A Sarasota couple's dream made reality, with help from community banks
Raymond Peper and Richard Day sold their Key West property, packed up their belongs, stacked the patio furniture on top of a Caprice station wagon and headed to Sarasota more than 20 years ago to chase a dream. The couple had done their due diligence on demographics and expected off-season population. They had a decent amount of capital from selling a condo and a house. And they had a quarter-inch scale model – with paper-towel palm trees – of what would become the John Carl Spa and Salon at 1345 Second St. But first, they would have to find a bank willing to loan two men – one in his...