, it was a struggle. It was a, the pandemic, you know, brought us all to our knees in terms of, you know, evaluating what are we doing? How do we approach this? How do we effectively keep all these businesses in place for that? And it was made up of so many restaurants and the staffs of those restaurants and just keeping things going, and really what set us apart was the residents who lived here and focused on us to support all of these businesses. And without them, it just would not have been, the success has been, and in a real blessing, the fact that not only has it materialized as we kind of grinded through the 2020, it's produced a 2021 that has been, you know, feedback that we get from merchants is that it's one of the best Sears of their existence that not, you know, to even have that even as a concept is just so great. It's such a wonderful thing to hear. And not just one, you know, it's many that are saying these things. And so to have that momentum, I think is also a big part of this and it, for people to support you for people to donate to this process, or to learn about cultural playoffs, what are the best ways to kind of learn about that? How, how do they go about and doing that for you?
Speaker 5:Yeah, so actually, that's, that's really the combination of the story, right, is on 4 21, uh, April 21st, we had a big party out on our land and we were so excited because we were very close to him having the amount needed to break ground. And we therefore knew we were going to be ready to in terms of schedule and getting all the permits in place in design reviews and all that stuff by September, that we would be able to break ground. And so we decided to have a big party thank all of our donors and say we're only$6 million away. Um, we,$40 million was our break ground amount, um, where at which we knew we could access, um, bridge financing for the rest of the whole project, total of 60 million. And, um, so we knew 40 million was the number. So we said, we're going to have a big party and just show a really announced the bigger theater and education center and show them all of our spaces. And, um, we had a Broadway singer come down and sing and we made speeches and, you know, um, it was a great night and it just like, the rain just held off, like everything about the night was magical and we did it and it was on our land. And I got to talk about the fact that when I first moved here, my first 10 years that I was here, I lived in Bayfront. So I used to stand on my balcony and Bayfront and look across the street at the empty land, which at that point was grand central station. And he said, visualize a theater coming out in that land. And now there is going to be right. So it's so exciting. And, um, what we didn't know is when we had asked Patty and Jay to speak because they were offending Jay baker because they were our first, they were thanks to them. The reason why we're here, because back in 2015, we were still a very small organization, but I still had that vision. And so I got them in the room and I said, we want to buy a piece of land over there. We want to build a Tony award, winning Broadway, you know, um, regional theater. And we, um, would like you to give us a million dollars in and name the building. And they said, yes, God bless them. And it took us three years to match the$10 million, which they wanted to do was he said, I'll say yes to that, but you have to raise 10000001st. So we could at least say, we know that we've got the 10 million coming from time to Jay, but we, we did a feasibility study. We had the higher and better staff we had to staff up, you know, we had to, um, buy the land. We had to get, get, you know, negotiate with, with, uh, those guys over there and get the land and, you know, do all of that. And it was, it was, you know, it was little by little and, you know, taking the pickax and just kind of walk, working your way up the mountain. And, um, three years it took us to raise the first 10 million to match that, that gift. So by, by, by April of, of this year, we had had, we had 34 million on the night of that event. And we knew we had six to go to get to 40. And what we didn't know is that Jay baker was going to announce another$10 million match. And this time he said, God bless him at this time. He said, but I want to make it short because we want to see this thing come out of the ground. And so I will match dollar for dollar, all gifts given by July 4th, up to$10 million. And we raised 10 million in 42 days and six weeks to the day from that event, we matched his, his gift. So now we're at like 54 and change. So we're almost done. And it's so exciting in that. I'm sure it was helpful when I went to stand in front of city council when they were like, how do we know you're going to build this thing? I'm like, we're ready. Like the only thing we're waiting for now is city approvals. We got the money, we're ready to put it on the ground, come on, stop delay. You know? So, um, so that's super, super, super exciting. And so for people who do want to get involved and help us get to the end, um, cause like I said, at the total of 60 million, um, we can go to ball sharp playhouse.org, and we've got a micro-site there. They can click on next stage campaign and look at, we've got renderings, we've got a fly through, we've got the video we used on that April 21st event, which sort of just announced the building and really showed, you know, how exciting it's going to be and what we're going to do inside of it. And that's, that's the best way for them to get up. That's
Speaker 6:Correct. I think that's, uh, something that we will showcase on fifth avenue and go to a Playhouse and make that available to everyone. But I think that not only to be able to see those things, to, to recognize the community, support the legitimacy of the project and then to take that over that the next time, please just, uh, that's great news. And just to see you again, that's how we started the interview of, you know, fundamentally you're just bulldogging
Speaker 5:It. That's
Speaker 6:Just so awesome to, to continue regardless of positive or negatives, which I think is very, very difficult. And I think that's what is a great separator of people. And I think that if you have that ability to, you know, have that grace under pressure, essentially to go through that trial and continue to have the vision, the focus and the determination to do something because not only, you know, it's right, but it's because something it'll be so impactful for so many millions of people probably eventually that you have to do it. And that's why I say those things. And I mean, it sincerely because I do see that the amount of creativity that goes into this, but just the fundamental willingness to devote yourself to it is a great separator of people who make it happen. And those who don't, those who talk about it and those who actually have it on their mantle. So I think that's very cool and I'm very happy to see you and B6 so successful. And we're supportive of you here on fifth avenue. And I know our community is because if they weren't, we wouldn't be having this
Speaker 5:Conversation. That's right. You know, it's, it's$54 million worth of private money that from through philanthropy that we have raised. So to your point, you know, I sat at the table a few nights ago with a woman who survived the Holocaust. And I mean, she lived under floorboards and you know what I mean? It was, she was young, a little kid and, um, she made it through and she sat there and she raised a glass. It was me and several of the major arts donors in the community. And she said, thank you so much to the people who make the arts and support the arts because they
Speaker 2:Thank you, Kristen, for joining us. And for all of those that are interested in learning more about the Gulf shore Playhouse, you can find them directly online@gulfshoreplayhouse.org or on social media. Again, thank you for joining us for movers and shakers.
Speaker 3:Remember to download, follow, and share or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or most importantly at fifth avenue, south.com.