Tampa Bay restaurants, hotels brace for impact after Hurricane Helene
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer and Henry Queen
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Oct 3, 2024

Nine months after Dan Bavaro opened a million-dollar pizzeria on Clearwater Beach, Hurricane Helene sent 4 feet of saltwater surging into the restaurant.

“My brand-new restaurant that we just opened in January — everything has to be thrown out, and everything has to be replaced,” said Bavaro, founder of Bavaro’s Pizza Napoletana & Pastaria. “Imagine that for every business along the shoreline.”

Bavaro estimates that his Clearwater Beach restaurant will reopen in time to celebrate its first anniversary in January 2025 — and it is far from the only place that will be closed for weeks, if not months.

Helene brought historic flooding to Tampa Bay’s coastlines, shuttering hotels and restaurants in the region’s most tourism-dependent nodes. The devastation in Helene’s wake has upended the hospitality industry, leaving scores without work, at least temporarily. Over 1,600 people are employed in hospitality and adjacent industries in the five ZIP codes that span from Clearwater Beach to Pass-a-Grille, according to the Census Bureau’s 2023 American Community Survey.

It’s impossible to gauge to what extent tourism will rebound when those establishments reopen, as photographs and videos of the destruction have flooded social media and national media outlets. Beyond hospitality jobs, tourists also contribute to the county’s bed tax — a revenue source that is set to fund the construction of the Tampa Bay Rays’ new stadium and ongoing beach renourishment efforts.

‘Ten times worse ... than words can describe’

Pinellas County’s tourism agency, Visit St. Pete-Clearwater, declined to comment for this story, referring requests about the storm’s impact on the hospitality industry to county officials. A county spokesperson said priorities have been helping individuals and businesses access Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance and Small Business Administration loans.

Tampa Bay Beaches Chamber of Commerce President Robin Miller CEO said “several to many” restaurants will never reopen, while another large percentage will be closed for months. Restoration will take time because contractors are in high demand. Some restaurant employees are helping the owners haul debris out of their properties as they figure out what’s next.

“It’s 10 times worse than any words I could [use to] describe it,” said Miller, who traveled on Gulf Boulevard on Sept. 30. “It’s just jaw-dropping.”

According to general manager Vanessa Williams, the Vinoy Resort & Golf Club in downtown St. Petersburg is scheduled to reopen on Oct. 11. Flooding occurred in the areas of the resort that are below sea level.

The Vinoy recently announced the upcoming addition of a restaurant backed by a Michelin-starred chef. That should provide “some opportunities” for individuals who have lost their hospitality jobs, Williams said. The hotel, however, just hired 40 new employees as part of an annual job fair ahead of the busy winter season. Their onboarding will be delayed for a few weeks.

Business leaders are just beginning to grasp the long-term effects of the storm.

“We live in a hurricane zone,” Williams said. “We prepare for this. I’d like to say that we can recover and we will rebound quickly. It’s just heartbreaking for our community to see how hard hit certain areas were.”

Ripple effects in Tampa

Hotels and restaurants in Tampa, which were largely unaffected by the storm, could see an influx of potential new employees. Jeff Gigante, a partner in Next Level Brands, said he’s already fielded phone calls from contacts in the industry who were looking for work after the hurricane. Next Level Brands is the parent company of Boulon Brasserie and Bakery, Union New American and Forbici Modern Italian.

“In the short-term, the labor market for us and these areas that got lucky will be buoyed,” Gigante said. “It’s going to be a while before the beaches can recover.”

Bavaro said his other restaurants in Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Sarasota won’t be able to accommodate all 30 of his Clearwater Beach employees, especially in the months before the high season for tourism begins in November.

“I don’t see how other markets will be able to absorb all of the staff,” Bavaro said.

Oxford Commons, which owns Oxford Exchange, Stovall House, Predalina, Casa Cami, The Current Hotel and The Library, typically has anywhere from four to 20 positions open, said Jess Anderson, director of business development.

In theory, Oxford Commons could see applications from displaced beach workers. But it doesn’t have any concepts at the beaches, and Tampa Bay’s lack of mass transit means hospitality workers usually try to live close to their employment.

“It all hinges completely, in my opinion, on transportation,” Anderson said. “It’s hard enough to convince the consumer to drive over the bridge to go eat, let alone trying to make it work financially or logistically for someone to drive 45 minutes to an hour to a new area for work.”

Visit Tampa Bay, which markets Hillsborough County hotels and attractions, won’t make dramatic changes to its messaging in the wake of Helene, CEO Santiago Corrada said. So far, hotel occupancy and room rates in Tampa haven’t taken a hit.

Corrada said his organization has found ways to sensitively pitch Tampa as a tourism destination in the wake of other natural disasters.

“I would say 99% of the time, we don’t talk about the beaches or Pinellas in our marketing,” Corrada said. “With our messaging, you wouldn’t see a big difference other than a pause and some sensitivity, especially since we haven’t been directly impacted. The hospitality market infrastructure was not severely impacted in Hillsborough County.”