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Central Park Redevelopment Puts Neighborhood In Limbo
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Published: March 9, 2008
TAMPA - To some, Central Park is blighted and beat down, a predominantly low-income black community where some motorists won't venture outside the safety of their cars, especially at night.
For city officials, the area is an oasis of opportunity, a chance to finally connect the proposed downtown arts district and Ybor City's tourist destination with a planned redevelopment project of upscale and affordable housing, retail business, and office space.
Such sweeping change could mean a lot for the neighborhood — new faces, more money, an entirely different demographic than what has existed for decades.
But what happens to the people for whom Central Park is home? The residents who rent apartments or own homes near the main Nebraska Avenue corridor? The store owners who say they are struggling to survive?
Most say they don't know what will become of their community. It's fair to say officials can't say for sure either.
The reality is that one of the city's oldest black neighborhoods will change forever.
"This is not going to be a white community. It's going to be a diverse community," said Mark Huey, Tampa's economic and urban development administrator. "That's our goal as it develops over time."
The significance of the change depends on whom you ask.
"The question still becomes — is there a greater good in this whole process?" said Tampa Councilman Tom Scott, who two years ago as a county commissioner was roundly criticized for questioning efforts to create the Central Park Community Redevelopment Area, the first step toward widespread revitalization.
"Will Central Park be redone at some point? Yes. But it will have affected the African-American community drastically."
Stuck In A Lull
It's quiet inside the Tampa Park Supermarket, a brightly painted neighborhood market at Tampa Park Plaza, one of the few shopping centers in Central Park.
Two customers buy chips and a few lollipops. A third steps inside to use the ATM.
Signs along the wall by the meat department advertise family-plan specials — specific types of meats by the pound, plus incentives such as a gallon of milk or a dozen eggs.
Geovanny Sanchez bought the grocery eight months ago. He invested nearly $150,000, he said, to improve the appearance and merchandise. It has been downhill ever since.
"What I see, the whole area, as soon as Central Park went down, everything slowed down big time," he said. "All business here like this." To accentuate his point, he runs a finger across his throat, as if he were cutting it.
Many people in the community were happy to see the demolition of the former public housing complex, Central Park Village, which sat across the street from the shopping plaza. Even city officials admit that removing the blighted apartments is a positive step.
"Yeah, hell yeah, too much drugs in that area," said Herman Williams, who has lived for six years near Central Park Village. "It was a hiding place. I'm glad it's gone."
In its place, the Tampa Housing Authority and Bank of America are partnering to build a 28-acre development called Encore, which will incorporate affordable housing, market-rate condominiums, a possible hotel and grocery store, a black history museum, and a refurbished public park.
The first two buildings were expected to open by late 2009 with 36 public housing units and a combined 234 units that accept federally subsidized housing vouchers. Former Central Park Village residents are to receive first choice to move back. As of July, about 119 families had expressed interest in returning.
Construction has been delayed by at least a year, however. And few likely anticipated the immediate effect on adjacent businesses once Central Park Village went away.
"I heard a lot of things. I heard a lot of people talking and talking," Sanchez said. "But I don't get nobody telling me, this is what's going to happen here."
An Undefined Change
Walking down Nebraska Avenue, Michael Hatchett can't help but think about the change that is coming.
"We just haven't answered the question yet — what's going to be here?" said Hatchett, the city's urban development manager in charge of the Central Park Community Redevelopment Area.
City officials don't know how many businesses will remain in the neighborhood because they don't know yet what the neighborhood is going to become.
The 143-acre community stretches from Interstate 275 to Nuccio Parkway between Cass Street and the Interstate 4 interchange.
The only planned redevelopment is Encore, which officials said will retain a sense of the neighborhood's history by naming streets and buildings after legendary black musicians, many of whom stayed in the Central Park area during segregation.
In June 2006, once the CRA was approved, housing officials began relocating the 1,300-plus Central Park Village tenants. By summer 2007, demolition began.
Encore was thought to be a catalyst for other redevelopment. The city thought investors and developers would begin talking to surrounding property owners once new construction began.
But road construction, which was scheduled to begin in February, has been delayed due to a state Supreme Court ruling. And with no activity, city officials say they have been unable to solicit outside investors.
CRAs rely on special taxing districts to help pay for street, sewer and other improvements, securing bonds against the anticipated property tax increases from redevelopment. The justices in September ruled that local governments cannot use tax-increment financing to fund public infrastructure improvements.
The court is reviewing its ruling. But Encore's financing is directly tied to TIF dollars — about $25 million for necessary improvements — which means no work can occur until the court issues a final decision.
That might not come until June.
"It pulled the rug out from under us," Hatchett said.
The other components of the Central Park CRA remain conceptual, at best.
There is a bundle of property, some of it city-owned, north of the GTE Federal Credit Union campus, that likely will convert to mixed-use office, residential and retail, he said.
