From awful to artful

It definitely took creativity to envision what a "Temple of Doom" at 2105 Central Ave. could become. Now others want some of SoHo's mojo.

By JON WILSON

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 19, 2000

ST. PETERSBURG -- Sam Giardina remembers well the crack users and hookers who hung out in the sprawling structure on Central Avenue and 21st Street. They squeezed through any hole, broken door or skylight available to set up housekeeping.

"It was the worst building in the neighborhood. I don't know how to describe how bad this place was," said Giardina, a police officer who has patrolled Central for 11 years.

That was four years ago.

Bob and Marylyn Lowe bought the building in April 1996 for $140,000. It offered five storefronts, 18,000 square feet and room to live on the top floor.

In December 1996, they opened the SoHo South art gallery. They started living above it in 1997, continuing to work on the gallery and on remodeling a hive of potential studios.

Today, four cavernous rooms offer multimedia art -- including an indoor "park" currently on display -- and artists have rented nine of the 10 available studios. Marylyn Lowe was a finalist in 1998 and 1999 for the Chamber of Commerce award given each year to the most impressive small business.

And last Friday, the latest event in the transformation of 2105 Central Ave. took place when the Lowes officially opened the SoHo Java Internet Cafe. Their 16-year-old grandson, Christopher Bennett, helped out, setting up five computer stations. Coffees, sandwiches, desserts and soft drinks are available.

Marylyn Lowe is a soft-spoken woman with a penchant for understatement.

"This was no small undertaking," she said of the family-and-friends project that has given a new look to a half-block.

"They've cleaned up this part of Central," Giardina said.

Gig Arendt, the Realtor who sold the Lowes the 1949 vintage building, described its "before" phase this way:

"Water trickled out on the sidewalk because the building had been leaking for months and months. Skylights were broken in. There were 2- and 3-inch-high plants growing in the mud inside. It looked like the Temple of Doom."

How much has the remodeling cost? "Lots," said Marylyn Lowe. She said a half-million dollars wouldn't be an exaggeration.

It's a bold venture in a neighborhood that has taken only its first steps away from the grittier side of life. This section of Central can look a bit tough. Yet Haslam's bookstore is a centerpiece business only a block east, and the Extra Inning Ballpark Cafe a block beyond that.

And Marylyn Lowe said she has never had a problem at SoHo; on the other hand, she was held up several years ago when she had a gallery in the fancier mid-Pinellas County Bardmoor section.

SoHo sits amid the Grand Central District, whose Central Avenue Tomorrow project describes a neighborhood renewal effort between 19th and 34th streets. It is a cooperative effort that involves the neighborhood, city government and the Chamber of Commerce.

The project is one year, three weeks old, but has a city-financed renewal plan finished and ready to move forward. The new "urban village" zoning and its attendant community redevelopment plan are expected to win City Council approval Thursday.

Kris Self, Central Avenue Tomorrow co-chairwoman, attended the Internet cafe's grand opening. The Lowes say Self, who has been a member of the city's code enforcement board, helped them negotiate hurdles before opening.

"The SoHo art district has been born," said Self, referring to the gallery and another building across the street recently purchased by husband-and-wife artists Kevin Brady and Susan Supper (pronounced "super.")

Brady is multimedia artist who has several pieces of work on display in SoHo, including one titled Waterfall. It consists of a 6-foot-square section of live St. Augustine grass. In its center is a pool and a fountain constructed of stainless steel tubes.

"I heard St. Petersburg needed indoor park space," Brady joked.

Actually, he and Supper have visited here from Philadelphia for the past 15 years. This time, they decided they liked it well enough to stay. Brady, who also works in bronze, fiberglass, aluminum and gypsum, said he hopes to open a 2,500-square-foot gallery in a few months.

Fred Szabries is a St. Petersburg artist who has lived here since 1976. He is a painter and a sculptor who works with a variety of media. Several of his pieces are on exhibit at SoHo, and he said he just had a successful showing at Artexpo New York 2000 in New York City's Jacob Javits Center.

As a result, his work will appear in several galleries around the nation and one in Zurich, Switzerland, Szabries said.

"It just kind of exploded. That little show in New York did wonders," he said.

Doug Strutz, an artist and a Salvador Dali museum docent, said it's good to see local artists winning recognition.

"The wonderful thing about it, this is becoming an arts colony," Strutz said.

Both Lowes still shake their heads when talking about the condition of the building when they bought it.

Bob Lowe said he trucked out five loads of trash from inside -- using a 5-ton truck.

Nonetheless, the Lowes wanted it, and for a basic reason: their immediately previous spot on First Avenue N was too small.

So they moved.

"Baseball wasn't on our mind," said Bob Lowe, referring to the business interest Major League Baseball generated downtown.

"The workshop here is about as big as the whole place on First Avenue," he said.

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