Copyright Times Publishing Co. Dec 4, 2003
Olympic booster Ed Turanchik plans to stand with some
prominent black Tampa residents today to unveil a plan to replace about
160 acres of low-income, dilapidated housing downtown with a dazzling
urban center that he says will transform the city.
Turanchik's plan would mean destroying the Central
Park Village housing project and tearing down the Tampa Park Apartments,
which sit on prime real estate between downtown and Ybor City.
In its place, private developers would build an
upscale, urban community that would include about 3,600 residences.
Developers would build several high-rises, retail stores, a new park and
a lake, and a supermarket near Union Station, said Tampa Housing
Authority member Toni Riordan, who has been briefed on Turanchik's
plans.
All of this would go in an area now known for its
drug corners and bars notorious as the sites of homicides.
If Turanchik succeeds, he would not simply transform
the physical appearance of one of Tampa's most blighted neighborhoods.
He would likely cause the uprooting of Tampa's poorest residents who
have lived for generations in Central Park when no one wanted to call it
home.
Where would the residents go?
According to Riordan and housing documents,
Turanchik's plan includes two alternatives.
Some of the low-income residents could live in the
new complex, which would include several hundred units rented at
below-market rates. Others could be moved to homes being bought and
renovated by another Turanchik company.
Turanchik's group has been acquiring more than 250
units scatted across east Tampa, west Tampa and Tampa Heights where
residents could move, using federal housing vouchers.
Turanchik could not only provide the lots - he could
build the homes. Turanchik plans to open a factory in east Tampa -
training and employing local residents - to manufacture the components
of low- cost homes, said Riordan.
The building of a factory in east Tampa would likely
please Mayor Pam Iorio, who made it a campaign pledge this spring to
lure a manufacturing plant to the area.
But the obstacles to Turanchik's goals begin at the
Tampa Housing Authority, whose board members are appointed by the mayor.
Turanchik wants to convince the authority to abandon
its application for a Hope VI federal grant to tear down Central Park,
Riordan said.
"That's not going to happen," said Riordan,
who wants to pursue the grant and still work with Turanchik. She has
been asked by the board to deal with him on his proposal.
The housing authority must apply for the Hope VI
grant by Jan. 20 - or lose the last chance to get millions in federal
dollars to raze Central Park.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
is ending the Hope VI grants after this year. Authority officials have
already hired consultants, designed a new upscale Central Park Village
and met with residents about plans.
Turanchik wants the authority to join with his
company instead, and rely on private money to fund the project.
But authority members have few details of Turanchik's
proposal and no assurances that his for-profit investors will agree to
terms that benefit the poor.
If the authority gets the federal grant, it will
develop the new site into a neighborhood with 720 units of public
housing, rent- subsidized apartments and townhouses starting at
$165,000. It would also include shops and a 125-room hotel.
Turanchik's plan would be financed by about 30
investors, led by Lazy Days RV Super Center chief executive Don Wallace,
a major backer of unsuccessful mayoral candidate Frank Sanchez. Other
investors include developer William Bishop, who built the Westchase and
FishHawk Ranch subdivisions.
Turanchik's designs are much larger - about 3,600
units compared to 720 - and include about 160 acres that stretch from
downtown to the gates of Ybor City on Seventh Avenue. Turanchik would
not only develop the housing project, but he would also purchase the
Tampa Park Apartments, a privately held property on the border of Ybor
City.
Turanchik would likely also have to acquire private
property. His plan also calls for redesigning roads and creating a
tree-lined corridor connecting Ybor City to the proposed new Tampa
Museum of Art downtown.
"I am very excited about Ed's stuff - I really
am," said Riordan. "It's a recipe for a private-public
partnership.
"My goal is to put a deal together," she
said.
But she wants Turanchik to answer three pages of
questions, which she presented in writing to him last week. Among them:
Would the housing authority get a seat on the
developer's board?
Who are all of the project's investors?
Would public housing residents have a say in
designing the development?
Would the developer provide funds for social
services?
How much money do the developers expect to make, and
when?
Riordan still didn't have answers Wednesday evening,
and Jerome Ryans, the authority's executive director, didn't know key
details either.
Turanchik plans to meet with Ryans and Riordan on
Monday and was calling other board members Wednesday with previews.
Turanchik must also satisfy his investors, who are
putting up millions for his vision. Records show that Turanchik wants to
create a new tax increment financing district for the area, which would
steer new property tax dollars to the project. Local governments would
have to approve that.
The project likely will also need to obtain housing
tax credit from county and state housing finance agencies. And the City
Council would have to approve zoning changes.
Politically, Turanchik's plan could pit the city's
poorest against its most affluent and politically connected developers.
Quietly, Turanchik has been meeting with many of
Tampa's black leaders. He invited several well-known figures - including
C. Blythe Andrews, publisher of the Florida Sentinel Bulletin - to the
unveiling today.
But already, some opposition has sprouted.
Members of the International People's Democratic
Uhuru Movement plan to protest outside the Ybor City office where
Turanchik is to hold his press conference at 10 a.m. The Uhurus oppose
the forced relocation of public housing residents by for-profit
developers.
They were not invited to Turanchik's private
unveiling and probably will be asked to remain outside.
