FAMU site was shot, now is hot

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 28, 2000

TAMPA -- After a tour of the city's deteriorating police station four years ago, Tampa Mayor Dick Greco said he "was ashamed at what we were expecting the men and women of the Police Department to work out of."

The 40-year-old building at 1710 N Tampa St. had asbestos problems. It was infested with rodents and insects. Toilets overflowed. Mildew covered corners and crevices. The air quality brought complaints that the police headquarters might be a "sick building."

The city abandoned rehabilitation possibilities and fled instead to a downtown bank building. Left behind were bad air, bad smells and a small cadre of communications workers bunkered in the 85,000-square-foot building.

Now, Tampa officials suddenly see the old police station in a new light.

This week, the city offered the police station and surrounding 6.2-acres to Florida A&M University as the potential site for a law school FAMU wants to open in 2002.

"It's absolutely perfect," said Greco. "It's a prime, prime piece of real estate. There's not another place like it."

The mayor emphasized the site's proximity to Interstate 275, and nearness to the federal courthouse downtown and a planned Second District Court of Appeals satellite courtroom. He waxed on about the old police station becoming the centerpiece of a $217-million effort to redevelop the Tampa Heights area near the Hillsborough River with townhomes, shops and restaurants.

The ambitious redevelopment plan, pitched by Centex, a Dallas construction company, and the Hogan Group, a local real estate firm, still is being negotiated. For now, FAMU officials want to know if the police station that so embarrassed Greco in 1996 is habitable.

Tampa Public Works Director Jack Morriss says most exposed asbestos at the old station was encapsulated several years ago, and that there was never a clear determination that the building was "sick."

If renovation is the goal, Morriss said, "Clearly, asbestos is a problem, as is the antiquated and inefficient heating and cooling system."

FAMU officials who recently got a look at the police station say they were warned that it needed work but were unaware of the litany of complaints by police officers working there in recent years.

"It does meet our specifications as far as size -- it's very spacious," said FAMU spokesman Eddie Jackson. "And it is a great location.

"But there sounds like there are some questions to resolve about the building."

The city is in competition with Orlando, Lakeland and Daytona Beach for the FAMU law school, as well as the 127 jobs, $10-million annually in economic impact and community prestige that come with the new school. FAMU expects competing cities to offer incentives worth at least $12.5-million.

Tampa's package so far consists of $1-million from Tampa Electric Co., $1-million from Hillsborough County and the police building and land, valued by the city at $10.7-million.

Only Tampa offered a permanent building. Orlando came closest to matching Tampa's bid, offering temporary office space and a 3-acre site where the new law school could be built using matching state funds.

A committee consisting of Board of Regents staffers and FAMU officials will choose a favorite from the four bidding cities by Sept. 8.

Greco insists the old stationhouse can be rehabilitated, just the way the Amtrak depot or the Centro Asturiano building, built in 1914, were renovated into attractive, comfortable structures.

"If you spent a few million dollars on it, it would be worth a fortune," Greco said.

Observers at FAMU -- and in Orlando -- wonder why Tampa didn't pursue that option, if it was such a golden opportunity.

Greco said it's because "We got such a good deal downtown," when the city got a $250,000 discount on the SunTrust Building at 315 E Madison St., which was originally listed at $3.2-million. The city bore additional costs for renovating the building, for new district offices elsewhere and for a 250-space parking garage now being constructed downtown.

"I think Tampa and Orlando are the real contenders" for the FAMU law school, said Susan Blexrud, spokesperson for Orlando Mayor Glenda Hood. "But for the people looking at the bid in Tampa, with the history of that building, it sounds like there may be risks involved."

There are also questions about value. Is the aging police station and parking lot really worth $10.7-million?

Hillsborough Property Appraiser Rob Turner says it is not. His last valuation of the property, done in 1996, put the value of the building at $4.12-million and the value of the 6.2-acres at $1.48-million, for a total of $5.6-million.

The city essentially adopted Turner's $4.12-million building value, but rejected the property appraiser's land value as much too low.

Steve LaBrake, director of the city's business and community services, acknowledged that "some people think it's worthless," or worth "anywhere from zero to $4-million.

"I looked at it and said, we're giving you a building that's a shell, that is not much more than a warehouse," LaBrake said. "But in reality, it's much, much more. It already has courtrooms, it has a full gymnasium, it has electrical and plumbing.

"We could have priced it much higher."

As for the police station land, LaBrake said the city relied on a recent appraisal of land three blocks from the old police station which put comparable value at about $25 a square foot, or about $1.09-million an acre. That brought the city's value for the 6.2-acre police site to $6.7-million.

Ted Delavergne, a commercial real estate broker in Tampa, said that number seems "plausible.

"It has one owner, it's one big piece of property and it's next to the Tampa Heights redevelopment," he said. "It's a great piece of property, no doubt about it.

"If there are no environmental problems on the site, it's a diamond."

Then and now

FOUR YEARS AGO: Tampa Mayor Dick Greco "was ashamed at what we were expecting the men and women of the Police Department to work out of."

NOW: Greco calls the building "absolutely perfect. It's a prime, prime piece of real estate. There's not another place like it."

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