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HCC President Lost Her Way In Deal With Dubious Developer

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 23, 2008

The leadership of Hillsborough Community College has shown an appalling lack of due diligence in dealing with a developer who exaggerated and fabricated his credentials and accomplishments to win a lucrative contract to build a hotel-and-clinic complex on 50 acres of prime campus real estate.

This debacle suggests that HCC President Gwendolyn Stephenson is ill-suited to lead a public-private development project that puts community assets at risk.

Besides, HCC is not in business to build high-end development projects that duplicate what's available in the private sector, especially projects put together by a huckster whose resume is laden with false credentials and out-right lies.

Stephenson pursued the project saying it's needed to provide work experience to students. That's nonsense. Students in the college's hospitality, culinary and health programs already get the work experience they need at local, private businesses.

Stephenson should be embarrassed that for years, she has been negotiating to lease a huge chunk of the Dale Mabry campus to developer Greg Neal, who made a series of false claims, according to a report in the St. Petersburg Times.

The newspaper found that Neal didn't have partnerships lined up with ESPN, the Cleveland Clinic, the Tampa Bay Lightning or the University of South Florida's medical school, as he claimed. Neal also was reported to have told New Mexico officials that NASCAR was interested in working with him on a facility there, a claim NASCAR says is not true.

Even after learning of the newspaper's findings, Stephenson held out hope. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," she said.

Only after the Times published its story did HCC's board sever ties with Neal, though his firm continues to manage the college's tennis complex.

HCC Board Chair Tom Huggins expressed concerns along the way. Huggins knows something about building deals gone bad. He chaired the Tampa-Hillsborough Urban League when it closed two years ago after losing United Way funding. The group's executive director had been diverting funds to pay a $5 million tab for renovating the league's headquarters in Centro Espanol de West Tampa. "Trust, but verify," Huggins said later of lessons learned.

Yet it appears that neither HCC nor an Atlanta consulting firm, which was paid nearly $800,000 to manage the bids, checked Neal's background or pie-in-the-sky claims.

Granted, it's tempting for a college rich in land holdings to want to pursue commercial development for increased revenues. But Stephenson should ask the University of South Florida if it's glad it built a hotel on campus. Given the increasing scarcity of campus land for research and educational facilities, USF officials say that hotel was a big mistake.

Yet Stephenson shows no sign of backing down from her grand, but flawed, vision.

In her pursuit of a deal, HCC's president failed to safeguard the college and the community's investment. Neither did HCC's five-member board - a number too small to be effective.

The hotel complex is the second controversial deal championed by Stephenson. A few years back, she worked with the HCC Foundation to skirt a state law that prohibits community colleges from building dormitories. Despite an abundance of rental properties in the area, HCC is now the only Florida community college with dorms.

And remember, Stephenson was busy negotiating these development deals at a time when, according to a state study, HCC ranked second to last in graduating degree-seeking students.

This development scandal, combined with the school's poor academic performance, makes it tough to have confidence in Stephenson's leadership.

HCC's board owes the public a thorough accounting of how this deal went so terribly wrong. Then it should hold accountable those who failed to be diligent stewards of the public's trust.

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