Long a favorite of law students and retirees, the Pasadena Golf Club Apartments are undergoing conversion, much to tenants' dismay.
By CHRISTINE DELLERT
Published May 12, 2004
GULFPORT - With an array of potted plants and white patio chairs, this pink porch is going to be missed.
Margaret Padula, 85 years old and a tenant of Pasadena Golf Club Apartments since 1974, said she planned to live the rest of her life lounging on the third-floor perch that overlooks the Pasadena Yacht and Country Club golf course.
But a change in the property's ownership has upset her plans.
The Winter Park developer who bought the apartment complex last month intends to transform the two pink buildings into condominiums.
Once home to retirees and Stetson University law students, the 140 units off Gulfport Boulevard are among a growing number of local apartments being converted to condos.
PAC Land Development bought the property for $10.8-million in early April, according to the Pinellas County Property Appraiser's Office, and renamed it Golfview Condominiums LLC.
"It's probably the best building I've looked at in Pinellas County," said Tom Settle, a partner at PAC Land Development. "It has a location that is desirable as any." The complex is on a golf course, across the street from a law school and within walking distance of several shopping centers.
The $5-million renovations began almost a month ago, as workers ripped up old carpets and knocked out kitchen cabinets, said Jim Zumwalt, owner of Rowe & Newberry Inc., the project's general contractor. Another subcontractor is treating the building for asbestos found in the ceiling.
After the rooms are gutted, plans call for new air conditioning units, tile flooring and carpet and kitchens with wooden cabinets and granite counters, Settle said.
The dimensions will remain about the same, from 715 to 1,200 square feet.
Additional landscaping and some masonry work are expected to spruce up the building's 1970s exterior and "give it some charisma," Settle added.
The units have not been priced yet, but the new owners expect them to be less than the new Sun Ketch Townhomes, just east of the apartments, which are selling for about $300,000.
Residents should be able to move in by Thanksgiving, PAC Land Development representatives said.
Zumwalt said this is one of many condo conversion projects he has overseen in the past year. "We've done a couple hundred units," he said. "Anywhere from Ocala to Cocoa Beach to St. Pete."
Local developers and real estate agents agree the condo conversion craze is a recent phenomenon, a result of historically low interest rates and a lack of land. The condos also profit the developers, with one-time sales in the hundreds of thousands, as opposed to a myriad of monthly rental fees.
This area is a good market for it, said Jack Powell, chief executive officer of Marie Powell and Company in South Pasadena. Developers are vying to bring more families and business into the community with these types of affordable housing.
Recent conversions include the Beacon on Third condo - formerly the Carlton Towers apartment building - and the Madison, both in downtown St. Petersburg.
Powell is also working on several condo conversion projects on Treasure Island.
While developers praise the conversion concept, apartment tenants such as Padula call it "greed."
Because of the renovations, she and a hundred others have to find new homes. None of the tenants have offered to buy the new units, Settle said.
Tenants were notified in letters on April 6 - two days before the property changed hands - and have at least six months to move out.
Dozens are already gone, she said, angered by the abrupt notice and noisy construction.
"They're doing everything they can to evict us without throwing our stuff out the window," said Adam Rubenfield, 26, a law student and three-year tenant of the complex.
Rubenfield - whose lease expires in August - wrote letters to the new owners requesting a reduction in his $725 monthly rent after he was awakened several times by jack hammering at 7:30 a.m., he said.
Settle said he has received noise complaints from tenants but said reduced rents have not been discussed.
Padula isn't asking for a reduction in rent; she just wants to move out.
"I'm looking forward to getting out of here," she said. She bought a two-bedroom condo at Town Shores of Gulfport, a few miles away.
"It won't be quite like this has been," she said. "But I won't be renting again."
