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Dreamers and builders mingle
By BRYAN GILMER © St. Petersburg Times, published November 12, 2000 ST. PETERSBURG -- Betty Sembler walked into the auditorium where the film Men of Honor was about to start. She looked up at the rows of more than 400 stadium-style seats. "Oh my stars," she said, waving at the people in the seats like a movie star might to fans. "This is wonderful." Dozens of people heard her and applauded. Mrs. Sembler was one of more than 1,000 people who attended the Muvico charity premiere Saturday night, one in a week of events to celebrate the new BayWalk entertainment development in downtown St. Petersburg, which opens Friday. Her husband, Mel Sembler, followed a few steps behind, munching on a bag of buttery popcorn. His real estate development company, the Sembler Co., spearheaded the downtown project. "I think we're creating a sense of place," Sembler said, brimming with pride. "It's going to be a place to see and be seen." That sense of joy permeated the crowd, which included many local leaders who have more often tasted disappointment from efforts at downtown development during the past 20 years. Twenty years ago, this block bordered by First and Second streets and Second and Third avenues N held only -- well, City Administrator Tish Elston admitted Saturday night that she can't remember what was here. "It's been vacant for so long," she explained. The block and a half-block to the south, which holds a new parking garage built to serve the project, lay vacant for much of the 1990s, the remains of a failed downtown development scheme. The city had forced the sale of much of the land and torn down the buildings that stood there. Out-of-town developers conceived of that "Bay Plaza" project in the booming 1980s, then found themselves unable to build it as the financial hangover hit them in the '90s. Mayor David Fischer endured the tense City Council meetings in which the city decided to give up on Bay Plaza. Fischer only had one complaint after walking around the movie house: No Jordan almonds at the concession counter. After having the dream deferred for so many years, many city residents were skeptical that BayWalk would really be built, even after the city approved the plans. It took some doing, but the plaza and 14 of 25 shops and restaurants will be open to the public Friday "I'm very happy; it's amazing how fast it came up, but that was the timetable that we were working on," said Rick Slack, 35, of Palm Harbor. He and dozens of other workers put in 75-hour weeks to repave Second Avenue N and install decorative crosswalks. Saturday night, he traded his work shirt for a dress shirt, and he and his wife, Melinda, mingled with others who helped make the complex a reality.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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