The New Port Richey City Council on Tuesday, sitting in their dual-role as board members for the City’s Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA), gave preliminary approval for the sale of a major downtown property on Circle Boulevard for $300,000 to Frank Starkey’s People Places LLC. The property is located on the southeast corner of Circle Boulevard and Central Avenue in downtown New Port Richey and is the former site of the First Baptist Church. The property was purchased by New Port Richey in 2005 for just over $3 million. The church building was razed in 2010 because of baloooning renovation costs. The City’s intention was to purchase to property to help spur development in the downtown area, but after the real estate collapse in 2008, the City found itself unable to sell the property.

An environmental cleanup of the property was required after issues with the demolition process caused a spill. The property is 2.43 acres and includes a vacant property to the south of Central Avenue and a surfaced parking lot to the north of the street.

People Places, LLC  Frank Starkey, the developer of Trinity’s Longleaf community and the brother-in-law of current County Commissioner Kathryn Starkey, submitted a bid in November to develop the property, and was selected as the developer of preference in January. After Tuesday’s approval, City Council will have to again approve the sale at a future City Council meeting, held every other Tuesday at 6 PM in City Council chambers. The next scheduled meeting is Tuesday, June 7th.

The deal approved Tuesday night would allow for the sale of the property to People Places, LLC for $300,000. Also included are tax rebates for the property through 2024 that shrink from a 100% rebate for 2016 down to 60% in 2024. City Economic Development Director Mario Iezzoni said the rebates are necessary to “mitigate further risk to the developer.”

People Places, LLC was the only developer to submit a bid for the development and was approved as the preferred developer at a January 19, 2016 meeting. “We were pleased to have such a qualified developer present ourselves for review,” said City Manager Debbie Manns, “Our recommendation is to sell the former First Baptist Church Property to People Places, LLC.”

People Places says that they hope to have residents moving into the building sometime in the second half of 2017, and they plan to own and operate the building as rentals for the long term. Iezzoni said that he hopes the project can “attract household incomes of $50,000 or more.” The development will house up to a maximum of 88 rental units, and the City is projecting $4.4 million in annual household income from the residents.

The design and feasibility of this project is based on the Zimmerman/Volk Urban Core Residential Market Analysis. The analysis states there is market support for new downtown residential construction designed for annual household incomes of $50,000+. The occupancy of these units will serve to support a growing and vibrant community with over $4.4+ million in new annual household income in close proximity to nearby businesses. It is estimated the completed project will increase downtown ad valorem between $6-8 million, netting over the remaining life of the CRA and an additional $800,000 in CRA revenues.

A short council discussion preceded the vote with Councilman Bill Phillips and Councilwoman Judy deBella Thomas participating via teleconference. “I really believe that we’ve been tasked with the responsibility for making a decision for New Port Richey that is a once in a generation–or maybe a once in a lifetime decision for creating something in New Port Richey that might bring some extra foot traffic downtown…” Mayor Rob Marlowe said, “I think a lot of us would be open to the idea of living within a block or two of downtown. This project has the potential to make the historic downtown business district something special for decades going forward.”

Councilman Jeff Starkey (no relation to developer Frank Starkey) also praised the project and expressed hope that residents could get on board. “[There’s] no doubt about it, this is a huge project for downtown New Port Richey. Some people can’t get past more rentals.” Councilman Starkey said, “We don’t need more run down triplexes is what we don’t need… I don’t think it’s going to be too big. I support this 100%.”