TAMPA - At a meeting Thursday that was starkly different from last week's long and far less productive effort, the city council approved a development agreement with the new owners of Centro Ybor.

With little debate, the council, sitting as the Community Redevelopment Agency, unanimously approved a deal with M&J Wilkow.

Wilkow, a Chicago-based real estate firm that bought the floundering entertainment complex a year ago, plans to invest about $10 million to turn around the venue.

The deal allows Wilkow to bring in other uses to the predominately retail-oriented complex, such as office space, residential units and even a hotel.

Wilkow will pay Tampa $100,000 upfront. In addition, every year for the next six, the company will pay the city about $25,000. The payment will increase to $35,000 a year for the subsequent six years. The money will help the city pay down its debt on the project.

Taxpayers long have been on the hook to subsidize Centro Ybor. In 1997, the city guaranteed a $9 million loan from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to help finance the center. The debt is in the form of a second mortgage on the property.

The city hoped that Centro Ybor would generate enough money to pay its debt. That didn't happen, and the city pays about $770,000 a year in debt service. The city still owes more than $8 million to the federal agency.

Of that $770,000, nearly $200,000 is paid with tax dollars generated at Centro Ybor.

The deal ran into trouble last week when Ybor businessman Jacob "Booky" Buchman stood up at a council meeting and said he'd offer to buy the city's second mortgage for $4.5 million. The city since has rejected that offer.

Then Ybor activists Alan Kahana and Joseph Capitano offered to buy the complex outright for $20.25 million.

But David Harvey, senior vice president for Wilkow, said he didn't consider the offer sincere.

He reiterated that Thursday, saying that Capitano and Kahana never introduced themselves to him and haven't established their credibility to him.

It was a show, Harvey said, to have something in front of city council "rather than having a sincere interest in talking to me."

Donald Bly, the attorney representing Wilkow, said he might meet with the attorney representing Capitano and Kahana if they have additional details on the financial support regarding their offer.

Meanwhile, Harvey said he will keep at least eight screens at Centro Ybor's movie theater, and said he would love to bring a Trader Joe's grocery store to the complex.

Reporter Ellen Gedalius can be reached at (813) 259-7679 or egedalius@tampatrib.com.