New rowing park leader wants to take it to next level

When looking for a place to retire, Nathan Benderson Park was what set the Bradenton-Sarasota area apart from every place else Bob Sullivan considered.

“I was down here because of the park, so it is kind of funny that I am now managing the park that we thought so highly of that we would move here to retire,” said Sullivan, who moved to Manatee County from Texas last November.

Sullivan, 62, took the reins this week as the second president and CEO of the Suncoast Aquatic Nature Center Associates, the nonprofit that operates Nathan Benderson Park.

“The foundation is here,” he told the Bradenton Herald on Wednesday. “Now it is a matter of taking it to that next level. That’s very exciting, and it’s always nice to be able to go into a community and make a lasting impact on the quality of life of that community.”

The search began for a new president and CEO after Paul Blackketter announced in April that he would be stepping down to pursue a career in consulting. Sullivan was unanimously selected from the more than 60 resumes that were submitted to SANCA.

While Sullivan has been spending the first couple days in the position meeting people, he wants to have Nathan Benderson Park “be the example of how to do it right.”

“All the pieces are there, and it’s just a matter of taking them to the next step, enhancing the programming, go after the bigger rowing events but also look at developing events,” he said. “We are a community facility. We are a county park so we have to be cognizant of the fact that this is everybody’s park and we will make it available for everybody.”

Through his 40 years of experience as an event and venue management executive, Sullivan said the community has to be an integral part of the organization’s success.

“That is when you start doing community activities, whether they be festivals or the fun runs or the benefits and all that,” he said. “That’s when you really start getting the buy-in from the community. ... I always tell people that they are only limited by their imagination and there’s a lot of opportunities and a lot of potential for the kinds of activities we can do here. We want to be able to have a facility that’s flexible enough to be able to handle all those activities.”

As work on the park’s finish tower was underway Wednesday, other structures, including the boathouse, still must be completed in advance of the 2017 World Rowing Championships, which will be held at the park.

“What we want to do is create a facility that has everything one needs to be able to stage an event, and I think that would enhance our efforts to get more events in the future, whether they be collegiate or national or international,” Sullivan said. “Once you start doing these events, you start getting a reputation — and so far that reputation is very, very good, so we just have to fulfill the expectations that we have and then extend them.”

Funding is always going to be an issue for capital improvements, Sullivan said.

“Public monies are very difficult to come by because there are many requests for public monies and the economy is such where people are very cautious about where they invest so we’ve had good success up to this point, but we are always looking for financial support to be able to do the structures that we need,” he said.

With a little more than a year until the World Rowing Championship, Sullivan said it will be pretty seamless transitioning between the new leadership in preparing for the event.

“There are requirements that the event has and there are levels of expectations that the community has,” he said. “It is just a matter of marrying the two of them and producing an event that people can talk about for a long, long time. ... It all comes together. I’ve been doing this for 40 years, and I’ve never missed an opening night and I don’t intend to either.”

Sullivan brings more than 35 years of experience as an event and venue management executive, most recently managing the Multi-Purpose Events Center in Wichita Falls, Texas, which includes an arena, convention center, horse exhibition center and memorial auditorium.

As Sullivan settles into his new position, he said the big part — the facility — is already done.

“Now we’ve got to go back and do the other pieces of the puzzle,” he said. “This is going to be a great adventure and it is great fun to come into a facility where most of the major pieces are here already and there is already a level of excellence that you can improve on.”

This story was originally published August 17, 2016 at 3:27 PM with the headline "New rowing park leader wants to take it to next level."