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Developer Plans Tarpon Light-Industrial Complex

Switch From Multifamily Residential

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By Mark  Schantz | The Suncoast News

Published: January 9, 2009

Updated:

TARPON SPRINGS - In a sign of the changed economic times, a local developer has scrapped plans to build multifamily housing on 15.8 acres off North Jasmine Avenue.

Instead, Manuel Lindiakos now wants to create an upscale light-industrial warehouse complex on the site. The land Lindiakos wants to develop is east of U.S. 19, north of Cycadia Cemetery and south of East Spruce Street.

Lindiakos' revamped plans for the land is headed for a public hearing on Tuesday, Jan. 13, before the City Commission after winning a positive recommendation from the city's Planning and Zoning Board.

At a recent Planning and Zoning Board meeting, Rodney Chatman, city planner, said in 2007 the city changed the zoning and land use designation on property from industrial to multifamily at the request of Lindiakos. At the time, the developer was trying to take advantage of the Florida's booming residential real estate market, Chatman said.

Just as Lindiakos was set to begin constructing the residential complex, Chatman said, the real estate boom went bust.

He has spent a significant amount of money on design and engineering for the multifamily complex but there is no longer a market for it, Lindiakos told the city planning panel.

Planning and Zoning Board member John Tarapani said Lindiakos obviously is reacting to changes in market conditions. Tarapani, a former City Commission member, has a number of commercial property holdings in the city.

The city planning staff is supporting the request from Lindiakos Properties to return the zoning and land use on the North Jasmine Avenue property to the previous light-industrial designation, Chatman said.

Lindiakos now wants to build and lease warehouses to small industrial and manufacturing businesses, the developer said. This project has more potential to be financially viable and help the local economy, he said.

As part of the project, Lindiakos will make improvements to streets around the site. He has agreed to extend to U.S. 19 the section of East Spruce Street running off of North Jasmine Avenue. In addition, he will make improvements to East Pine Street, which runs through the site.

Extending East Spruce Street to the west will give trucks access to the warehouse complex site from U.S. 19 and should reduce traffic on North Jasmine Avenue, according to Lindiakos.

A Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse is planned on a site west of what would become the U.S. 19-East Spruce Avenue intersection and a traffic signal would be erected there. In addition, a traffic signal is planned for the intersection of North Jasmine Avenue and Keystone Road, south of Lindiakos' property, after Pinellas County widens Keystone Road, according to city staff.

In addition, Lindiakos will make lighting and landscaping improvements around the property and construct the warehouses in a way that would reduce their noise impact on surrounding residential areas, he said.

Restrictive covenants associated with the zoning change would strictly limit permitted uses on the site, furthering reducing the likelihood of noise spillover into nearby neighborhoods, according to staff.

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