Hollywood 20: A star turned has-been

The theater, at Dale Mabry and Van Dyke Road, has turned into something from a B movie. Code officers are ready to crack down.

By TIM GRANT

© St. Petersburg Times,
published July 30, 2001

LUTZ -- When it opened four years ago, Hollywood 20 was the biggest and most popular theater in northern Hillsborough County. Three years later, it closed when even bigger and newer theaters claimed their share of Tampa's competitive movie market.

Today this onetime marvel is decaying. Gone are the red neon lights, the popcorn and sold-out crowds. Now the parking lot is overgrown with high weeds. The building's interior has been vandalized, and the property has become a dumping ground.

County code enforcement officers are ready to crack down on its corporate owners and take action to levy daily fines against the property if owners fail to secure the building and maintain the parking lot at N Dale Mabry Highway and Van Dyke Road. "It's a public nuisance," said code enforcement supervisor Jim Blinck. "We'll send them a notice of violation, and it will be their responsibility to comply. If not, we'll rush this case to the code enforcement board."

If that happens, Blinck said the county could impose a fine of up to $100 a day on the property until county standards are met. The fines would effectively cloud the title and further complicate a sale.

Hillsborough County Property Appraiser records indicate the building is valued at $6.7-million and owned by Annemarie Jarmoluk of Knoxville, Tenn. However, mortgage records show that Donald Zucker, president of CobbTampa Realty in New York, signed a $13.6-million mortgage to make a $12-million purchase in 1997.

Zucker and Jarmoluk could not be located for comment. J.R. Dupell of the Florida Shopping Center Group, which manages Northgate Square Shopping Center, did not return telephone messages.

Code officer David Cerasi said Hollywood 20's owners have cleaned graffiti off the walls and trimmed the weeds when he cited them in the past. However, he will cite them again for having an unsecured building, junk, trash, debris and overgrowth.

Although its interior has been vandalized, there is no evidence of anyone living in the 100,000-square-foot facility. Still, Cerasi said that because the building is open, he'll also cite the property for vagrancy.

The owners will have 15 days after receiving the notice to comply. Otherwise, code officers said the case will be scheduled for a hearing before the Code Enforcement Board.

"As this place continues to deteriorate, it starts to reflect on and affect the surrounding neighborhood," Cerasi said. "This could have an impact on businesses and the desirability of the residential neighborhoods.

"I'm surprised a big company like this would let it go to this point. That's not being a good neighbor."

Hollywood 20, which was eclipsed in its short lifetime by newer competitors AMC Veterans 24, Citrus Park 20 and Muvico's Starlight 20, used to be a source of pride and convenience for residents in surrounding areas. Now that it's closed, they must travel even farther to see a movie because a string of smaller theaters in Carrollwood closed when Hollywood 20 came on the scene.

"We get a lot of regular customers who come in and say they are mad the theater is gone," said Amy Mazurowski, a manager at Northgate's Mailboxes Etc. "It was a nice theater and a lot of older residents don't like driving to the mall to see a movie."

With the opening of Hollywood 20 in 1997, four new businesses opened in the area nearest the theater: a golf apparel shop, a florist, an ice cream shop and the Semolina restaurant.

Now, like the theater, all four of those businesses are closed. Three of those storefronts remain vacant. Splash restaurant has replaced Semolina. Splash owner Chip Roehl said he would like to see the theater property better maintained, but his major complaint stems from the crowd of teenagers who gather in its parking lot on weekends.

"You get groups of 75 to 150 cars over there doing what teens do," Roehl said. "We find beer cans and other things. My only fear is ... sooner or later something will happen."

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