North-end residents are most likely familiar with the glass building that neighbors Whitney’s restaurant near Broadway Street.
If plans submitted by the new owners of the building are approved, the 5,400 square foot former bank building will soon be demolished to make way for an ambitious expansion by Whitney’s. The planning and zoning board will consider those plans at its meeting 9:15 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 15.
If it is demolished, that will be the building’s last step in a storied history. Built in 1976, the first era of the building was that of a bank. In the early 2000s, it was home to the Longboat Key Chamber of Commerce and the Historical Society. Since 2008, it has sat empty, with a brief period where it was owned by a convicted conman who faked his own death and became a drug dealer with fake IDs…