BlogWood: MT Archives

Civitas' Christmas con?

Civitas is hoping that no one is paying attention, being that this is the busiest time of the year for many folks. If Ed Turanchik has his way, we will all groggily wake up in February with fuzzy recollections of tipsy holiday land swapping all but forgotten.

The Tampa Housing Authority is postponing a decision on whether or not to aid and abet Civitas in its bid to sweep the poor under the rug, but I’d be very surprised if their January decision does not fill Ed Turanchik with joy.

Meanwhile, down to the projects, Civitas officials have actually decided to meet with residents who will be kicked out of their homes and dispersed to less visible locations further from downtown. Now that Ed has pitched his Plan to Take Over the World to the rich white people who will be stealing from teh poor investors and local leaders, he must have figured it would make for some good PR if he spent an hour or two explaining to actual folks how it’s not really gonna hurt when Civitas destroys their community and turns them into refugees.

Ed spent so much time meeting with residents that he just couldn’t possibly finish up his list of properties which he proposes to sell to the Housing Authority for a guaranteed profit of a measly 15 percent. But the Authority should trust Ed, ‘cause he will show them what they are buying. Probably. If he has time. But if not, no worries, ‘cause Ed is like real trustworthy and all, you know...

SP Times

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.
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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.
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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.

The Tampa Tribune

The Tampa Housing Authority decided Tuesday it still isn't ready to vote on a partnership with private developers who want to swap land and jointly seek a $20 million federal grant.

The board set a Jan. 9 deadline to settle negotiations with Civitas, the redevelopment company led by former Hillsborough County Commissioner Ed Turanchik.

``We're void of the hard details we need for everyone to be comfortable,'' board member Sophia Sorolis said.

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Civitas held its first meeting for residents at Central Park on Monday, after working in secret for two years to acquire the property.

Board member Gerald White said he was disappointed.

``If you want to be a team player with the Tampa Housing Authority, you need to come clean with all the information that has been requested,'' he told Turanchik.

Three of the board's seven members abstained from voting because of possible conflicts of interest. The remaining four - with member Toni Riordan participating via speakerphone - voted to continue preparing two federal Hope VI grant applications.
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Meanwhile, city officials are mulling a draft proposal Civitas presented Friday. In it, the company asks for tax breaks, tax credits, tax exemptions and help getting state tax money. Civitas also wants the city to give the company land within its target area in exchange for scattered sites elsewhere.
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Last summer, the city reserved about 100 city-owned properties across central Tampa for the redevelopment effort. The Civitas draft calls for the city to use eminent domain powers to take over additional land the company has not been able to buy.

That brings bad memories of urban renewal, social activist Mary Alice Dorsett told the housing board.

``In the '60s ... I was told Ybor was valuable property and [the city was] going to take it,'' Dorsett said. ``This [proposal] sounds good. But when the deal goes down, we're pushed back.''