STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

Tell us about it

• What would you add to this story? Tell us what we missed.
• Do you have photos from this event? Documents we need to see? Share with us.
• Upload photos & videos
• More ways to get your stuff online and in the paper.

More All

• Best of etc: celebrating 2008
• Big names, crowds come to Off the Hook Comedy Club
• Words of Wisdom: The origin of originality

Share and Enjoy [?]

It’s been nine months since Hurricane Wilma shifted the roof of 555 Fifth Ave. S., causing extensive water damage and mold to The Copper Cricket, Back of the Bay and White House/Black Market. The old white building, with the quaint painting outside The Copper Cricket, stands out among the tony shops, with mold creeping out of one shop onto the sidewalk.

Naples city officials agree it’s a “vacant blight” on its trendy, posh shopping district. The city already branded it uninhabitable.

Last week, signs popped up atop the buildings urging action. “Naples’ New Tourist Spot — www.eyesore.com,” said one, while another asked: “City Council, have you no pride?”

Another mocked Naples, saying, “You won’t see this in Palm Beach.” And another demanded: “Tear down or redevelop now.”

The signs remained for four days. In that time, black plastic was placed on the building’s windows to cover the mold, pools of water and mushrooms growing inside, leaving a few waterstained brown paper coverings on windows. Now, city officials are taking action.

On Monday, the Community Redevelopment Advisory Board approved donating 12 of 19 onstreet parking spaces expected to be created by August to property owner Angele Warwick of Kansas, who plans to raze the building, add eight condos and bring back the three shops.

“The only reason we would do this ... is it’s a hurricane victim. It’s the only hurricane victim,” CRA Manager Chet Hunt said of Fifth Avenue South’s only casualty. “You have a blighted building sitting on the street and others who would have redevelopment opportunities who aren’t redeveloping due to that condition.”

After Hunt’s impassioned plea, the CRAAB voted 6-1 in favor of donating a dozen parking spaces. The sole nay vote was CRAAB member Willie Anthony, who called it a good project, but cited concerns that it wasn’t fair to others that the property owner wouldn’t have to pay into a parking reserve fund for a proposed garage at Fourth Avenue and Fourth Street — payments that are climbing above the $20,000 mark per space.

In a telephone interview after the CRAAB meeting, project manager Bill Poteat said the building needs to be torn down as soon as possible. “It is ugly; it is ugly,” he said.

Poteat said that with Federal Emergency Management Agency guidelines, it wasn’t worth just fixing the roof and repairing the damage. “It was more cost-effective to create another building,” he said, adding that Antaramian Development, which isn’t handling this project, has changed Fifth Avenue. “The old building was nice, but it’s not the type of building that Antaramian Development has been building on Fifth Avenue South, which is upscale and chic. This was tired, an old facade, outdated.”

Warwick plans to add eight roughly 15,000-square-foot condos on two floors that will sell in the $1 million range, and bring back the three shops in the 5,600-square-foot space at street level.

Because rents have increased on Fifth, Poteat said, tenants will see higher rents, but Back of the Bay and White House/Black Market are committed to returning, while The Copper Cricket’s fate is uncertain. “I’d love to be able to offer it to her at the same rate she had, but she had a very attractive rate and the market has changed,” Poteat said, adding construction costs will push rents higher.

Unlike White/Black, which is owned by retail giant Chico’s, the smaller shops struggled while out of business, fighting for government funding and battling insurers for business interruption coverage or reimbursement.

Patty Pavlich of North Naples, who ran The Copper Cricket with her sister, Susie, said she saved 9,500 items, but 500 were destroyed and covered by insurance. After being unable to continue her “reasonably priced” lease, she filed a lawsuit after her lease was broken. She looked for another location, but everything was double the price, she said, declining to specify her monthly rent. She doesn’t think she can afford to reopen.

Mary Tait, who found another location in May for Back of the Bay just off Fifth on Park Street, said she’s thrilled the city is helping Warwick. She plans to keep both locations until she has to close the Park Street store due to the city’s Park Street redevelopment plans. Her former lease was affordable because she’d signed on at $15 per square foot a decade ago, with only slight increases since then. “I don’t know what my new rent will be,” she said.

“It’s been a miserable struggle,” she said, adding that friends helped her avert bankruptcy.

On Monday, Hunt and CRAAB members struggled over whether Naples should donate the free parking spaces, whether that would set a bad precedent. The city’s onstreet parking reserve ran out just before Warwick applied.

CRAAB members didn’t want to set a precedent by donating spots. CRAAB member Lou Vlasho asked why the property owner couldn’t purchase 12 spots in the proposed parking garage.

Thomas said that would cost six times as much. And, he pointed out, the three tenants were there and the owner is only adding residents, and the project would contribute to the city’s Tax Increment Financing (TIF) funds, which returns money to downtown.

“So far, no one has paid anything for residential, only commercial,” he said. “I don’t know that I see the logic of having to pay for onstreet parking when no one had to pay for it before. ... If this building were proposed six months ago, the parking would be free.”

CRAAB member Alan Ryker agreed something needed to be done. “We also have a blighted building that discourages foot traffic from the parking area to the west and we have businesses that I think suffer due to that appearance of lack of ... activity,” Ryker said, urging quick approval.