PORT RICHEY - After months of meetings, offers and counteroffers, city officials have failed to reach a deal to buy a mobile home park in the crime-ridden east end.

Mayor Richard Rober said negotiations with an attorney representing the owners broke down Friday after the parties couldn't agree on an appropriate purchase price for the riverfront property at Grand Boulevard and River Gulf Road.

The city's offer was $785,000, but the sellers wouldn't budge. They wanted $847,500.

"They weren't willing to come down," the mayor said Monday. "It's very disappointing."

Rober said he plans to discuss the city's options with the council at its next meeting.

The proposal, spearheaded by Vice Mayor Nancy Britton, was part of a renewed effort to clean up the blighted neighborhood. Known only as the "Web," the no-name park has for years been the epicenter of drug-dealing, vagrancy and prostitution in the east end.

Since it was built in 1958, the one-time haven for visitors from the north has changed hands several times. A few years ago, it was bought by a group of investors through a firm listed on the county appraiser's records as Port Richey Mobile Home Park Inc.

The 1.7-acre park is in foreclosure and has several liens on it, according to county court records.

The county has put the combined value of the park's two parcels at $893,710, while two city-commissioned appraisals came up with $853,000 and $880,000, respectively.

At a Dec. 11 meeting, the council voted 3-2 to allow the mayor to negotiate a purchase price with the sellers, with the caveat that he couldn't go above $847,500.

The purchase would have been financed by Port Richey's Community Redevelopment Fund, which gets more than half the city and county property taxes paid by city residents.

The CRA fund's balance is estimated at $2.6 million.

Purchase proponents, including a majority of council members, say it would give the city control over what gets built there in the future and help get rid of the criminal elements.

Some had even talked of a plan to convert the east end into a downtown, in a city where the closest thing to a main drag is the congested section of U.S. 19 near Ridge Road.

But long-term plans for the property were not discussed.

That bothered Mark Hashim, the most vocal opponent on the council.

Hashim questioned the lack of a redevelopment plan and has suggested the city would do better by taking the owner to court and condemning the abandoned mobile homes.

He has referred to the deal as the "worst idea in a long history of bad ideas."

Reporter Christian M. Wade can be reached at (727) 815-1082 or cwade@tampatrib.com.