By Ed Chiles
Special to The Islander
Mike Coleman, like so many of us, fell in love with Anna Maria Island on his first trip here in 1995. Mike and wife Jane moved their family here in 2005.
I met Mike by chance. A new home was going up on Pine Avenue. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before, utilizing insulated concrete form construction. Mike took a minute to tell me a little bit about it when I invited myself onto his construction site.
Mike was all about the island and specifically all about Pine Avenue. He made the ultimate commitment, building his hurricane-proof home on the street, and raising his boys there with the love of his life, Janie.
He was concerned when it appeared that the only properties in the city designated for small business could go totally residential, taking away the vision of the founders of our community when they built the city pier in 1911 on one end of Pine Avenue, and the pavilion where the Sandbar Restaurant now sits in 1912 on the other end.
Pine Avenue was Main Street. Losing the opportunity to have a small business district would eliminate the most important thread in the fabric of a village or a community.
That concern led Mike to develop the plan for the Pine Avenue restoration project. His vision would have never happened without the tenacity, drive, intellect and extreme capabilities that he will be forever known for. The Pine Avenue Restoration project, now known simply as Pine Ave and dubbed “the greenest little Main Street in America,” is a great legacy to Mike’s capabilities and his love for Anna Maria. Generations of families now gather on its porches and in its shops, and the small business community that brought Mike’s vision to life make our community a better, richer place.
Mike created a model for how a community could do environmentally responsible development that reflected the low-rise, high-character and heritage of the island he loved so much. Mike’s work included starting a popular family business on Pine Ave, Poppo’s Taqueria, named after his wife’s father.
Mike made the island a better place. It was a privilege to be his partner and friend.