Page 2 - 4-14-15 Tuesday's Edition

Features
Developers Cover West Tampa With New Homes, Apartment Building
BY LEON B. CREWS Sentinel Staff Writer
For decades, the West Tampa community has seen its share of loss businesses, boarded up homes, vacant lots, and a big surge of young people into the community.
With the announcement of Mayor Bob Buckhorn that West Tampa has been targeted for a big development plan, developers have already gotten a foothold on both commercial and residential properties in the area.
One of those developers Robert Morris, said he un- derstands the dynamics of the community, and is not trying to force anyone out.
“What I’ve done is target the distressed properties with the intent of rehabbing them, and putting them back on the market.
“I’ve completed at house at 1942 Chestnut and I have a couple on Spruce Street I’m working on.”
Morris has acquired a commercial property on Main Street, just west of Albany and
next door the Metro PCS Store.
“We are in the process of renovating that building, and our plan is to turn it into a the- ater/café.
“My idea is to attract all kinds of people into the West Tampa community by offering them an array of housing op- portunities and entertainment venues.”
Morris said he expects to see at least 30 new homes within the next month in the West Tampa community, and this is a great opportunity to get involved in the rebirth of the community.
“Right now, real estate in this area is going for about 100 per-square-foot. My plan is to keep my houses affordable, while at the same time giving buyers something unique.
“I’d like to follow suit with the new homes that have roof top decks, and spread them all over the area. My goal is to eradicate all rental properties in West Tampa, and replace them with affordable homes.”
Morris said he is only one of a group of developers build-
ing homes in the West Tampa community, and his are more affordable than some of the others.
“I’d love to see the people in West Tampa enjoy a great quality of life and live in a community they can be proud of.
“I’ll continue to meet with community leaders and listen to their concerns, and I’m open to working with anyone and any group.”
Morris said he’s not part of the development team building an apartment com- plex on Howard Avenue and Spruce Street, but he thinks that is start of something the people will be seeing more of.
“I think this entire area will have a lot of new things that the people will enjoy. There will be a lot of new stores, shops, and places for people to just relax.
“My current project is to make sure the park on the cor- ner of Main Street and Howard Avenue is redone with better lighting. I think it is a great spot that will attract a lot of people.”
New State Casino Gambling Bill A Slap To Seminoles
Tampa’s Seminole Hard Rock Casino and Hotel
A new Florida Casino gam- bling bill has been introduced and is gaining momentum.
The bill is seeking to open up the casino gambling busi- ness in South Florida to new competitors from several gi- ants, such as Steve Wynn Re- sorts, Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands, Corporation, or Genting’s resorts International of Miami.
A major consequence of the passage of this new bill will be a challenge and possible nulli- fication of the existing gam- bling casino revenue sharing agreement between Florida and the Seminole Indians. Strong resistance is already being shown by opponents of this bill that many see as a slap to the Seminoles.
It is feared the passage of the gambling bill would invali- date and blow up the Seminole Revenue Sharing Agreement it has with the state. Supporters of the new bill said the Legisla- ture had negotiated the table game part of the bill with the Seminoles. It seems more work remains to be done if the bill has any chances of passing.
Under the proposed agree- ment, Seminole casinos would continue to offer blackjack and other table games for at least another year under a proposal that would give the state more time to negotiate a new gam- bling agreement with the Semi- noles.
The bill was introduced by Republican State Represen- tative Dana Young of Tampa, and seconded by Sen- ator Bill Galvano.
Opponents of the new bill believe it has no chance of passing, saying it seems to be too big and too broad, and en- compasses too many compet- ing interests which are ready to do battle to dismantle the bill as quickly as possible.
The new bill proposes two Resort Casinos, Las Vegas style, either in Broward or Miami-Dade Counties. It would also open up slot ma- chine gambling to Kennel Club in Palm Beach.
The Seminoles are the dominant and reigning gam- bling kings of South Florida,
and their current gambling op- erations are through the rev- enue sharing agreement, with the state getting $260 million to the treasury each year. The new proposal would also open up stiff competition for the Seminoles Hard Rock Resort in Hollywood and Coconut Creek to other national big gambling operations.
There is a loophole in the Federal Indian gambling law that allows the Seminole tribe to offer destination resort games, such as roulette, black- jack and others without paying any money to the state. If the tribe decides to follow that way of thinking, it would enable them to save lots of money for advertising, marketing and other competitive programs against their competitors.
Regulated Industries Com- mittee Chairman Rob Bradley filed a bill that would continue the table games por- tion of the Seminoles’ agree- ment for another year. It is set to expire July 31st.
The agreement, or com- pact, is to be reached between Governor Rick Scott and the tribe, and then approved by the Legislature and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Gov. Scott was close to an agreement in 2014, but lacked legislative support. He has en- couraged the Seminoles to talk with the House and Senate this year.
The Seminoles would con- tinue to deal blackjack and other table games at five of their seven casinos, including all three in Broward County. They would pay Florida ac- cording to the formula agreed upon back in 2010. In the fiscal year hat ended June 30th, the Seminoles paid the state $250 million for the $2.2 billion they took in.
Rep. Young’s bill seeks to allow two resort-hotel casinos and blackjack and a lower tax rate at South Florida horse tracks, dog tracks and jai-alai frontons. The bill was filed March 2nd and heard March 26th, but no action was taken.
The Florida Legislature will be meeting in January 2016 rather than in March.
Evaluators Rank Possible Restaurants For Tampa International Airport
Late Friday night evaluators at Tampa International Airport finished their ranking of appli- cations and presentations by dozens of restaurant groups.
Each group was given a score for their presentations management skills and restau- rant concepts. All applicants submitted bids on a series of six
different packages of locations that included everything from a coffee shop to full sit-down restaurants. Some of the bids in- cluded a half-dozen brands under their umbrella.
Winning the top rank spots in Package 1, Branded Coffee, Casual Dining, Wine Bar were:
Host International, In-
corporated with a Star- bucks Reserve on Airside A; Pei Wei on Airside A; Cigar City Brewing on Airside C; Starbucks on Airside C; Starbucks on Airside E; Co- lumbia Restaurant café on Airside E.
SSP America, Incorpo- rated with Ducky’s on Air- side A; Bavaro’s, Louis Pappas, Goody Goody, Café Con Leche, Ulele bar, Fitlife Foods on Airside C; Bella’s Italia Café, Buddy Brew Coffee Fitlife foods, Le Grand Comptoir, Square 1 Burgers, Yogurtology on Airside F; Hard Rock Café in the Main Terminal.
TPA Hospitality Part- ners, LLC (back locally by Jeff Vinik,) with spaces for RumFish Grill, Four Green Fields and The Café by Mise en Place and others.
HBF Tampa Partners (82.7 out of 100) with spaces for Potbelly Sand- wich Shop, illy espresso and Chick-fil-A which will swap out on Sundays with a Boar’s Head deli operation.
TPA Hospitality Part- ners, LLC for another pack- age that includes spaces for New York New York Pizza, PDQ Chicken and an Auntie Ann’s.
The rankings now go before Joe Lopano, Tampa Interna- tional Airport’s CEO, who will review them, and then later present them to the Hillsbor- ough County Aviation Authority. That process will begin in June.
In the Package 4 Category, quick service restaurant, branded coffee, African Ameri- can owned Tinsley-Bridgeman finished second.
PAGE 2 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 2015