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Heave-ho upsets Snell Isle renters

By PAUL SWIDER
Published January 25, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG - A host of renters joined the ranks of those pushed out by development when residents of Snell Isle Club apartments heard Monday night from a management company handling the transition as their complex turns condo.

"We live in an area that is of great interest," said Mark Jaye of Meadow Wood Property Co., which will handle operations while Sun Vista Development Group converts the waterfront complex into 272 upscale condominiums. Jaye, whose company manages other rental properties, has handled other transitions for Sun Vista before. "It causes a terrible shortage of apartment housing."

Lacking a meeting room in the complex, Jaye gathered residents around a glowing courtyard pool that provided the only light for the nighttime meeting. He made a point of stating that Sun Vista's $60-million purchase of the property and the effect it would have on residents was all perfectly legal.

"There's going to be an awful lot of people that are going to be displaced," said Betty Hewell, a 15-year resident of the complex who said she has been "spoiled" by her senior-discounted $600-a-month rent for a two-bedroom apartment. Unlike most of the complex's residents, she has found a new apartment, though she will pay $785 a month and be farther from her teaching job. "I'm afraid when I go someplace else that it will turn condo, too."

Developers have been snapping up properties like Snell Isle Club and mobile home parks as demand grows for housing in Pinellas County. Rental properties are prime targets for such development, but the conversions are trimming an already thin market for affordable housing. Jaye said he tells people not to rent on the water because those properties are the most likely to be converted.

Gwen Nicholson, who teaches at Bay Vista Fundamental School, does not yet have a place to go after leaving Snell Isle Club. She wants to leave the vagaries of renting and find the security of home ownership but feels she can't.

"On a teacher's salary, I'm priced out of the housing market in St. Petersburg," she said. "Teachers, nurses, firefighters, police, we're all priced out."

Many residents talked of their discomfort with the transition and told stories of neighbors worse off because of a disability or illness. They said they had been hearing rumors for months that the complex would be sold but that previous management told them the buildings were not up for sale.

"I asked them in the office, "How can you sleep at night?' " Hewell said. "There's no humanity in development in St. Pete. People are expendable."

Jaye tried to deflect residents' anger while he explained the transition. He said leases would be honored or residents could get extensions of up to nine months, whichever is longer. Residents can break their leases at any time with no penalty and will even get help finding new apartments. Tenants will also have the first chance to buy their converted apartments, which Sun Vista plans to sell for $200,000 to $400,000. Jaye said that some construction work - gutting and refurbishing vacant apartments - could start in as little as 90 days.

Some residents are considering purchasing their units, possibly to live in and possibly to resell at a profit, but most said they couldn't afford such an investment. Mark Ciaramella, who lives in a one-bedroom unit facing Smacks Bayou, is thinking about buying but also has a line on another rental apartment, though he didn't want to specify where lest his neighbors beat him to it.

"I love it here," he said, echoing the sentiment of many at the meeting. "It's been a good place to live. But if I have to move, I will."

[Last modified January 25, 2006, 00:55:16]