City, County Square Off On Former Nielsen Site

Pat Illiano sees Dunedin's south gateway along Patricia Avenue as a "ghost town" on weekends.

And during the week, a once steady stream of patrons dried up with the closing of the Nielsen Co. corporate headquarters, crippling business at his Italian eatery, Umberto's of Long Island, for the past eight years.

"There's no reason for anybody to drive through Patricia whatsoever," the longtime restaurant owner told Dunedin leaders during an April 23 city workshop.

A land use attorney hired by Wells Fargo shared Illiano's concerns and wants the city to consider a change to the zoning codes that would spur development on the keystone, 25-acre property at 375 Patricia Ave. However, Pinellas County officials want the city to retain the property's industrial use as a means to attract office jobs to the county.

Joel Tew, who represents Wells Fargo, the owner of the property, urged city leaders Tuesday for changes in the zoning codes that make for more flexibility with the types of businesses allowed there. 

"We recognize that 375 Patricia is a key redevelopment parcel to the city," Tew said. "It's basically a doughnut hole." 

He believes the site, vacant since 2005, is unattractive to potential buyers because of its "light industrial" zoning use, which limits the property to offices, warehouses, laboratories, wholesale sales, small equipment manufactures and similar uses.

Tew wants city leaders to consider changing that property to a "mixed use" zoning in order to market it to a wider range of buyers. The change could also mean village-like development that could allow retail shops, boutiques, restaurants, town homes or luxury apartments. 

Tew's team pitched four variations of "village" concepts with a range of residential-to-retail density ratios. What could be developed on the site is dependent on who buys and develops it.

Still, development would have to fit into the existing area, which includes a school, bowling alley and pockets of residences.

The team considered traffic impact to the surrounding neighborhoods including expanding Beltrees Street past the Patricia Avenue intersection to act as a main entrance to the potential village.

Patricia Avenue would never be able to handle the traffic of a possible village-like development, said David E. Thomas, a longtime Scotsdale Street resident and president of the nearby neighborhood recreation association. 

"It's too much development in that particular area," he said. "Beltrees would have to be a major player."

Zoning changes could be just the jump start the property needs.

Commissioner Julie Scales said she appreciated a "fresh look" at the site and wanted to be sure developers were sensitive to traffic impacts.

Commissioner Ron Barnette liked the general concept of the potential plans.

"I think we have all the pieces together and it's really just a matter of balance," he said.

Vice Mayor Julie Ward Bujalski noted neighbors' concerns, especially in regard to a possible Beltrees cut-through. She also asked residents to understand that development on the site is necessary and may come with some growing pains.

"I don't think it's going to be painless. It's 10 years of people living with nothing there with no traffic and no activities," she said. "I think we kind of have to be visionary and leaders and realize it wasn't meant to be empty. ... At one time there was traffic and activity and we have to get back to getting that done for the benefit of the whole corridor." 

Regardless of whether Dunedin officials change the zoning, Pinellas County can still shoot down the plan.

County officials are focused on a county-wide job-creation plan to bring 50,000 above-average-wage, office jobs to Pinellas County over the next 25 years. 

To do that, they need more "light industrial" land, county officials said.

They're trying to turn Pinellas into a hot bed for information technology, financial services and the research and development fields. Although only the official could not name a specific company that has approached the county about the Nielsen site in the past decade, officials say with the building gone, the Patricia Avenue parcel is finally primed for potential employers.

Currently, higher-wage employers are looking at office space near the airport, the official said.

"There's potential, I'm not saying we've worked this out fully yet, but there's potential to accommodate target employment uses in a plan such as this," the county official said.

Barnette explained that keeping the site as "light industrial" has been a huge loss to the Dunedin community, and hoped the county would take that into consideration.

The county official answered that the area would have to be studied for its transportation system.

Scales got straight to the point.

"Is the bottom line, Mike, that you all can override what we think is best for our community?"

"The short answer?" he replied. 

"Is yes," she said.

"That's correct," he said.

Bujalski told the officials that Dunedin has been talking about getting higher-wage jobs on that site for 10 years.

"We'd love to have the force of the county behind trying to get us some kind of company there," said Bujalski. 

"We've got 9 million square feet of space," the county representative said. "That's the problem. We've got a lot of space to show." 

He asked Dunedin to preserve 10,000 square feet for the potential office jobs. 

While officials sort things out, Patricia Avenue remain a "ghost town."

Illiano is open to any form of development on the site and the boon it could bring to his business.

"We are the only ones to survive, because we've been there 40 years," he said. "Anything that will go in that space right there is better than what has been there for the last eight years." 

The county's timeline is uncertain.

Related Coverage:

• Old Nielsen Walls To Come Tumbling Down
• How Can Dunedin Jump-Start Its Economy?
• Demolition of Old Nielsen Headquarters in Full Swing

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