SOUTH TAMPA - An apartment complex that was infamous among law enforcement officials, condemned by the city, foreclosed on by lenders, occupied by squatters and damaged by arson has reopened following a total renovation.

A Tampa code enforcement supervisor called the transformation remarkable.

The $1.5 million renovation of the former South Bay Apartments began in February and was completed just before Thanksgiving Day, said Hope Lettieri, who oversaw the efforts of local tradesmen and laborers.

"We went to the studs," she said of gutting work that preceded reconstruction. "You name it; it's been done," including new central heat and air, kitchen appliances, plus washers and dryers.

In addition to new plumbing and wiring, all 10 four-unit buildings received new roofs, stucco, tile and insulated windows. The parking lot of the block-long property at 5901 S. Dale Mabry Highway was resurfaced. The complex was fenced and new landscaping is planned.

The complex, built in 1987, has new ownership, new management and a new name: Dale Mabry Palms.

The new owner is a corporation headed by Perry Pavicic, 51, who has homes in New Jersey and St. Petersburg, and a background in construction, records show.

It took more than a year to close on the purchase of the foreclosed property, said Lettieri, a South Tampa resident who has worked for Pavicic for a decade and will manage Dale Mabry Palms after it is fully leased.

Tampa Code Enforcement condemned the property last year. But even vacant, South Bay Apartments posed problems.

In the pre-dawn hours of July 29, 2009, fire broke out in one of the four-unit buildings. Tampa firefighters arriving at 4:30 a.m. found flames shooting through the roof and battled the blaze for 30 minutes to bring it under control.

All four residences were heavily damaged, according to a report that determined the blaze was arson, although it remains under investigation. The fire-damaged structure was demolished during renovation of the other 10 buildings.

Kevin Amos, the code enforcement supervisor whose district includes the problem property, calls it, "one of the worst I had seen in the South Tampa area." His agency was involved in a daily battle that ultimately resulted in condemnation of South Bay Apartments and eviction of all tenants.

"We had vacant units that got stripped," he said. "The trash began to build up. Neighbors began to complain. There were people living there without utilities. There were squatters who had moved into some of the vacant apartments," he said.

"It was unprecedented because we actually had to vacate the entire complex, which is not something we do all the time," Amos said.

A Tampa Police sergeant active with the department's narcotics unit said South Bay Apartments earned a reputation as "the big drug hole" south of Kennedy Boulevard. "The street name for it was The Minis, but no one knows why, said Sgt. Kevin Schoolmeesters.

"A lot of people would hang out" at the complex, not just residents, he said. "And the way it's set up it was hard for us to watch them. There are a lot of alleyways through there they would use to do their drug deals."

South Bay's management didn't enforce rules and did not evict, exacerbating the problem, Schoolmeesters said. "Hopefully the new management will work well for us," at the now-gated complex, he said.

"It's encouraging they spent that much" on improvements, "and it will be positive for the community," the sergeant said, noting some neighboring apartments are sprucing up their properties.

Still, the South Bay stigma is hard to shake, said Atlanta native Jobe Carter, Dale Mabry Palms' resident leasing agent. "This is one of the toughest properties I've ever had, due to the bad name," said Carter, who has worked in the field in 30 states.

"We've done marketing about everywhere there is," including fliers and a website ( www.dalemabrypalms.com), he said. "We're out there; it's just a problem of letting people know it's not the same property it used to be."

The infamous South Bay name still pops up on older GPS units when prospective tenants enter the property address, making them reconsider, Carter said. Despite it all, Carter rented 10 units his first month.

He estimates three in 10 prospective tenants he screens qualify for the $850 monthly three-bedroom, one-bath apartments. "The people we're getting in now are good quality people," he said.

The tenant mix includes single mothers, working-class people, personnel from nearby MacDill Air Force Base and college students, said Lettieri.

Lettieri and Amos, the code enforcement supervisor, attribute South Bay's failure to absentee ownership, poor local management and financial problems at both levels.

"If property owners aren't maintaining an apartment community like that, things are going to go downhill real fast," Amos said.

"It's not going to happen again," Lettieri said.

Amos lauded the initiative taken to rehabilitate housing on property that might have become just another strip mall. "The property owners undertook an enormous job there and got it done," Amos said. "It's an amazing success story."