City buying home for public works staff

By MAUREEN BYRNE

© St. Petersburg Times, published January 30, 2001

SEMINOLE -- The city is planning to spend $400,000 to buy and repair a former funeral home to house its public works department.

Both aesthetics and necessity are behind the purchase of the former Hook Funeral Home at 11110 70th Ave. N, said City Manager Frank Edmunds.

"What's driving this is our desire to establish what is now known as City Hall Park as truly a park site without the conflicts of a public-works department," he said.

Public-works vehicles are stationed at City Hall, which is on the park's premises. Therefore, vehicles must drive through the park, which is temporarily closed for repairs, to get to a garage.

Edmunds said the new and larger site also will allow for expansion of the public-works department, which is run by newly hired director Allen Godfrey. Edmunds said demands on the department will increase as the city grows through annexations.

"It's really about planning for the future," he said.

For the past several months, Edmunds has been negotiating with the property's owners, Michael and Holly Hook. The couple sold Hook Funeral Home, a Seminole institution since 1966, in July to E. James Reese Funeral Home and Crematory, which is a few blocks away at 6767 Seminole Blvd.

Edmunds said the 1-acre parcel, which contains a 4,500-square-foot building, had been on the market for $850,000. The city has signed an agreement to purchase the property for $350,000 and will close on the deal within 45 days.

"It was a normal negotiation process followed by a willing buyer and a willing seller," Edmunds said. "Just over time, we were able to demonstrate through other comparable sales that the $350,000 was more in line."

Edmunds said the city will spend $50,000 for immediate roof repairs and a professional site analysis to determine whether the building should be razed or restored.

Edmunds said the public works division would not relocate to 70th Avenue anytime soon, but it would move within the next five years.

The property will be bought with $200,000 in surplus funds from the 2000 city budget and $200,000 from unanticipated revenues from ad valorem taxes, electric franchise fees and electric utility taxes from newly annexed areas.

- Staff writer Maureen Byrne can be reached at 445-4163 or at byrne@sptimes.com.

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