Last week's vetting of a downtown Tampa redevelopment plan went as it should, and though the developers are unhappy, what's important is that Tampa city and Hillsborough County officials kept their focus on protecting the taxpayers' interests. Everyone agrees on the need to redevelop Central Park, a public housing slum on the north side of downtown Tampa. But how it's done, and who pays the bill, are important. So is respecting one's business partners.
Civitas, a for-profit developer, asked the city and county to consider creating a taxing district at Central Park. This would have given Civitas the tax credits and other subsidies the company said it needs to demolish public housing projects at Central Park and build a new, master-planned community. For their part, the city and county would have received new public housing units built by Civitas and the prospect of hundreds of millions of dollars in new property tax revenues.
The city of Tampa went along but the county didn't, and while critics fault some commissioners for spite and greed, the county has a legitimate argument. The city never reached out as a true partner, the county was obsessed with avoiding blame and Civitas treated this "public-private venture" with all the sensitivity of a bank merger. All the players had one eye on the prize and another on their supposed business partners. It is amazing an idea hatched publicly last month went as far as it did.
Civitas' plan has many potential benefits, and it's a shame the process the first time around was spoiled by ego and arrogance. That shouldn't mean the idea is dead. There is a compelling need to give residents of Central Park a better place to live. The city will need the private sector to lead any redevelopment. The county has a much more limited role, but it has a legitimate interest in how any subsidy is financed. What happened Thursday is that these policy questions became entangled in a larger face-off between commissioners and the mayor.
The pieces for a deal are still in place. The city has the land, Civitas has the money, the county has agreed to discuss a taxing district and the political will for moving forward still exists with the right public protections. There is time to negotiate another land swap and craft a broad development agreement. A deal might attract other developers. Civitas could tweak its approach. This is prime real estate, ripe for redevelopment, and Mayor Pam Iorio has written terms for participating that serve the public well.
So while this attempt stalled, there has been progress. The important thing is that the public had a say before, not after, a deal was signed.
