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Letter to the editor

Hidden produce vendor asks for fairness

Dwarfed by a Wal-Mart and denied a visible sign, he wants only to make a living.

By PAUL SWIDER, Times Staff Writer
Published August 29, 2007

Petro Dervishi, 31, owner of VGP Produce, rings up items for patrons in his Tyrone area store on Monday.
	[Willie J. Allen Jr. | Times]

Petro Dervishi is trying to make a living, but he says he feels put upon by forces that are harming his business.

"It's so hard for me right now," said the owner of VGP Produce, a 6-month-old fruit and vegetable stand at 7925 38th Ave. N. "We're not sure we're going to make it. We're just trying to pay the bills."

Dervishi's store is near one of the busiest intersections in the city, 38th Avenue and Tyrone Boulevard, and just a stone's throw from a Wal-Mart.

But the building he occupies is all but invisible to the steady flow of traffic traversing 38th Avenue because old regulations prevent him from putting up a sign there, even though his store sits in the shadow of a Wal-Mart sign and those of that megastore's immediate neighbors.

"People call me up and say, 'Where are you?' " said Dervishi, 31, who even has a map to his store on the back of his business cards. "I get a lot of complaints because they can't find the store."

Dervishi is trying to live the American dream.

The Albanian immigrant learned the produce business working in Greece before moving to the United States three years ago. He worked in produce stands here and saved his money before opening VGP earlier this year. As he tries to care for his wife and their 1-year-old son, he is up against the history of Wal-Mart.

"They have a development agreement," said Julie Weston, the city's director of development services, of the rules that limit Dervishi. "That was preordained years ago."

Dervishi's store sits on property that was originally part of the larger Wal-Mart complex developed by Sembler in 1990. When Dervishi's landlord, George Tagaras, acquired the property in 1997, it carried restrictions on the size of the building he could build there, but also limits on its orientation that would affect basic items including signage.

Tagaras sought to build on the property in 2002 but was stymied by the restrictions, said Nick Benjacob, the architect who represented Tagaras before the city. Tagaras later worked out a deal with the developer on building size, but the development agreement still loomed as a limiting factor.

A parking strip on the remaining Wal-Mart property just north of Tagaras' property would have to serve any new building, meaning Tagaras' building would have to face away from 38th Avenue. Any signage would have to front the building along the slender Wal-Mart driveway, not face the traffic along busy 38th.

When Benjacob again brought Tagaras' plans to the city in 2004, he said city officials complained that the part of the building facing 38th Avenue would be an ugly blank wall, but they also insisted the building face north away from the road.

"They talked from both sides of their mouths," Benjacob said.

The Environmental Development Commission even required that Tagaras build berms and landscape along 38th to hide the businesses from the road. Dervishi is not allowed to put a sign on that wall, yet the sign for Wal-Mart remains on 38th as part of that development.

Benjacob said Tagaras didn't ask for a variance to include signs along 38th, but Weston said she would entertain such a request. Variances usually require that a property owner show some evidence of hardship.

Meanwhile, Dervishi gets up at 3 a.m. every day and travels to the farmer's market in Tampa to get produce for his stand. He's been offering tomatoes for 59 cents a pound, even though he loses money at that price, just so he can draw people into his hidden store.

The lack of visible signs "hurts my business a lot, but what can I do?" he said.

Being along an entrance to a Wal-Mart surely helps, Dervishi admits, but he said there are two other, larger entrances to Wal-Mart, so most of the traffic flows there. He said this Wal-Mart does not even sell produce, so there is no direct competition, which is why he holds no grudge against the retailer. He just wants a fighting chance to stay in business.

"I don't want to get rich in one day," he said. "I just want to work hard and make people happy."

Paul Swider can be reached at 892-2271 or pswider@sptimes.com

[Last modified August 28, 2007, 22:42:57]