Copyright Times Publishing Co. Dec 24, 2003
Developer Ed Turanchik has until Jan. 9 to close a
deal to redevelop the Central Park Village housing project into an
upscale urban neighborhood.
On Tuesday, the Tampa Housing Authority gave
Turanchik 18 days to finish negotiations on a joint public-private plan
to redevelop the area using a $20-million federal Hope VI grant.
The authority needs to apply for the grant from the
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development by Jan. 20.
Board members set the Jan. 9 deadline so they can
submit their own application to HUD - without Turanchik - if their
negotiations with him fail.
"If you want to be a team player, you have to
come clean with all the information requested," board member Gerald
White told Turanchik.
Turanchik missed a Monday deadline to give the
authority information it needed. He submitted the data Tuesday morning,
giving staff little time to review it before a 9 a.m. board meeting.
Turanchik apologized to the board Tuesday. "We
missed the deadline because we were meeting with residents," he
said.
Turanchik wants to partner with the housing authority
to build an upscale, mixed-income neighborhood on 157 acres between
downtown and Ybor City. Two low-income housing projects now sit on most
of the land in the Central Park area.
To do that, Turanchik wants to build market-rate
townhomes, which sell for as much as $650,000, on the site of the
current housing projects. In exchange for public land, Turanchik will
give the housing authority five sites downtown, 50 lots for a home
ownership program, and cash.
The authority would get $1,000 for every condo or
townhouse sold, and $500 for every private rental unit leased in the
project, which could include 3,500 market-rate residences.
In additional, the housing authority would eventually
buy as many as 150 lots in east Tampa, West Tampa and Tampa Heights,
where Turanchik would build light-gauge steel homes. The authority would
buy the lots at cost, plus 15 percent.
With less than a month before HUD's deadline,
Turanchik has not told the authority where those 150 lots are located.
"I would like for the board to know exactly
where those areas are," board member Hazel Harvey said Tuesday.
Turanchik has not said when he will identify the 150
sites. He promised to give the authority the locations for 50 properties
for the home ownership program by Jan. 5.
Turanchik also plans to disclose environmental
assessments of the sites and a market analysis for the project by Jan.
5.
City officials want Turanchik to answer other
questions as well. They want to see the company's current financial
statements, a development analysis proving the project's feasibility,
and an economic impact analysis.
No one has talked publicly about getting appraisals
on the land they will swap.
Harvey also asked Turanchik how his project would pay
for new schools to serve the new development. School Board member Candy
Olson raised the same question last week, saying Turanchik's development
would attract at least 945 new elementary school children, 277 middle
school students, and 329 high school students.
She said the School Board would need to build a new
elementary school for the project, plus find room for older students in
already- crowded schools.
Turanchik predicts that the development will generate
millions in new property taxes, which the School Board can use to build
new schools.
Also last week, state Sen. Victor Crist raised
concerns that Turanchik's Central Park development could mean more
low-income families will move into the neighborhood that Crist
represents near the University of South Florida.
Turanchik said that won't happen, because he will
have housing available on site.
Crist, a Republican from Tampa, said the
private-public partnership could be "special."
"It also has the potential to be something
devastating to the families who live there," he said.
- Times Staff Writer Bill Varian contributed to this
report. David Karp can be reached at 226-3376 or karp@sptimes.com.
