Trib and Starbucks

Tampa Trib's Kathy Steele did a front page top of the fold article about Starbucks opening up. I love the quote "The residents proved an unstoppable force." I agree with Patrick Purpura. We won't become a Fowler Avenue.

Jul 18, 2005

Seminole Heights Is Abuzz
By KATHY STEELE
ksteele@tampatrib.com


SEMINOLE HEIGHTS - There were places once in Seminole Heights that held the neighborhood together.

The Dog 'N Suds. Red Wood Inn. A Veterans of Foreign Wars post. River Shore Drive- In. Bars where blue-collar workers got a quick beer before heading home.

``They don't have those places now,'' said Louis Klar, a Seminole Heights resident for nearly 60 years. ``But they will.''

If a Starbucks coffee shop approved by a city review board Wednesday is a success, Klar thinks it could be that kind of a place.

It also could attract other developers, and then new people who will want to move in.

``It's the adhesive that will give people a community place to identify with,'' Klar said.

That is the faith some neighborhood residents place in a single coffee shop Starbucks plans to build on a lot at Hillsborough and Central avenues, a gateway into the Old Seminole Heights Historic District.

``I just want every day for something nicer to be there,'' resident Chad Daughtrey said.

The prospect that Starbucks was coming has set pulses on a caffeine high since February.

``I can't go to Publix anymore without three people coming up and asking when is Starbucks coming,'' said Randy Baron, president of the Old Seminole Heights Neighborhood Association.

``I get phone calls, and it's not even in my neighborhood,'' said Gary Ellsworth, president of South Seminole Heights Civic Association.

Residents have showed support for the chain coffee shop for months as the city's Architectural Review Commission found fault with the developer's site plan and design. The residents proved an unstoppable force.

With almost no discussion, the review board on Wednesday said Starbucks had met the historic district guidelines and gave its approval.

The shop is expected to open by January, and another vacant lot in Seminole Heights will vanish.

`Excellent Memories'

In the 1920s, Seminole Heights was the place to live, with bungalows, front porches and shady oak trees. Residents were pioneers in suburban living.

Now there are new pioneers, restoring dilapidated bungalows and pushing out the drug dealers and prostitutes.

Too much of the old Seminole Heights has vanished, former resident Harold Wolfe said.

``What's the saying? You can't go back in time,'' Wolfe said. ``But there are memories; excellent memories.''

A sign at Three Coins Restaurant on Nebraska Avenue, where Wolfe was eating lunch Friday, reads: The Best Coffee In Town.

No one there is worried much about coffee competition. Restaurant manager Martha Hughes even feels sorry for Starbucks.

``I think that basically Starbucks is not for the neighborhood,'' she said. ``I wish them well.''

What she would like to see is a few pawnshops disappear.

Wolfe lives in Dade City, which he called paradise. Sort of what Seminole Heights used to be. He is fixing up his old house in Seminole Heights to cash in on the rising property values.

There was a bar - The Swan - he remembered fondly. ``I'd drive my '57 Chevy there,'' Wolfe said. ``It used to be if you went shopping here, you could leave the keys in your car.''

No more. ``It looks like a shantytown,'' Wolfe said. Drugs and crime took over in the 1970s, he said.

Wolfe thinks Starbucks will be good for the neighborhood. ``It will be a hangout for kids if they keep it open late,'' he said.

Some wonder how Starbucks can fail near an Interstate 275 interchange and on busy Hillsborough Avenue.

But it's not all about getting a cup of mocha cappuccino. Some Starbucks supporters boasted of not being coffee drinkers.

For some reason, the commercial rebirth in Seminole Heights hasn't taken off like the residential renaissance, Baron said. Now he and others think it will.

``I've had people tell me they won't move to Seminole Heights because there is nothing there,'' he said.

People live and work in Seminole Heights, but they have to go elsewhere to shop and meet with friends, he said.


Verdict's Still Out

Not everyone was enthusiastic about Starbucks.

The positive is that property values might go up, said Anjelica Diaz, owner of Viva La Frida Cafe y Galeria on Florida Avenue. That's as far as she goes.

Diaz wonders where the neighborhood support was during the seven months she struggled to get approvals from the Architectural Review Commission.

``I had to beg people in Seminole Heights to represent me,'' she said. One person responded.

``I'm a local business, and I do things that no one does. I give to nonprofit organizations,'' she said. ``Starbucks' money is not going to stay in the neighborhood.''

It's places like Viva La Frida and Covivant Art Gallery that attracted Holly Arboleda to Seminole Heights.

She moved to the neighborhood six months ago and opened Daddy Zero on Florida Avenue, where she sells incense, posters, jewelry, candles and clothing.

``The little art places, the mom and pop restaurants. There seem to be a lot of cool people in the neighborhood,'' she said.

Arboleda hopes Starbucks won't be a negative.

``Maybe people will come here from Starbucks,'' Arboleda said. ``It's a Catch-22. It could be good and bad at the same time.''

Elizabeth Graham is apprehensive. She moved to Seminole Heights in the early 1990s for the historic charm.

``There are people here who know your name,'' Graham said. ``You ask for a cup of sugar, and your neighbor brings it to you. I love that.''

She restored a 1908 bungalow on Florida Avenue and two years ago opened Forever Beautiful Salon & Day Spa. She wants to open a cafe next door.

Graham worries about franchises setting up shop in Seminole Heights in strip malls.

``That's not charming to me,'' she said. ``I wouldn't mind eclectic. I like South Howard [Avenue]. But I don't think Seminole Heights could be a Hyde Park.''

Local teahouses, bookstores, antiques, clothing shops: ``There's lots of room for those here,'' Graham said.

Starbucks isn't an open invitation to chain stores, said Patrick Purpura, owner of Front Porch Grille on Florida Avenue, formerly Tiffany's Tea Room.

Neighbors held off Walgreens drugstore three years ago, he said.

``I don't want our neighborhood to become a Fowler Avenue, but I think Starbucks fits in,'' Purpura said.

Philip Myers, who owns Myers Printing Co. on Florida Avenue and helped found the Seminole Heights Business Alliance, thinks Starbucks will be good for business. But he said the lengthy review Starbucks underwent would put local businesses at a disadvantage.

``The problem right now is where a small business can't come into the neighborhood,'' he said. ``It's tough. Most people would have a hard time doing that unless they were extremely wealthy.''


Reporter Kathy Steele can be reached at (813) 259-7146.

This story can be found at: http://news.tbo.com/news/MGBBOD36ABE.html