Northpinellas: Businesses protest being displaced by Walgreens

BELLEAIR BLUFFS -- On any day of the week, Jim Haumschild can be found helping customers select cuts of beef or poultry, something he has been doing for years in the family-owned and operated business.

But after 33 years, the market will close its doors if a proposed Walgreens gets the green light to build a new store on the property.

The Bel Forest Shopping Center, home to Jim's Meat Market and five other businesses -- Black Cat catering and gourmet shop, Wine Warehouse, Inspirational Elegance women's apparel, Alexandra Domenique hair salon and JP Nails -- would be demolished to make way for the new store at Indian Rocks Road and West Bay Drive.

"We got hosed," Haumschild said of the City Commission's 3-2 approval April 16 of a zoning change from residential office retail to commercial general that would allow Walgreens to build the store, including a drive-through pharmacy.

The city's mayor, Chris Arbutine, cast the deciding vote.

"It was a tough decision," Arbutine said. "It's a highly emotional issue. I buy steaks at Jim's Meat Market, and I don't think I'm ever going to forget the look Jim gave me when I voted: It was like, 'how can you do this?' "

"But I had to look at what was good for the city," Arbutine said. "The abandoned Mobil station is a horrible eyesore, and the way those properties are designed, the only way it can be redeveloped is to parcel those lots together. There are longstanding businesses there, but they are leasing. Our attorneys told us it is irrelevant to consider the leaseholders."

The new store would combine three properties into a triangular 1.7-acre parcel. One of the properties is the long-closed Mobil station surrounded by a chain link fence at West Bay and Indian Rocks. The second is a vacant lot, and the third is the .57-acre lot housing the Bel Forest center. The vacant lot is in Largo; the others are in Belleair Bluffs.

Walgreens has had a store in Belleair Bluffs since April 1985. It occupies 12,970 square feet in the Bluffs shopping center on West Bay Drive. Walgreens corporate spokeswoman Carol Hively said the company's new stores are typically 14,500 square feet, but can vary according to the size of the property. She did not have information on the proposed new store, she said.

Commissioner Susan McElveen, who also voted in favor of the zoning change, said it was a "heartbreaking decision, a very difficult one to make.

"The people that own the businesses (in the Bel Forest center) are very good, honest people," she said. "But the landlord stated very clearly that she did not have the money or the interest in improving the center and that the tenants had been aware of this.

"We don't want to see those businesses leave the city. I really feel for them, but at times you have to look at the bigger picture and what's in the best interest for the entire city."

The commissioners had been looking at a packet of information on the proposed store for about two weeks, she said.

"This was not a hasty decision on my part," she said.

But the business owners feel otherwise.

They and a large contingent of local residents attended a city Planning Board meeting before the April 16 commission meeting. The board voted 4-1 against the zoning change. Thinking it was settled and the commission would follow the recommendation, many of the business owners went home.

"We thought we were in the clear and everything was fine after the Planning Board decision," said Jean Beach, who with her husband, Bob, owns the Black Cat, which serves sandwiches, salads, desserts and dinners to go, afternoon tea and caters for a clientele that includes Morton Plant Hospital and the Pinellas County School Board. The business has been at the center for 12 years.

"We're appalled at the way things went at the commission meeting," she said. "I never heard the Planning Board recommendation read at the commission meeting, and I thought that was odd. It's obviously a done deal, and we're going to be moved out of here."

Moving the business' heavy equipment -- coolers, refrigerators, stoves, ovens and display cases -- will take a lot of planning and cost more than $50,000, Mrs. Beach said.

The Black Cat's lease is up May 11 and Mrs. Beach said she doubts landlord Gloria Larson would renew it. Larson did not return calls for comment.

Haumschild said it also would cost his family a minimum of $50,000 to move their equipment.

"This June, the business will be here 33 years," he said. "But we can't afford to move; we'd just have to close down. This was to be my mom's retirement income."

Alexandra Kraker has had her hair salon in the center since 1984. She said she can't afford to move her equipment. "I have a husband in a nursing home and a mortgage to pay, and this is my only income," she said. "If I move, I will lose my clients. I'll just have to go work for someone else -- not an easy thing after you've been in business for yourself for so many years."

Garry Brady, a partner in the Wine Warehouse business and manager of the Belleair Bluffs store, said business has been good since he moved into the Bel Forest Shopping Center a year and a half ago.

"It's a nice little community center," he said, adding that the business owners have a nice camaraderie.

Barbara Arrington, who owns Inspiration Elegance women's clothing store, has been in the center for 12 years.

"I don't even know if I can move," she said. "I'm struggling with the decision. You just don't think something like this could happen."

Muoi Lam, who owns JP Nails, is also in a quandary. After building a business for a year and a half, she said she would lose her clients if she has to move.

Commissioners Hunt Brand and Robert Russo cast the two votes against the zoning change. "This is the first time I've seen the commission go against the Planning Board," Brand said. "I say let's look at other options before we rubber-stamp this thing in. I'd rather keep those businesses that are part of our community. We're a small town, and that's what we're all about: little shops and vendors. I say let's try some other solutions first before we jump to the first one."

McElveen, however, said she thinks only a big company would be interested in the property.

"I think it would take a large corporation with a lot of money to develop that area," she said.

Arbutine said there are several vacant business sitesin the city that he hopes the Bel Forest businesses will consider if the zoning change is approved. His bid to expand his Belleair Bluffs business and build on another property in the city was turned down by the commission. Since then, he has purchased a building in Largo and intends to move.

He said the final vote on the zoning change will be May 21.

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