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Town house plans in works
By G.G. RIGSBY © St. Petersburg Times, published September 2, 1998 Italian investors plan to buy the vacant three-fourths of an acre Tuesday and hope to start construction in November, said Mike Forbes of Theta Homes, a company formed to handle the development. The town houses would have garages on the first floor, with two floors of living space above, said Forbes, whose business is based in Sarasota. The units would have two or three bedrooms and would be divided into two buildings, behind gates. Forbes described the 1,200-square-foot units as moderately priced, from $110,000 to $130,000. The goal would be to have the units ready for occupancy early next summer, he said. In documents filed with the city, the developers said, "most of the town house owners will be foreign citizens in upper income range ($80,000 or more per year) with a high level of expendable income." Forbes said he expects the residents to live in the units six or seven months out of the year. "He (the lead investor) probably has enough (people) that are already interested in buying these places," Forbes said. The Church of Scientology's international spiritual headquarters in Clearwater attracts a number of foreign visitors year-round. The church has said it needs more accommodations for visiting Scientologists, particularly because it is planning a 300,000-square-foot counseling and office building downtown. Forbes said he does not know if the investors are members of the church. He declined to identify the investors. Besides Forbes, state corporate records list the other officers of Theta Homes as Romano Paganessi and Sergio Andreano. Forbes said that the investors have considered such a project for several years and that they only learned after committing to the Laura Street site that IMR, a computer software company, is building its world headquarters at the former City Hall Annex site nearby and bringing in 700 high-paying jobs. He also said the investors only recently learned about plans for 600 new apartments at the nearby Sunshine Mall site. "It kind of confirmed (their) decision more than anything," Forbes said of the IMR and apartment projects.
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LEARWATER -- A $2.2-million, 22-unit town house development is planned for downtown, on Laura Street not far from the northeast corner of Cleveland Street and Myrtle Avenue.
