New Southside : Credit Union coming after Washington Mutual closed its South St. Pete branch

Monday, August 31, 2009

Credit Union coming after Washington Mutual closed its South St. Pete branch

Update:
Today the long awaited groundbreaking for the new GTE Credit Union was scheduled. A day before the city elections.
I don't have all of the answers on this but I know the media have asked too many questions. The deal is very complicated and I don't claim to understand it. The Times held this out as a national model for redevelopment. Loan guarantees may still put local taxpayers on the hook if Sweetbay fails.

At the time this was developed Wal-Mart and Save-A-Lot were looking for inner city locations for stores to build without government subsidy. This was reported in the business section of the Times but never mentioned in the context of the city offering subsidies for this project.

Another option was to let Sweetbay buy out the Winn Dixie lease and open at a fraction of the cost and let another grocer and dollar store build on the 22nd St site at their own cost. City funds then could have gone to public safety making all neighborhood businesses more viable.

What else could the city have done with this money?

This was first published April 10th,2008:
This company was a neighborhood partner and the only bank to do business in what is now called Midtown St. Petersburg. Local media have told us we didn't have any banks here but we know that WaMu was a part of our community for many years.

Until just a few years ago this bank was part of a thriving shopping center across the street from a high rise home to hundreds of customers. Then the city used tax money to bring in the Sweetbay shopping center with its proposed bank branch, and the St. Petersburg Housing Authority began to depopulate the Graham Park Apartments in preparation for its transformation to more upscale housing.

Winn Dixie was in trouble as competition from Wal-Mart cut into its bargain priced market. The store seemed to be hanging on in anticipation of the construction of several new buildings with hundreds of residents within walking distance. Those building were built but sit empty after the bubble collapsed. Save a Lot and Publix also recently opened new stores nearby.

Sweetbay opened on the first weekend of November '05, two days before the city elections. Winn Dixie didn't wait for this and had already closed a few weeks before in August. The bank never recovered from the loss of their shopping center anchor. Local news reports largely ignored the existing store and bank as they talked up the new store and proposed bank. This typical report contributed to the election hype.

Midtown is a 5.5-square-mile area that sits mostly below Central Avenue. Many of its residents are in the low-income range. City officials targeted the area for improvement after racial disturbances there in 1996. Residents were asked what they wanted, and they put a chain grocery store at the top of their list. They also wanted a post office, which opened this month, and a bank, which should be in operation next year.