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Plans in motion to deal with 'monstrosity'

Residents and officials are frustrated by the property that has been called a public nuisance.

By VANESSA DE LA TORRE
Published July 22, 2006

DUNEDIN - The abandoned concrete tower off Main Street that continues to appall residents as a development gone seriously wrong may eventually face a wrecking ball.

The four-story tower was part of a residential and retail project called Dunedin Station Square.

City officials envisioned the development as a "jewel" along the Pinellas Trail, something that would anchor downtown and bring more foot traffic to the small shops on Douglas Avenue and Scotland Street, the project's high-profile location.

Then construction stopped in May 2005. The bulky tower resembled nothing like the Victorian-style building that was promised. Another firm bought the property, and submitted a plan. Still, no changes.

City officials have now called the project a public nuisance, and have set into motion three plans to fix the "problem with which the community has been living for over a year now," City Attorney John Hubbard wrote in a memo to city commissioners this week.

The first plan: Code enforcement action is under way, with a hearing set for Aug. 1.

Second, city building official Rick Johnson revoked the building permit last month, with the belief that the unfinished tower is structurally unsafe. That means it will have to be removed from the property within 180 days of that action, Hubbard said.

The third approach is to sue Dunedin Station Development LLC, which bought the property from financial planner Dennis Martino for $2.21-million in January. The New Port Richey firm was the original contractor on the first failed project.

Thursday night, city commissioners voted to let Hubbard pursue litigation on the grounds that the property is a nuisance. The idea is to force the developer to start cleaning up the site, which has been abandoned since last year, when the city issued a stop-work order on construction because of building code violations.

For months, residents have complained about the weeds, the hazard signs, the thousands upon thousands of stacked bricks that were never used.

Around town the skeletal tower is known as an eyesore, a horror show.

"Something called - I don't know what it is. The Invasion of the Body Snatchers. A silo," said City Commissioner Deborah Kynes.

She expressed dismay that the historic Honey House, the yellow Victorian home that the tower was attached to, has become part of the visual blight. Now, people wonder whether it can be saved.

Kynes made a motion to sue Dunedin Station Development in 30 days if the firm doesn't start fixing the property's problems.

"This site, the silo - I think the proper word would be 'monstrosity,'" said the firm's attorney, Michael Boutzoukas, drawing chuckles from the City Hall crowd. "My client feels the same way."

Paul Bakkalapulo is listed as an applicant and manager of the project.

Boutzoukas told city commissioners that, just like Dunedin residents, his client is distressed at the "turn of events that brought the project to how it is now." It costs him money to have the tower sit there all this time.

But, he added, "removing the whole thing would be a waste of costs." And they're not going to make promises about adding this-and-that to the development, and that everything is going to be wonderful.

"The only thing I'm going to commit to you today is that my client is going to work through the process," Boutzoukas said. That includes hauling away the bricks this weekend.

"This sounds like deja vu of what we went through the past four years," City Commissioner Julie Scales said.

"I stand by my motion," Kynes told Boutzoukas.

City Commissioner Julie Ward Bujalski demanded the attorney give her an exact date the site would be cleaned.

"Give me the date," she repeated.

In the end, that was not resolved. Though Boutzoukas did assure a clearing away of the property.

"Everything except the Victorian home and concrete tower," he said.

Vanessa de la Torre can be reached at 727 445-4167 or vdelatorre@sptimes.com.

[Last modified July 21, 2006, 22:51:38]