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Changing downtown's face?: Museum may move
By BRYAN GILMER, Times Staff Writer ST. PETERSBURG -- The Florida International Museum may move so that the city can demolish its current building and sell the prime downtown half-block for a huge new commercial, retail or mixed-use project. "A grand plan," City Council member John Bryan said, adding that the development could compare to the Bank of America tower and its street-level shops. "That is one of the finest pieces of downtown property." By all accounts, the idea remains conceptual, and companies would compete for the right to buy and develop the site.
"Everything is just ideas right now," Mayor Rick Baker said, adding that he has no specific developer or project in mind. But "I don't think it would sit there unsold" if the property became available. The timetable also is uncertain, but Bryan said the city should get started right away. "Even if you started this process today, it would take several years to get through this," he said. Moving to a smaller, more manageable space would help the struggling museum, which could join St. Petersburg College in its effort to begin a museum studies curriculum. The college has asked for space to build downtown classrooms in part of the Florida International Museum complex. The city government owns both buildings after spending $6-million to buy them over the past several years to help the museum. The museum leases both of them back from the city. Baker, museum officials and SPC president Carl Kuttler have discussed the idea privately, and they and U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young will hold a news conference at the museum at 11:30 this morning. Young said Thursday that they will announce a 10-year deal for the downtown museum to display Russian art and cultural objects. Young and Kuttler signed the agreement during a recent visit to St. Petersburg, Russia. Young, the Largo Republican who heads the House Appropriations Committee, provided $1-million for the college's museum curator program in an education bill last year. But the museum uses only one of the four levels of the former Maas Brothers department store that fronts First Avenue N between Second and Third streets. The museum could move north across the alley into the ground floor of its parking structure. That space along Second Avenue N once housed the Maas Brothers furniture store. The city could buy the strip of shops next door that faces Williams Park, demolish it, and sell the land to the college to build perhaps a three-story classroom building, Bryan said. In response to the college's interest in the space, the city put out a "request for proposals" for the garage building to give everyone a fair shot at space. Baker acknowledged that he has spoken to City Council members about what the college and museum might propose. With the museum out of the department store building, the city would own an empty building along First Avenue N that it could demolish, resulting in a site the same size as the one that holds the BayWalk parking garage. "It would be my expectation that the city would not be increasing its financial commitment" to the museum or to the FIM building, Baker said, other than buying out the leases for a few small pieces of leased land under that half of the block. University of South Florida St. Petersburg campus vice president Bill Heller, a museum board member, said there are other sources of funding available for the museum's move. "The museum still has some reserves," he said. "The state would be asked. I think Carl (Kuttler) will help. And with regard to a Russian component, that's where federal funding might come in. Congressman Young has always been very good to this area." Museum vice president Kathy Oathout said the museum would lose millions of dollars it invested to renovate the first floor of its current building into galleries. Council member Virginia Littrell said the city might have to repay the state for some grants it accepted to help with those renovations. Commercial real estate brokers and leasing agents think the site the museum would vacate is far more marketable than it was five years ago. "Downtown St. Petersburg has become a 24-hour city, certainly far more than downtown Tampa or even Orlando has," said Steven Ekovitch, vice president and Central Florida manager for Marcus and Millichap, a national brokerage that specializes in commercial real estate. "Lenders are far more willing to take risks there." Littrell said the move could be a great step for the museum, giving it a smaller, more manageable space and lowering its expenses. The loaned artwork from the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, echoes the museum's inaugural exhibit, "Treasures of the Czars," which was a success. Vera Espinola Beery was the curator of the 1995 exhibit and has been part of discussions about the new one. "The Russian Museum is one of the best in the world, reflective of Russian art," she said. "It has a lot of excellent bronzes and paintings." -- Times staff writers Bill Adair, Lennie Bennett and Mark Albright and researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this story. Florida International Museum timeline1992: James Broughton is named director of Florida Cultural Exhibitions Inc., a nonprofit group formed to bring exhibits to St. Petersburg. Mayor David Fischer and Broughton agree to stage a major exhibit in St. Petersburg. 1994: Retired executive John Galbraith and the St. Petersburg Times agree to underwrite a line of credit for a construction loan to renovate the vacant Maas Brothers building and turn it into the Florida International Museum. 1995: "Treasures of the Czars" debuts in January and is a huge success, drawing more than 600,000 people by the time it closes in June. 1996: Two exhibitions -- "Splendors of Ancient Egypt" and "Alexander the Great" -- draw fewer than 500,000 visitors. The museum ends up $11-million in debt. 1997: In February, the City Council votes to pay the museum $3.9-million for its building and parking garage, helping the museum to keep its doors open. "Titanic: The Exhibition" opens in November and ultimately draws 830,000 people. It produces a $3-million nest egg for the museum. 1999: The city buys the rest of the land underneath the museum for $2.1-million and leases it back to the museum. The "Empires of Mystery" exhibit, which opened in 1997, closes in May after drawing only 179,000 visitors. The museum loses an estimated $2.5-million. "John F. Kennedy: The Exhibition," opens. 2000: "The Cuban Missile Crisis: When the Cold War Got Hot" exhibit opens in December. January 2002: The museum says it will scale down its Kennedy exhibit and send some of the artifacts on tour. It also plans to bring in new rotating exhibits, such as model airplanes from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. February 2002: The city tells the museum it is in default of its lease because it no longer hosts "blockbuster" exhibitions or attracts at least 200,000 visitors over any 18-month period. A week later, the city rescinds the letter after the museum says it is having trouble attracting new sponsors or exhibitors. -- Compiled by Times news researcher Kitty Bennett from Times files
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From the Times South Pinellas desks |
But such a project would be a mighty step in the city's decades-long quest to redevelop downtown.
