The Yogi and the Brewer

Both businesses on the southwest corner of Seville Square offer customers relaxation. The current mood in this nook of Pensacola’s historic district, however, is anything but relaxed.

“What we’ve got is an issue with a couple of tenants butting heads with each other,” said Robert Overton, who heads up West Florida Historic Preservation, Inc.

The streets around Seville Square are lined with historic cottages and buildings. The area comprises the historic district and is overseen by the University of West Florida, which rents out some of the properties to area businesses.

Across from the Old Christ Church, one historic building houses both the Pensacola Bay Brewery and Breathe Yoga Studio. The vacant space between the two is the source of the current conflict.

“It’s not that I’m opposed to the beer,” said Sandra Sanford, owner of Breathe Yoga Studio. “I know the beer gets great reviews—my husband says it’s great.”

The yoga studio used to be neighbors with the brewery, but recently moved one door down, creating the vacant space between the two businesses. Feeling the activity at the brewery—“we’re talking light industry”—was not conducive to practicing yoga, Sanford had hoped the move would offer a buffer of sorts.

Now, the Pensacola Bay Brewery is looking to expand. Co-owner Elliot Eckland said the business plans to rent the empty space and use it for offices, as well as a place to put an additional cooler. The brewer described the yogi’s complaints as “100 percent exaggerated.”

“I mean, just overreaching,” Eckland said.

While he allowed that the brewery did entail related activity—the delivery of supplies, leaving wooden pallets out for pickup once a week, etc.—Eckland said he has made attempts to appease Sanford, but that she had become unreasonable in her requests.

“The problem was, nothing was ever good enough,” he said.

The brewery owner said that Sanford voiced concern when he first opened shop, complaining about construction related noise. After Eckland tried to schedule the work around Breathe’s class schedule, the yogi reportedly complained about the brewery playing music and requested it stop.

“And I was like, ‘that ain’t gonna happen,’” Eckland said. “That’s not realistic.”
For her part, Sanford doesn’t feel a brewery belongs in the area, or constitute the “highest and best use” of the historic property. She fears that the business will eventually expand to the point of taking over the entire building it now resides in.

“It really bothers me,” she said. “This whole corner here, five or 10 years from now, people are going to be saying, ‘how did they let a brewery there?’”

Overton, and the board at WFHP, Inc., is charged with approving tenants in the historic district. The non-profit depends on the rentals for income.

“We try to look at what’s the best thing for the district,” Overton said.

Currently, the board has two proposals before them for the empty space between the brewery and yoga studio. One proposal is from the brewery, and the other is from another yoga business who Overton said has intentions to buy Sanford’s business and make use of both spaces.

“So, Sandra’s got a little bit of an interest in seeing us not having the brewery there,” he said.

Sanford preferred not to elaborate on that point, but said such a business deal was probably no longer in play. The studio owner said her interests lie in protecting her studio and the feel of the neighborhood.

“I’m really upset,” she said. “Two-fold, it messes with my business and it messes with the park.”

Eckland disagrees. The brewer referred to his business as an “anchor store” and said it has been good for the area.

“I think she needs to go back to school and learn some economics,” he said.

Overton tended to agree—calling the brewery “fairly successful”—and said the board would probably approve the business’s proposal.

“We’ve seen a lot of increased foot traffic because of it,” he said. “A lot of our visitors who go on our tour have always asked, ‘where can I get a drink?’—it’s nice to point them right down the street.”

Eckland said that he feels the yoga studio will still be afforded a “buffer” if the brewery expands into the vacant space.

“It’ll have a buffer between the two businesses because coolers don’t make any noise,” he said.

Sanford said that she has no intentions of pulling up stakes if the brewery gets the spot—“We’re totally grateful to be here, we’re not going anywhere.”—but that she’s hoping others who may share her concerns will press the issue with the WFHP board during its July 16 meeting.

“If people are ok with it being there then I’ll just go away and shut my mouth, but if people have concerns they should step up and say something,” she said. “You think of a yoga instructor—we’re all love and peace. But, we’re also activists.”

Eckland said he was not overly concerned with the neighborly conflict, but rather more focused on expanding his growing business.

“I need more room so I can make more beer and employ more people,” the brewer said. “I’m not the one blowing this totally out of the air.”