ST. PETERSBURG - Not so many years ago, Larry J. Newsome was planning financial strategies and tracking tax laws as the high-ranking executive in charge of the tax department at Florida Progress.
Newsome had become one of the youngest vice presidents, and the first African-American, at the multibillion-dollar utility corporation when in 1996, he moved with a colleague to a real estate and development spinoff of Florida Progress. At Echelon International Corp., his rank increased even more, to chief financial officer.
Now, though, the lanky, well-dressed man who looks younger than his 55 years is working in a much smaller venue. But it is one where he could have a big impact on a needy area in St. Petersburg. And it is his job of choice. Newsome is president and managing member of Urban Development Solutions, the company that last fall snagged a chain grocery store for a new shopping center to be built in Midtown. It is a $4.9-million project.
"I wanted to spend the last part of my career making a difference," Newsome said in a recent interview at his office on First Avenue N near 66th Street, where he also runs a realty company that buys and renovates houses.
He expects this week to sign a lease with the Kash n' Karry grocery chain.
Last fall his company submitted the only bid on a city of St. Petersburg request for plans to build the small center. He said then Kash n' Karry would anchor it.
The new center, to be called Tangerine Plaza, will be built at 18th Avenue S and 22nd Street, one of Midtown's busiest intersections. It will have room for several other retailers.
Newsome wants a branch bank or financial institution there, too.
Midtown is a 5.5-square-mile area of urban St. Petersburg, the bulk of which sits south of Central Avenue. Residents are mostly African-American, and among the lower-income earners in the city.
Since racial disturbances in 1996, city officials have targeted Midtown for extra resources to try to improve living conditions there.
Only one chain grocery is in the area, and it sits on the northern edge. Midtown residents, particularly those without transportation, often have to shop at smaller markets, which sometimes are more expensive than chain grocery stores.
Getting another chain grocery has been an ongoing effort for several years so it was a big deal when Newsome announced last fall his company had a letter of intent from Kash n' Karry, which is being reborn as Sweetbay Supermarkets.
In the recent interview, Newsome shifted attention elsewhere rather than talk about how he is guiding this high-profile project. He has a gracious demeanor and comes from his desk to join a visitor at a small round table in his office. He does not like the spotlight.
"This is absolutely, unequivocally a joint effort by me, the (Urban Development Solutions) board, the city and a lot of people," he said.
Still, he is the one running the show right now, although he hopes to hire an operations manager.
But others give Newsome more credit.
Askia Muhammad Aquil of St. Petersburg Neighborhood Housing Services Inc., says Newsome is "uniquely suited" to help make the shopping center a reality.
"These kind of deals are extremely complicated. They take someone with more than an interest or desire. He has the financial training, the development experience and background. All of that made it possible to get the deal where it is," said Aquil, who is a member of Urban Development Solution's board of directors. Newsome is on the board of Aquil's agency, which prepares lower-income residents to become homeowners.
He likens Newsome to members of the Ambassador Club, a St. Petersburg group that recently decided to disband after a half century working for rights for the city's black residents, including desegregating restaurants and getting black representation into community traditions such as the Festival of States.
"I view Larry in that same mold."
Darryl Rouson, who belongs to the same fraternity but did not attend college with Newsome, is on the board of Urban Development Solutions. Tangerine Plaza is being built on land that Rouson and Newsome acquired in the past several years. Rouson got four lots when he sued their owners, saying the structures on them were crack houses. The owners gave him the land to drop the suits.
As president of the St. Petersburg branch of the NAACP and an activist in many arenas, Rouson is well known.
Newsome is not so public a figure.
They are close friends as well as business partners, Newsome said.
"He and I have played good guy-bad guy really well for the past two to three years," Rouson said. While some might assume Newsome is the calm to Rouson's temper, Rouson said they alternate the roles.
"There have been times when Larry was upset with the speed of government, and I have been able to temper that.
"There have been times I have been upset over the financial groveling, and he has been able to temper that because he knows that world," Rouson said.
Darryl LeClair, president of Echelon Development LLC, asked Newsome to accompany him from Florida Progress to Echelon International to be the chief financial officer. They were both colleagues and friends.
"This is a very small thing for Larry," LeClair said of the Tangerine project. "It is something he should be able to do with his eyes closed." The length of time it has taken to get a grocery store shows something else about Newsome.
"Larry has spent a long time working on this. Every time he would get turned down by this grocery store or that chain, he would never give up."
Newsome discovered his business acumen in high school.
"When I was in the 12th grade, I took an aptitude test," that showed his proficiency in the profession.
Then, "accounting was not a traditional field for blacks to be in. I had no idea what an accountant did. I read up on it," he said.
He majored in accounting at the University of South Florida.
Newsome was born in Bradenton, where he lived with his parents and six siblings.
The family moved to Palmetto, but his grandparents remained in Bradenton.
"I was back and forth between my parents and grandparents. After my grandfather died, I stayed with my grandmother."
That was in eighth grade. He stayed with his grandmother until he graduated from Manatee Community College. Newsome's father was a Baptist minister.
"My mother was more religious than he was," he said. She still lives in Palmetto.
Newsome has been a member of the First Baptist Institutional Church on Third Avenue S in St. Petersburg for 18 years. He sings tenor in the choir and goes to choir practice Tuesday and Thursday nights. Bible study is Wednesday night. He is a teetotaler.
Nights, after all activities, he is often at Denny's on 34th Street S.
"I'm at that place so much they think I work there," he said.
He has been an avid Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan for years. He holds season tickets and drives to some of the out-of-town games. He goes to five or 10 Tampa Bay Devil Rays games a season. Newsome's wife Bettye is treasurer of Urban Development. They have been married since 1999 and live at the Pasadena Yacht and Country Club.
Newsome has been divorced twice and has seven children from previous unions. Together he and his wife have 15 grandchildren.
Days begin for Newsome about 6:30 a.m. with newspaper reading. Then he goes out to check properties being renovated and sometimes goes from one of them to Home Depot or Lowe's for needed supplies.
He gets to his office about 9:30 a.m.
Tasks that demand his attention range from talking to Kash n' Karry, the banks involved in his projects or city officials.
He spends a lot of his time on the phone. Maybe it's with The Sembler Co., one of several high profile companies lending their expertise to the shopping center project. Echelon is another.
He is talking to several banks about locating in Tangerine Plaza. He won't say who they are until one is signed.
"My philosophy is this: You can make money here," he said of the project. "If there are dollars, how do you extract those dollars? You can't do it the same way in every community. You have to design the right formula."
The grocery chain did its own assessment of Midtown and decided it was a good location. It even did a second check after Wal-Mart announced it will be locating not too far away.
Kash n' Karry is changing its name to Sweetbay Supermarkets, reducing its number of stores, upgrading those it keeps open and building many of its new ones in the Tampa Bay area.
The chain's change has temporarily slowed Urban Development's progress.
Newsome said Tangerine Plaza will end up with a better store as the result of the changes. He tentatively plans for an August groundbreaking.
"There are Midtowns all over this country," he said. "I think five to 10 years from now, if we succeed, hopefully they (other developers in other cities) can use this as a model."
