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City haunts creepy store

Before a Halloween-themed retailer can open, it needs approval from Largo, which says it's already violating codes.

By BY EILEEN SCHULTE
Published February 18, 2007

LARGO - On a busy road lined with stores, repair shops and fast food takeout, one eye-catching building promises Halloween all year long.

Castel Bantuit, an odd place by any measure, has appeared at 1751 Missouri Ave., catching motorists by surprise as they whiz by.

It is a small monument to horror. On the wall over the front door is written, "It's not what you think."

But before Castel Bantuit can open for business, city officials say they've noticed some disturbing things that need to be addressed.

And those will require something less supernatural and more bureaucratic - proper building permits.

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The renovation is only partly done, but already Castel Bantuit looks like a strip mall in Transylvania.

Guarding the building are two mean-looking 12-foot-tall gargoyles. Two hearses, one said to have carried bodies at Arlington National Cemetery, are parked nearby.

A giant, dark gray mural of menacing griffins covers the outside of the 15,000-square-foot, two-story former auto parts store.

Inside is a huge room containing stacks of at least 100 old-fashioned, 7-foot-long wooden caskets. They are the traditional "toe pincher" caskets with a window on top, through which a corpse's face could be seen. When the place opens, they'll rent for $100 a day.

There are also a few 8-foot-long, 100-pound phony skeletons and other props.

"I wanted to give it that creepy feeling," said co-owner Helene Urbin, 58, of Clearwater.

Urbin and her boyfriend of four years, Bert Beigel, 80, bought the property plus the vacant lot next to it in March for more than $1-million, according to public records.

The couple are renovating the building but would not say how much they are investing in the project.

When it is completed, they plan to have a gift shop selling candy, gothic T-shirts, jewelry and caskets for $450 each, plus a haunted house on the first floor.

On the second floor, there will be an open area with tables and chairs and a stage where magicians will perform for audiences and The Rocky Horror Picture Show will be shown.

Written on the outside of the building are the words "Dedicated to Bert Beigel."

"He got me this building because he wanted me to fulfill my dream," Urbin said.

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Urbin said she and Beigel met while she and his daughter were serving time in a North Florida prison in the 1990s.

Urbin, who lived in the Jacksonville area for years, served time for trafficking cocaine and later for intimidating a witness. She was released in 1998.

Urbin said she began dating Beigel after his wife, Liane, died in 2002.

She said Beigel is a Holocaust victim who survived Auschwitz. He showed his arm, which had a greenish number tattooed on his skin.

A former real estate broker, he now suffers from Alzheimer's disease, Urbin said. He told the Times he knows about Urbin's background.

"Helene is a friend of mine and a friend of my daughter," Beigel said. "I've known her for a long time. She's quite changed. She's a great lady now."

Urbin said she has been in the Halloween business since the early 1990s and has produced many holiday events. She said she also ran "a terror shop" at the Oldsmar Flea Market.

Now she wants a more permanent base in Largo.

But city officials might put a stop to that dream.

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Largo director of community development Michael Staffopoulos was driving back to City Hall from a meeting a couple of weeks ago and did a double take when he spotted Castel Bantuit.

Staffopoulos said he knew "at first pass" that the elaborate mural outside didn't meet the city's sign code.

So he asked city staffers to look into the project, and they concluded that Urbin and Beigel are indeed in violation of Largo's sign ordinance.

A senior inspector issued a stop work order and notice of violation.

Ken Andrews, Largo's assistant building official, said the couple have not pulled any permits and "they have not let us inside."

Noncompliance could result in fines and a hearing in front of the code enforcement board, he said.

Urbin said she plans to have a sprinkler system installed, bring in an electrician to make needed repairs to the wiring and pull all proper permits.

"We haven't done anything illegal," she said. "... We haven't done any construction other than painting, sheetrock, plugged holes (and) pulled out nasty carpeting."

That old auto parts store carpeting might have been unsightly, but Urbin said Castel Bantuit will have an aesthetic all of its own. If and when the place is completed, a skeleton with rotted skin hanging from it will greet visitors.

Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report. Eileen Schulte can be reached at (727) 445-4153 or eschulte@sptimes.com.

[Last modified February 18, 2007, 07:30:01]