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Denise Gilmore isn’t giving up without a fight on her dream of creating a high-end restaurant and jazz club in the former Yard on Mass building.
Gilmore, the owner of Mary’s Bagel Café, and her husband, Mark Dornstauder, believe the selection committee that gave a low score to their proposal for the space misunderstood their plan. They told the Lakeland Community Redevelopment Agency Advisory Board on Thursday that their vision isn’t of a private club, but rather three spaces:
- A high-end eatery called The Blue Ivory Restaurant.
- A public jazz venue called the Blue Note Jazz Lounge.
- A banquet hall called The Blue Ivory Ballroom that would be available to the public to rent for private events.
Change requested: On Thursday, Gilmore and Dornstauder asked the Community Redevelopment Agency’s advisory board to allow a slight amendment to their proposal for the CRA-owned building at 802 N. Massachusetts Ave.
“I just need to clarify that it is not a club; it is called Mass Blues and Jazz House,” Gilmore said. “It is not a private club … it will be open to the public.”
The board will decide on the request after it gets advice from the city legal staff about whether it has the authority to allow a change after a previously sealed bid has been opened and evaluated. The board next meets Oct. 3.
Multi-million-dollar makeover: The couple plans to spend about $2 million modifying the property, including adding a kitchen, dining area and banquet hall. Construction is projected to take six to nine months to complete, Dornstauder said.
Some selection committee members said they felt like it was too much too quickly and wanted the couple to make sure the business was succeeding first before making such a major investment.
Experience: Gilmore added that she has extensive cooking, catering and event-planning experience. She started at Lakeland Regional Medical Center’s cafeteria when she was 16 years old. She worked there for 27 years in various departments. She left to work with her husband and opened a home-based gourmet cinnamon bun business, along with a wedding and catering service.
In January 2023, she opened Mary’s Bagel Café on land where her grandmother, for whom the business is named, had a home. It has been successful as a breakfast and lunch restaurant that also offers catering. She gave free lunches to neighborhood children over the summer, no questions asked.
Restaurant concept: Gilmore said the restaurant would be open for lunch and dinner, Tuesdays through Saturdays, and brunch on Saturdays and Sundays, with live jazz six nights a week. She listed some of the items that would be on the menu.
- Brunch: Eggs Benedict, Nashville hot chicken and waffles, shrimp and grits, avocado with either shrimp or crab meat.
- Dinner: Filet mignon, New York strip, Wagyu steak, loaded baked potato, sweet potato, asparagus, macaroni and cheese and Brussels sprouts.
- Dessert: Homemade butter cookie pound cake, peach cobbler pound cake and red velvet cake.
Low scores: In part because of the word “private,” the CRA’s selection committee gave Gilmore’s proposal a score of 55.2 out of 100. Committee member were also concerned about the cost of renovations before opening.
There were more than 1,100 hits on the CRA’s application for a proposal. Despite the widespread interest in the space, only one business besides Gilmore’s completed the lengthy application.
The Enchanted Fairytale Hollow proposed creating an event space for things like: princess makeovers; tea parties; art parties; festivals themed on fairies, mermaids and unicorns; and trick or treating. That proposal received a score of 48.2.
The selection committee, a different panel from the CRA advisory board, said two weeks ago that neither proposal was a good fit as written. It recommended that the CRA readvertise the property and request new proposals.
Attorney halts vote: After Gilmore spoke, several CRA advisory board members seemed to favor allowing the modification. Commissioner Guy LaLonde made a motion to allow Gilmore’s proposal to move forward to the City Commission for consideration.
But Assistant City Attorney Alex Landback cautioned against that. He recommended letting city staff research whether it is legal to allow the contents of a sealed bid to be amended after the submission window has closed and a selection committee has scored it.
“I just want to make sure that we’re not exposing the city to liability for not following a process that we’ve set out already,” Landback said. “The problem is, this information was not presented to the evaluation committee. And so, as far as making a determination based off of this, it would be legally problematic.”
Issue tabled: The CRA advisory board unanimously decided to table the issue until Landback could look into it. He said it would not be fair to allow Gilmore and Dornstauder to amend their proposal if the Enchanted Fairytale Hollow couldn’t also.
Amy Sharpe, that business’ owner, could not be reached for comment. She recently signed a lease to relocate her business to Highland City and it was unclear if she would want to break that lease to move back downtown.
But Gilmore and Dornstauder are concerned that if the request for proposals process is reopened to everyone, people could steal their idea — which would be unfair to them.
Dornstauder told CRA board members that if the RFP is reopened to all comers, they might withdraw their proposal. “I gotta tell you right now, we may no longer be back,” Dornstauder said.
Landback is consulting with City Attorney Palmer Davis, who said that his department is still researching the matter.
This story has been updated to clarify Gilmore’s work experience at Lakeland Regional Health.
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I believe a Jazz “club” would be fantastic. It’s a matter of semantics. The word Club is often used to describe a place that highlights Jazz.. This would be a an incredible addition to Lakeland.