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Stirrings on Corey Avenue

Elusive investors begin clearing the way. For what? No one's quite sure.

By NICK JOHNSON, Times Staff Writer
Published August 26, 2007

Abandoned buildings along the east end of Corey Avenue hummed with signs of life for the first time in more than a year Wednesday as a demolition crew began dismantling the waterfront structures.

What was planned to be Corey Landings, a mixed-use development with a hotel, condos and a marina, has looked more like a tiny ghost town since residents voted down a request from the developers to close part of a public road in March.

The half-dozen properties were bought by William Karns Enterprises, a local developer, and later sold to investors under the name Corey Landings Development.

The site plan was approved by the commission but included the closing of Corey Circle, a small section of road between the two remaining open businesses in the area, the Blue Parrot restaurant and bar and Charlie's Transmissions Inc.

After use of the road was denied, the project was abandoned and the city was unable to reach the investors, David Jankowski and Jim Wilson, neither of whom returned phone calls from the Times.

"They haven't disappeared, but they are so disorganized that I have no idea what they are doing," said Jack Bodziak, the architect who was designing the project. The investors have contacted him every few weeks to say they are ready to get things rolling, but shortly after go incommunicado.

No one had seen them until the threat of high fines or jail time for their inaction entered the picture.

The city was fining the owners $50 a day and was in the process of upping it to $2,500 a day and preparing to file an injunction against the developers.

Failure to comply with a court order to demolish the vacant buildings could have led to a charge of contempt and possibly jail.

Demolition crews showed up in the nick of time, but it's still not known what the developers have planned for the site or why it has been dormant for so long.

"I've never had a direct conversation with the property owners where they said 'this is why we haven't done anything with the property for such a long time,' " Karl Holley, the city's community development director, said. "As far as where they go from here, that's kind of hard to say. The plan they have currently cannot be built."

Before any building begins on the site, a new plan will have to be approved by the City Commission that does not include the public right of way.

Nothing concrete has been submitted to the city.

City Manager Mike Bonfield said the developers told him they were planning to have something put together in the next few weeks, but he didn't seem convinced.

"It's a good sign, if nothing else, to get the place cleared, but hopefully it's a sign that they're moving toward some redevelopment of the site," Bonfield said.

Frank Theisen, who runs the Blue Parrot, has similar doubts about the investors who would fly into town in a charted private jet and stay at the Don CeSar hotel.

He said they originally approached him about a buyout in exchange for a retail space in the new development but never produced a contract.

He has continued running his restaurant surrounded by the waterfront wreckage.

Theisen said the rundown buildings initially hurt business but that customers had slowly started venturing back to his restaurant. There is one bright side to the whole mess: "We certainly have an easy parking situation."

Nick Johnson can be reached at nickjohnson@sptimes.com or 893-8361.

[Last modified August 25, 2007, 22:50:04]