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$12.5 million senior complex gets nod
By THOMAS MICHALSKI
| Article published on Thursday, Dec. 6, 2007 |
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| Photo by THOMAS MICHALSKI |
| Much of the land for the senior citizen housing complex is vacant. It is next to the present shuffleboard courts and senior community building. |
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PINELLAS PARK – Funding for a proposed $12.5 million four-story, 88-unit low income senior citizen complex near Park Station has been approved by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development.
The complex will be the second of its kind in the city to allow elderly residents to enjoy subsidized housing with the amount dependent on their personal incomes.
St. Giles Manor at 82nd Avenue near 50th Street has 110 units. The new complex will be located behind the senior citizen complex that is fronted by 59th Street.
Though named St. Giles, the projects are not a part of the St. Giles Episcopal Church in Pinellas Park. About a half dozen St. Giles parishioners, however, are seated on the manor’s board of directors.
“We are very excited and happy about the grant,” the Rev. John Hartnett of St. Giles Church and manor board member said. “We’ve been talking about this for 15 years.”
Hartnett said the HUD grant is only one of two authorized in Florida. The Catholic Charities of St. Petersburg received the other.
Hartnett said the new complex will give the elderly an affordable place to live. Many senior citizens are experiencing financial difficulties due to high property taxes, insurance and the increasing general cost of living.
The land on 58th Street and 76th Avenue where the complex is to be constructed currently houses the existing Millie Clark Senior Center Annex, also headquarters of the city’s recreation department, that will be demolished to make way for the complex.
Preliminary plans call for the complex to contain 19 units on the first floor and 23 units on the second, third and fourth floors.
Plans call for the new building to include community space, a lobby and reception area, two offices, a billiard and card area, an arts and crafts area, a kitchen, toilets and a laundry.
Michael Gustafson, city manager, said the original plans that were presented to the City Council last February will most likely be modified. He said the city is leasing the land to St. Giles for $1-a-year for 99 years.
“There is a need for senior housing in the city and this is an answer to meeting those needs,” Gustafson said.
Current plans do not affect the existing senior citizen community building and shuffleboard courts.
A large parcel of city-owned vacant land next to the nearby police administration building on 59th Street is set aside for a replacement structure. No date or plans have been made for the future police complex, but it’s no secret that the current building has outlived its usefulness due to age and space limitations.
The council last Feb. 22 approved a pair of ordinances after a lengthily public hearing that paved the way for the senior complex. About 35 area residents at the time presented the council with a petition objecting to the plan. They claimed that the complex would lower property values, cause traffic and other problems in the area.
The measures changed the property from a general commercial district to one that allows low income senior citizen housing.
Hartnett said the manor and city still must overcome the maze of paperwork that comes with such a large project.
Hartnett said it will be two to three years before the first ground is broken for the project.
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Article published on Thursday, Dec. 6, 2007
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