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Palmetto Beach: Day care building may be purchased

Palmetto Beach Community Association, which is behind in the rent on the building, hopes to buy it from General Electric with a $90,000 grant.

A deal to save Palmetto Beach's primary day care center is coming together and could be ready for City Council approval in January.

A division of General Electric Co., which owns the portable building that houses the center, threatened to repossess the building this year after the Palmetto Beach Community Association, which operates the center, fell $42,000 behind in rent.

Now the association is moving toward buying the building, using a $90,000 community development grant it was awarded last year.

"The prognosis is optimistic," association president Vince Ficarrotta said last week. "But what's the cliche, "It ain't over until it's over?' "

City officials are somewhat optimistic, too.

The neighborhood group was awarded the federal grant so it could renovate another building in Palmetto Beach and move the day care center into it. Given the rent problems, that plan was nixed.

The city, which oversees the grant, must give public notice that the money is being used for a new purpose, said David Snyder, the city's assistant manager for housing and community development. It also must conduct an environmental review of the site.

If the review shows no problems, the City Council likely will bless the purchase next month, Snyder said.

The Davis Street center serves 40 to 60 children between 6 weeks old and school age. The building is owned by GE Modular Space.

Buying the building will go a long way toward keeping the center open, even with the back rent, Ficarrotta said.

The city is negotiating the rent issue with GE but can't discuss specifics at this time, said Bob Harrell, the city's director of housing and business development.

"We don't have a deal inked yet," he said.

The community development grant can be used to buy and renovate the building but can't be used for rent, city officials said.

The community group and GE have not agreed on a selling price, but county property records show the building's valuation at $67,000.

A spokesman for GE Modular Space in Devon, Pa., declined comment.

The company's recent actions suggest hope for a deal. In September, a Hillsborough judge ruled in GE's favor on the rent issue, clearing the way for a shutdown that so far hasn't happened.

The company hasn't closed the center, Ficarrotta said, "because everything is going where it's going."

- Ron Matus can be reached at 226-3405 or matus@sptimes.com