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Grocery may replace dilapidated hospital
By MAUREEN BYRNE AHERN SEMINOLE -- It's been this way for years -- a boarded-up building and overgrown landscaping in desperate need of a face lift. But it appears the site of the old Columbia University General Hospital at the northwest corner of 102nd Avenue N and Seminole Boulevard will become the city's newest shopping center, where residents can buy groceries and possibly rent a video or enjoy a meal. To make that happen, developers had to jump through a number of hoops to change the property's zoning from institutional to commercial. Their last stop was Tuesday at Seminole City Council's regular meeting. Council members unanimously approved the measure on its first public hearing in August and were expected to do the same on its second reading Tuesday. The vote was taken after Neighborhood Times' publication deadline. University General Hospital, which closed in 1997 after 22 years, has been mostly vacant. A plan to turn the 73,385-square-foot building at 10200 Seminole Blvd. into an assisted living facility with medical offices was dropped because it was too expensive. Developers believe a Kash n' Karry, which has agreed to be the anchor tenant of the $8-million complex, and several other merchants will attract plenty of customers. "That's part of what we're counting on is traffic from the west side (of Seminole Boulevard)," said Matt Williams, a developer for Commercial Net Lease Realty, an Orlando company that owns 360 retail properties nationwide and is buying the property at 10200 Seminole Blvd. from Suncare Properties. Commercial Net would not disclose the purchase price. Some of that traffic is bound to come from Thurston Groves, a gated community that is sprouting on 102nd Avenue just moments away from the site. Mayor Dottie Reeder has both professional and personal reasons to be happy with the proposed shopping center. Replacing the rundown structure with a pretty building with teal awnings and landscaped grounds will mean one less vacant piece of commercial property in the city. And she plans to shop there because she'll soon live at Thurston Groves. Reeder hopes a nice restaurant will open in the shopping center. "That would be great," she said. In addition to the 45,000-square-foot Kash n' Karry, the center will have another 16,000 square feet for shops. The additional square footage could accommodate eight to 10 small shops. No other tenants have signed on yet, Williams said. "We put (leasing) on the back burner until we got through the zoning process," he said. "Now we're ready to switch gears." A number of permits are required to begin the project. "Our hope is to start the demolition process by March," he said. Everything on the 7.6 acres will be demolished, Williams said. An Eckerd drugstore on the corner of the property will remain. Construction would begin in April and last eight months. And what about a name for the complex? "We're not really sold on anything yet," Williams said. "That's one thing we need to nail down in the next couple of weeks." City and chamber officials hope they'll soon have some news on the other closed hospital in Seminole. The former Seminole Hospital & Women's Center at 9675 Seminole Blvd., a 62,000-square-foot building near Lake Seminole, has been shuttered since 1996. Heritage Healthcare of America Inc., a company in Encino, Calif., planned to spend $2.5-million on the property to open an assisted living center for Alzheimer's patients. But nothing got off the ground. Mitch Bobowski, Seminole's general services director, said developers have made recent inquiries on the site, but nothing concrete is in the works. Jimmy Johnson, executive director of the Greater Seminole Area Chamber of Commerce, said he is pleased at least one of the hospital sites is being redeveloped. "We've had a very successful year and this is the crown," he said.
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From the Times South Pinellas desks |
