On the dirty linoleum of the building’s main space, white posters advertise, “Available,” but that hasn’t been the case for some time. Next door, weeds are coming up through the carpet and piles of pink insulation lie hunched near the wall. Two doors down is St. Mark African Methodist Episcopal Church, then a Hungry Howie’s. On the other side of the building is a coin-operated laundry.
Martha Buttner, a part-owner and vice president of Bay Village Land Corp., the company under which the property is listed, said the decision to tear down the building was not an easy one, but it’s long overdue.
“It’s something we’ve dragged out,” she said of the plans to remove the tenants and tear down the building. “I hate that I’m doing it. It was the least favorable option for me emotionally.”For the congregation of St. Mark African Methodist Episcopal Church, which has been at Bay Village for about eight years, the decision offers both challenge and hope. The storefront was never meant to be a permanent home for the church, says head steward Clemmie Preyer, though the congregation would have liked more time to find a new home.
“We knew sooner or later we were going to have to move,” she said. “But when she (Buttner) told us, it was a shock because we weren’t ready.”
The church’s pastor, Keturah Pittman, said she wants the church to stay in the area, but with only a few weeks left to find a new home, that may not be possible.
“If the choice was there, the preference would be to remain in that community,” Pittman said. She added that having a church with a predominantly African-American congregation adds diversity in the area, but in Mid-town, where the church will most likely move, there are several African-American churches and the benefits won’t be the same.
But Pittman doesn’t blame Buttner for the decision.
“We’ve had excellent rapport with her,” Pittman said. “You couldn’t have asked for a better landlord.”
Not everyone at Bay Village is happy with Buttner’s plan, though.
Tamer Mohamed, the manager of the Hungry Howie’s next to St. Mark A.M.E., says his business won’t survive a move.
“What she does, it’s out of control,” he said. “She thinks she can do whatever she wants.”
“I couldn’t leave the building there in its current state,” she said.
Buttner is offering Hungry Howie’s a space in the smaller building at Bay Village, but Mohamed said it will still cost the store at least $25,000 to relocate, an amount the franchise can’t afford.
The coin-operated laundry also has the option to move into the smaller building, though Buttner said she wasn’t sure whether the owner would do so. She said the laundry owner also owns several other coin-operated laundries and hasn’t yet decided whether to invest in moving this one.
Virgel Paule, who said he uses the coin-operated laundry frequently, said he thinks the business should stay. If it leaves, the people in the area will have to go to 54th Avenue South for the next closest coin-operated laundry.
“I think if you look at the community, it needs to have services to help people around here,” he said.
Buttner says her current plan is to have the property rezoned for residential/office use and sell a major portion of the 5.5 acres at Bay Village to a town house developer from Largo. The Greater Pinellas Point Civic Association opposes the plan because it says the rezoning allows for apartments to be built on the property.
Regardless of the rezoning, the building still must come down, says Buttner. The tenants will have to relocate within the next few weeks, regardless of whether they are ready.
“We’ve been praying all along for God to lead us to a new facility,” Pittman said.