For Now, Progress is a Facade

Editor's Note: Main Street Landing is one of the properties addressed in New Port Richey's proposed Community Redevelopment Agency Strategic Redevelopment Action Plan.  We're reposting this article, first kicked live in March, today so you learn about one of the important issues that figure into the city's redevelopment. To learn more about what will be discussed tonight, go here. Then, go get involved with your community at the plan's presentation tonight at the CRA meeting at 7 p.m in the City Council chambers, preceded by a 5:30 p.m. working group.  

When it comes to the long-stymied Main Street Landing project in New Port Richey, progress is a facade.

That is, a painted, burnished facade that complies with the city's downtown exterior design codes -- even if the interior is a cinderblock cavern of precast concrete slabs.

New Port Richey City Manager John Schneiger said Tuesday, March 15, that McGurn Management Co. has "got the permit OK'd" to spiff up the scaffold-framed exterior of the three-story building being built at 6236 River Rd., on the west bank of the Pithlachascotee River.   

"Basically, the permit is to complete the shell and make it look totally complete so we can get some interest in the building," said McGurn project manager Keith Humphreys on Thursday.

The emphasis on gilding an eyesore with lipstick is, essentially, a stop-gap concession that city officials don't expect on the $33-million Main Street Landing project anytime soon.                                                         

Nevertheless, Humphreys said, the project is moving forward. "The beams are going up, getting ready for the third floor," he said.

Schneiger said Gainesville-based McGurn Management Co. must also submit an updated site plan to replace the expired original, and renegotiate a new developer's agreement with the city.

 Humphreys said work on the updated site plan has begun. The same firm that crafted the original site plan, Spring Engineering Inc., of Holiday, should file a new version soon, he said.

Forging a new development pact won't be as simple, Schneiger said. "That is going to be a challenge," he said. "The (original) agreement was based on assumptions" that are no longer viable.   

When Main Street Landing -- a riverside complex of condos, townhomes, retail shops and a restaurant -- was approved in 2004, few would have anticipated how the economic upheavals of the ensuing years would leave the city's community redevelopment agency $21 million in debt and McGurn scrambling for financing.   

First, property values skyrocketed and construction costs inflated dramatically during the statewide building boom, nearly doubling the project's first-phase price tag from $17 million to $33 milllion.

 Then, property values plummeted and construction came to halt as the global recession made the financing needed to continue building virtually impossible to find. 

Since 2006, the project's bad luck and bad timing has been episodically exacerbated by bad relationships between McGurn President Ken McGurn and the city, as negotiations stalled amid threats of lawsuits and default.

The project has proceeded in fits and starts since 2009, partly financed through federal stimulus funds. McGurn has anted up more than $500,000 of his own money -- including proceeds from refinancing his home -- to keep Main Street Landing alive.

McGurn, who is out of the country and unavailable for comment, has repeatedly assured the city that Main Street Landing will, eventually, be the bridge-buttressing gateway to downtown  initially envisioned seven years ago.

Humphreys said despite setbacks and frustrations, McGurn remains bullish on the project, and is confident it will soon secure investors and financing.

"I know my boss -- he is committed and moving forward," Humphreys said. "He's got a few hurdles to overcome, but he is committed to getting it done."

For now, however, the city's definition of progress is a facade.