And the city anticipates a mixed-income housing development similar to Encore will be built at Tampa Park Apartments, a roughly 22-acre, 373-unit complex that rings the eastern edge of the community. The property is owned, in part, by C. Blythe Andrews Jr., chairman of the Florida Sentinel Bulletin, and Perry Harvey Jr., Tampa's first black city councilman.
To date, Tampa Park's owners have been mum on details.
Any new development there would be subject to city zoning and land-use regulations, Huey said.
Tampa Park Apartments' employees referred comment to Kay Andrews Wells, publisher of the Florida Sentinel Bulletin. Wells did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Apartment residents such as Herman Williams have heard rumors but nothing official.
"I hope they give enough notice to find a place," said Williams, 65, who has lived at Tampa Park since 2002.
Some Can't Afford To Wait
For many business owners, however, losing Tampa Park would be a death knell.
"I'm suffering already because of Central Park. My business went down at least 15 to 20 percent," said Sal Saed, owner of Snax convenience store at Henderson and Seventh avenues. He said Tampa Park residents account for 60 percent of his store's revenue.
"Hopefully, it's just talk; it's just rumors."
Some businesses aren't waiting on redevelopment. They can't afford to.
"I lose money every day," said Mary Kang, who has operated Mary's Kitchen at Nebraska and Third avenues for 12 years. She plans to close the convenience store and former restaurant this month.
Kang's landlord, Sun Choi, owns both the building and the business next door, Old Gold Discount Center. For nearly 19 years, he has sold hair care products, wigs, makeup and more to neighborhood residents.
He plans to close his shop, too, and seek another location.
Other businesses are making plans to vacate due to fear of the unknown.
Two blocks north, at Henderson Avenue, Deborah Holder plans to move her business, Holder Hair Studio, within the next three years.
Holder's building is owned by GTE Federal Credit Union. She said she was told by her landlord that a decision could be made about the property by 2011.
Stephen Foster, vice president of real estate for GTE, said the company has no plans for the building.
Holder has worked at the beauty parlor since 1989. She bought the business in mid-2006.
"In the back of my mind, I was hoping whatever they build over there would be a plus for my business," she said, pointing toward Central Park Village. "Unfortunately, it's just life. But at least they let us know."
The city has hired a consultant to evaluate Nebraska Avenue businesses. Hatchett said some might be relocated temporarily. Others might not fit into the overall redevelopment plan.
The consultant has been put on hold while a nine-member Central Park CRA advisory board is seated. The city has filled seven slots on the board.
The delay hasn't stopped people from speaking out.
"There's mixed reaction to our efforts to date," Hatchett said.
At community meetings, Hatchett said people are happy about upcoming street, water and park improvements. But there is concern, too. At one meeting, he said, a woman began to cry.
"You're going to have all-new everything at Encore. Tampa Park Apartments is going to redevelop," he said. "You just have a different market, a different demographic, a different residential base."
The Former Plan
Things were different four years ago.
At that time, a group of private investors was working to secure a $1.5 billion, 157-acre project that included both Tampa Park and the land that GTE later bought and developed.
The plan included more than 3,500 luxury lofts and town homes and retail shops, as well as about 2,000 affordable housing units. The deal also specified that the existing residents not be moved more than two miles away.
Ed Turanchik was one of two managing directors of Civitas.
The group "had been working with a lot of leaders in the African-American community to try and develop the right approach," he said. "It was always going to be a mixed-income, racially diverse community."
Civitas spent considerable time working with local property owners to secure purchase contracts. One such owner was the Rev. Willie Williams of Greater Mount Moriah Primitive Baptist Church.
Williams said his congregation supported moving if it helped the city and allowed the church to expand. It made sense, too: Out of 400-plus members, only about 10 lived in the neighborhood.
But the deal failed to receive approval to proceed in January 2004 after city and county officials argued over financing for the project.
Williams said he does not know what role his church will play in the current redevelopment.
"Right now, nobody's talking to us," Williams said. "At this point, I don't know if it went away, it's dead, it's dormant. At this point, I think everyone is waiting on the [Supreme Court] ruling."
The Civitas group also met with black leaders such as Scott, then a county commissioner, who lobbied to retain black residents in the community.
"It was totally redoing that whole area. That's why I fought hard … to make sure that African-Americans would move back to the area," Scott said. "I saw gentrification taking place."
Central Park is included within Tampa City Council District 5, which Scott represents. He said he worries about a significant change to the district's voting population if a majority of black residents leave.
Scott also questions whether the city is doing enough community outreach.
Huey and Hatchett dispute that, pointing to public meetings and personal visits.
"Someone needs to be talking to them about what's happening now, whereas before you had Civitas going and just buying everybody out," Scott said. "You will have a lot of businesses suffer."
Where Scott sees a negative impact, however, Williams still sees opportunity, even if it means fewer blacks in the neighborhood. History, he said, will "reflect what used to be."
"If you build condos in this community, I thank God now for the progress we've made as a society that my skin color wouldn't prevent me from owning one of those condos," Williams said. "I wouldn't have to just work in it and go somewhere else. That's progress."
Reporter John W. Allman can be reached at (813) 259-7915 or jallman@tampatrib.com.
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