Neighborhood association receives grant for $29,500
The cash donation from Paradise Development Group will pay for a consultant to help lure businesses to the area.
By ANDREW MEACHAM
Published February 22, 2004
ST. PETERSBURG - Residents of the city's southernmost neighborhood will soon find their association $29,500 richer. This time, the benefactor is not the city.
Paradise Development Group, on track to build a Walgreens drug store just east of the Wachovia bank on 54th Avenue S, announced the grant Tuesday to the Greater Pinellas Point Civic Association. The cash donation will come within a few weeks, said Owen Ewing, a vice president of development for the Safety Harbor company.
Board members approached Paradise about the fate of an existing Walgreens at 945 62nd Ave. S. If a newer store opened a mile and a half away, what would happen to that Walgreens?
"We didn't want Skyway Shopping Center to become another Bay Village," board member John Bagg said in a reference to the shopping plaza on 22nd Street and 62nd Avenue S. The center has failed to attract an anchor tenant since Winn-Dixie left in 1994. Just west of Skyway Shopping Center, Skyway Lanes has remained closed through several rebuilding attempts since 2001.
"We're very concerned about businesses coming in and businesses leaving," Greater Pinellas Point president Ron Hersch said. The grant allows residents to hire a consultant to help lure businesses to the area, including anything from good restaurants to a neighborhood Post Office.
"Retail . . . obviously goes through a life cycle," Ewing said. "From our standpoint, it's positive to participate in where it goes from here."
The grant does not include consulting services Paradise will also offer the association. The company also consulted with Lakewood Civic Association before agreeing to install deceleration lanes in front of the 54th Avenue S store and an overflow parking lot for the 31st Street Sports Complex.
"This is becoming very common in terms of partnering with neighborhood associations and working with them," Ewing said.
Neighborhood Partnership director Susan Ajoc said neither she nor Deputy Mayor Mike Dove could recall a larger cash donation from a business to a neighborhood.
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Prospective buyers of Huber Yacht Harbor, who will convert the marina into town homes if the city agrees to zoning changes, made their case Tuesday before neighbors. Members of the Greater Pinellas Point Civic Association raised few objections as investors and their representatives outlined plans for the project at 5950 34th St. S.
Frank Maggio, CEO of First Dartmouth Homes, told residents that his company is negotiating to buy all 72 units in Bent Pine condominiums, which abuts the Huber property from the south. The group also hopes to purchase Skyview Point, the blue apartment complex at 3315 58th Ave. S, also known as Big Blue.
Attorney David Bacon, who represents Henry and Mary Huber, said that town home plans on the current marina can take place without those acquisitions. "The plan is to incorporate Bent Pine," Bacon said. "The hope or potential is perhaps to add Big Blue."
The buyers, including Maggio and Richard Travis, who stands to buy the boat storage facility, appear before the Planning Commission March 16. They are seeking zoning changes for 8.5 acres of land, from residential planned development and commercial parkway to residential multifamily.
If the commission grants that request, two houses formerly owned by the Huber family will be torn down, and a stretch of 31st Street S will get a landscaping make-over. The development would feature Venetian-style townhomes with boat slips underneath the units, starting at $550,000, Maggio said. Other town homes facing the landscaped area, some of which is currently zoned as a preserve, would start at $250,000.
Builders would tear down the high and dry marina and build a new facility capable of holding 400 boats, Travis said. Maggio said he envisions renting some boat slips to the public but selling others.
Maggio said that only 17 owners control the 72 units in Bent Pine, and that some tenants pay rent through Section 8, a federally subsidized rent program. Association president Ron Hersch asked Maggio what would happen to residents if the property is bought.
"That's a constant issue that you deal with," Maggio said, adding that First Dartmouth is also trying to buy the 486-unit Graham-Rogall building at 325 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. S, where residents can currently pay rent with Section 8 vouchers.
If purchased, Bent Pine units would be restored and sold as condominiums. The fate of the older Skyview Point building is less certain, but if renovated it would also be sold as condominiums.
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Firefighters and the Mangrove Bayou Neighborhood Association will welcome the public to a family fun day Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at Fire Station No. 12, 1651 Bayou Grande Blvd. NE. The event shows off the station built in 2003. Families can get a safety check for their child's car seat, play games and win prizes. Refreshments will be served.
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Azalea residents with odd-sized trash can get rid of it Monday. Have your old furniture, appliances, carpet and other junk curbside by 7 a.m. Tree limbs up to 4 feet are okay. Do not leave paint or solvents. The Azalea neighborhood runs from Fifth to 22nd Avenue N, from the Pinellas Trail to Country Club Road.
Meetings
BAYOU HIGHLANDS: 7 p.m. Thursday (6:30 p.m. social). Skyway Resource Center, 1065 62nd Ave. S. Open forum.
EUCLID HEIGHTS: 7 p.m. Tuesday. First Alliance Church, 5000 10th St. N. Open forum.
HISTORIC UPTOWN: 7 p.m. Wednesday. The Sunshine Center, 330 Fifth St. N. Police lead crime watch discussion.
LAKEWOOD CIVIC: 7 p.m. Tuesday. Lakewood United Church of Christ, 2601 54th Ave. S. Representative of Bayfront Medical Center, on cardiovascular health.
METHODIST TOWN: 6:30 p.m. Thursday. Dwight Jones Neighborhood Center, 1035 Burlington Ave. N. Neighborhood signs.
SHORE ACRES: 7:30 p.m. Monday. Shore Acres Recreation Center, 4230 Shore Acres Blvd. NE. Neighborhood transportation manager Michael Frederick, on proposed bicycle routes through Shore Acres and adjacent neighborhoods.
