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Federal aid awarded to renovate building
By AMY WIMMER, Times Staff Writer ST. PETE BEACH -- At last, good news for the Don Vista Building. U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Largo, has helped deliver to St. Pete Beach a $200,000 congressional appropriation to help renovate the Don Vista, built adjacent to the Don CeSar Beach Resort & Spa in the 1920s. "It was a pleasant surprise," Mayor Ward Friszolowski said of the money. "I like those kind of surprises." The federal money was unexpected, given St. Pete Beach's recent poor performance before the state Historic Preservation Advisory Council, which ranked the city's $347,000 grant request 85th out of 87 candidates. Friszolowski said the city is holding out hope that the state Legislature will fund all of the projects that applied for historic preservation grants. But if that doesn't happen, the city will reapply for the grant, and the city's staff is now trying to understand why the project fared so poorly the last time. For more than a year, politics have played a role in renovations to the Don Vista, which has housed the Suntan Art Center, also known as the St. Pete Beach Art Institute, for 20 of the group's 40 years in the city. A tape recording of the advisory council meeting where projects were ranked reveals that a controversy surrounding the Don Vista renovations -- one that also helped lead to the departure of the former city manager -- came up during the discussion. Virginia Littrell, also a member of the St. Petersburg City Council, mentioned during the discussion that "there was a parting of the ways with the city and the St. Pete Beach Art Institute." A year ago, the relationship between City Manager Carl Schwing and Johnna Patterson, the president of the art institute, deteriorated so badly that the group threatened not to follow through on its promises to supply some private money for the project and even looked at moving its organization to Gulfport. Littrell said Tuesday that she knows Patterson through working with Patterson's sister, and Patterson told Littrell about the Don Vista project when the idea was in its planning stages. Patterson helped lobby in Tallahassee for the grant money but eventually stopped working with the city after it decided to use its professional grant writer to help obtain the grant and asked Patterson to step aside. Littrell, who gave the St. Pete Beach request the lowest ranking it received, said Tuesday that her decision had nothing to do with who the city's grant writer was. "(St. Pete Beach) has had a real difficult time with historic preservation, and that is part of why I scored it so low," said Littrell, who said St. Pete Beach has done a poor job of protecting historic Pass-a-Grille, located directly south of the Don Vista. "We had talked with them before about their historic preservation ordinance and putting some teeth in there. And here they were, knocking on our door, saying give us many more thousands of dollars to do something." Friszolowski, reached Tuesday, said he had not listened to the tape of the meeting and did not know that the city's relationship with the art center had been an issue with the advisory council. He also said he was unaware that Littrell did not back the project. "There was a commission meeting a year or so ago, and the issue of the Don Vista Building on the agenda, and Virginia came and spoke about how important it was for us to renovate that building, what a great asset it was and encouraged us to apply for funding," Friszolowski said. "Isn't it kind of ironic? She encouraged us to apply for the grant." St. Pete Beach has set aside $250,000 in Penny for Pinellas money to pay for its share of the project. Combined with the $200,000 the city recently received from Congress, the city has $450,000. If its low ranking does not qualify the Don Vista for state funding this year, the city will ask the state for a $250,000 grant next year. Meanwhile, Friszolowski said, he hopes the state will look at the Don Vista Building as a springboard for St. Pete Beach to begin working harder on historic preservation. "Wouldn't this be a start to showing we are preserving buildings in our community?" Friszolowski said. "And what more important project is there than the sister building to the Don CeSar itself?" Plans for remodeling the Don Vista include: Construction of an addition that will add 8 feet to the south side of the existing building. City officials say they can build the addition without losing any parking spaces from the south parking lot. Relocation of an art classroom and kiln to the east side of the first floor, giving the Suntan Art Center better access between the classroom and the art center gallery and studio. Replace the windows with windows more appropriate for a historic building. New restrooms to provide updated and handicapped-accessible facilities. Reconfiguration of the air-conditioning system. Reinforce the floor boards to take the bounce out of the second floor. Upgrade the electrical system. Create rooms to be used for a computer lab, conference room, two small classrooms, a pantry for catered events, an elevator, a public lobby and custodial space.
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