Tampa okays Centro deal

The Centro Ybor complex will get a remake in hopes of turning it around.

By JANET ZINK, Times Staff Writer
Published August 31, 2007

TAMPA - The City Council approved a development agreement Thursday with a Chicago company that wants to remake Centro Ybor with offices and possibly a hotel and residences.

The vote came the day after a pair of Ybor City businessmen made an offer to buy the troubled retail and entertainment complex for $20.25-million.

But David Harvey, senior vice president for Wilkow, said the proposal had too many conditions, including requests for confidential information and an excessive amount of time to investigate the purchase.

"This was done for public consumption," Harvey said of the offer, noting that the prospective buyers, Alan Kahana and Joseph Capitano, never spoke to him directly.

Wilkow plans to invest about $10.2-million into turning around Centro Ybor, Harvey said. Plans call for turning some of the movie theaters at the complex into offices.

At least eight of the 20 screens will remain in place, including the theater that serves alcohol.

Harvey said turning around Centro Ybor won't be easy.

National companies such as American Eagle, Pac-Sun and Birkenstock have given Centro Ybor a try and then bolted from the complex.

"It's a real burden to get people to come back," he said.

Centro Ybor opened in 2000 in hopes that it would jump-start development in Ybor City. The city kicked in a $9-million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to make the $50-million project happen.

But Centro faltered, and in 2004, the city stepped in to bail out developers by taking over payments on the HUD loan. That's costing taxpayers about $750,000 a year.

Wilkow bought the property in December from German investment company BVT for $16-million, which wasn't enough to cover the city's mortgage.

The deal approved Thursday requires Wilkow to give the city a $100,000 initial payment; $25,000 a year for six years; $35,000 a year for the next six years; and increasing payments for the following 15 years.

Thursday's brief conversation about Centro Ybor was a stark contrast with the meeting last week when the council, acting as the Community Redevelopment Agency, first considered the development agreement.

That meeting resulted in confusion and a delayed vote when Ybor property owner Jacob "Bucky" Buchman made a spontaneous offer to buy the city's second mortgage on Centro for more than $4-million.

This week, City attorney David Smith dismissed that offer as "unacceptable," saying it included conditions the city couldn't meet.

Then on Wednesday, Kahana and Capitano made their offer. They have said the city should have gotten more help paying off its debt.

Harvey said now that he has his approvals for redeveloping the entertainment center, he's willing to talk to Kahana and Capitano.

Staff writer Janet Zink can be reached at jzink@sptimes.com or 813 226-3401.

[Last modified August 31, 2007, 00:37:32]