Commercial Development News - Appraisal Development International

Housing complex proposal shrinks
By JANET ZINK
St. Petersburg Times
Published: May 23, 2006

TAMPA - Bank of America on Monday unveiled its plans to redevelop the crumbling Central Park Village public housing complex, and it's a vastly different proposal than the one touted last year as the future of that rundown neighborhood.

In August, a team that included Bank of America and Tampa developers Bill Bishop and Don Wallace laid out plans to create a mixed-income neighborhood on prime property between downtown and Ybor City.

But Monday, at a Tampa Housing Authority workshop, the proposal had changed. The mixed-income idea is still there, as is the plan for retail development alongside residential.

The latest plan is vastly smaller, however, taking in only 28 acres, compared with the original 60 and envisioning 2,000 homes instead of 4,000.

The dynamics of the development team have changed, too.

Bishop and Wallace, the founder of Lazydays RV Supercenter, have distanced themselves from the project since they lost an option to buy Tampa Park Apartments, a 20-acre property adjacent to Central Park Village.

Bank of America officials insist Bishop and Wallace are still part of the team, but the Housing Authority says it hasn't spoken to either since late last year, around the time the Tampa Park Apartments deal fell apart. And support documents mention only Bank of America, not the Central Park Group that the Housing Authority selected for the redevelopment last year.

A spokeswoman for Bishop and Wallace says the project no longer offers the opportunity for a master-planned community on a scale appropriate for Bishop.

"This project now, at the 28 acres, is the kind of project that Bank of America does. It's not the kind of project that Bill Bishop does," Deanne Roberts said. "He stands ready if they need him."

Wallace, she said, is available to assist with negotiations. Wallace made a brief presentation Monday, and then turned things over to Bank of America.

The plan suggests replacing Central Park Village's 484 public housing units with 794 rental units and 1,236 for-sale units in 13 buildings of seven to 26 stories.

Historic St. James Episcopal Church would be turned into an African-American history museum at the entrance to the new development.

Bank of America officials offered no details on how many public housing units the project would include, but said all the rental units would be available to people with housing vouchers.

The project's high density raised the eyebrows of Housing Authority board member Hazel Harvey.

"Sociology tells me we don't put masses of poor people together and warehouse them in," she said.

Bank of America representatives said the company has done projects like this before, and safety features and a good management company should provide adequate security.

James Grauley, senior vice president of Bank of America, said "economic realities" make the tall buildings necessary.

"There is clearly a need for more density than there is today to make the numbers work," he said.

Bank of America vice president Roxanne Amoroso repeatedly emphasized the importance of creating a special taxing district to fund new roads, stormwater systems and other infrastructure.

"Without it, redevelopment cannot occur," she said. "It's financially unfeasible."

Mayor Pam Iorio spoke strongly about the importance of the taxing district and accompanying community redevelopment area, which requires an agreement between the city and Hillsborough County. The County Commission is scheduled to consider the agreement June 7.

Iorio pointed out that the community redevelopment area includes 143 acres in a key part of Tampa that needs to be redeveloped. Central Park Village is only part of that.

Iorio also supports the high density, saying it helps provide a critical mass of people to support mass transit in Tampa.

If all goes as planned, Amoroso said, demolition of Central Park Village would begin in May 2007.

Housing Authority president Jerome Ryans said he will start moving the 1,300 residents out of Central Park Village this summer. If the Bank of America plan doesn't work out, he said, the Housing Authority will come up with its own strategy.

"I made a decision we need to get on with our business," he said recently. "We've been talking about this for years, and quite frankly, I'm tired of talking about it. I'm going to take care of the 28 acres we own."

The Central Park Group was chosen after the Housing Authority sought bids from private developers for remaking the area.

In May 2005, a selection committee ranked the Central Park Group third of three finalists.

Two months later, the two top-ranked teams announced they would join forces. But Housing Authority officials killed the idea, saying the joint proposal violated the agency's procurement policies because it created a new team that wasn't part of the initial selection process.

That left the Central Park Group as the only developer in the competition. The team suggested combining the authority's 28 acres with the Tampa Park Apartments property and other land Bishop and Wallace had options to buy to create a 60-acre master-planned community with grand boulevards, outdoor cafes, million-dollar condos and public housing.

But the owners of Tampa Park Apartments chose not to sell their land to Bishop and Wallace. Without the surrounding land, the plan revealed Monday is less ambitious, though Iorio touted it as a chance to jump-start redevelopment in the area.