Ex-laundry site shows how plans can go wrong

An owner is asking $1.75-million for 2.7 acres that the city could have had for free four years ago.

By LEONORA LaPETER

© St. Petersburg Times, published October 23, 2000

The city of St. Petersburg could have had the 2.7 acres with 47,000 square feet of warehouse in the heart of the city's oldest industrial district for free.

Instead, it waited four years and let the owner of a recycling business get his hands on it for $200,000.

Now the city wants the property for industrial development. A developer has expressed interest.

But Peter Denne, owner of the property at Fifth Avenue S and 22nd Street, wants $1.75-million for it.

How did the city let free land in the heart of its planned industrial district slip away at a time when it is attempting to promote economic development and create jobs there?

"That's the $64-million question," said Denne, trying to handle clients and answer the phone in his busy recycling office, which smells like the five dogs that inhabit it. "The right hand didn't know what the left hand was doing?"

The saga of the Soft Water Laundry property seems a cautionary tale about what can go wrong in economic development.

City officials blame the timing. They say they weren't trying to purchase land for the redevelopment of an industrial district when National Linen, the former owner, tried to donate it in 1996 to the city in return for state and federal tax credits.

City officials say the land was contaminated with chemicals from the laundry operation, though the Realtor who handled the property, Ann Walters, said National Linen offered to clean it up for free.

Now, city officials say they are willing to pay.

"It's one of the largest pieces of property, and it's at a key spot, the gateway to the Dome Industrial District, so it's something we really want to own," Mayor David Fischer said.

Rick Mussett, community and economic development administrator, said the city will consider two appraisals of Denne's property before making an offer on it. But it's unlikely the city will consider paying $1.75-million for it, a price Denne and his sister, Heidi, put on the property because they don't actually want to sell it.

"This is not something we're going to fall on our saber over . . .," Mussett said. "I just thought if we could be proactive and acquire the site, we could clear it and make it available for private investment."

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