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Centro Ybor is bought for $16M

A Chicago company purchases the complex, which has been in a slump.

By JANET ZINK
Published December 23, 2006

TAMPA - Centro Ybor, the debt-ridden movie and shopping plaza in the heart of the city's historic old Latin district, was purchased Friday by a Chicago company.

M&J Wilkow closed on a deal to buy Centro Ybor from BVT, a German investment fund.

The price: about $16-million, according Jim Michalak, a real estate broker formerly of Cushman & Wakefield who recently started his own firm, Plaza Advisors, and represented the seller.

Wilkow has retail and office properties throughout the country. Officials with the buyer could not be reached Friday.

"They're investigating various alternatives to retail," Michalak said of the new owners.

There's a strong chance some of the movie theater will be turned into condos or office space, he said.

The deal involved buying out a $16-million Wachovia mortgage. It also calls for the new owners to reimburse the city for a $9-million federal loan that costs the city $750,000 per year, once the project reaches a certain level of profitability.

"It could take five years, it could take 20," Michalak said. "When there's cash flow, the city will get its share."

Centro Ybor opened in 2001, with hopes that it would jump-start redevelopment in Ybor City. Under former Tampa Mayor Dick Greco, city officials kicked in a $9-million federally backed loan and a parking garage to make the $49-million project happen.

The area around Centro Ybor did flourish, with homes in the vicinity selling for $300,000 or more, and sidewalk cafes lining Seventh Avenue.

But Centro Ybor sputtered.

One problem has been the tenant mix, Michalak said.

GameWorks, Urban Outfitters, Starbucks, Samurai Blue and the Tampa Improv Comedy Theater and Restaurant have done well.

But other shops have not, Michalak said.

In 2004, Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio's administration stepped in to bail out developers by taking over payments on the federal loan.

Earlier this year, two development partners in Centro Ybor sold their interest in the 211,000-square-foot Ybor City project to BVT.

Sembler Co., which also developed BayWalk in St. Petersburg, and Steiner + Associates, an Ohio firm behind CocoWalk in Miami, each sold their 25 percent interest in the Ybor City project to BVT.

BVT had been looking to cash out.

"No one came out as a winner," Michalak said of the original investors.

But Wilkow hopes they will be.

The company previously pledged to invest $8-million, keep Centro Ybor's 350 workers and eventually boost employment to 600.

And city attorney David Smith has said the value of the property could increase to $33-million by 2011, which would add to the city's tax rolls.

[Last modified December 23, 2006, 06:18:51]