One developer, two Pinellas County land deals raise residents' eyebrows
Pinellas County paid $540,000 for one parcel that is still sitting vacant 16 months later.

By Susan Taylor Martin
Tampa Bay Times
Published: Nov 23, 2019

Lealman, a blue-collar community just outside of the St. Petersburg city limits, is one of the poorest areas of Pinellas County. It's also one of the best-located.

The county designated Lealman as its first Community Redevelopment Area, saying its closeness to downtown St. Petersburg, the beaches and major highways offers "significant opportunity for reinvestment.

' Much of the investment, however, has come from the county. It has spent $1.28 million buying land for two affordable rental projects planned by Contemporary Housing Alternatives - a nonprofit company whose vice president is the son of longtime Assistant County Administrator Jacob Stowers.

Lealman residents, who think their opinions are often overlooked because no elected officials live there, say the projects are incompatible with the area and were pushed through with little notice. One of the projects, the 28-unit Greenway Lofts, received multiple variances that would increase the density yet reduce the required number of parking spaces.

"I understand we need low-income housing,'' said resident Lawrence Kerekes, "but they're trying to stuff a pretty rotten project down our throats.

Even though the county bought the land for Greenway Lofts 16 months ago, Contemporary Housing Alternatives has not started work because construction bids came in much higher than expected. The land is sitting fenced and empty. In roughly the same time frame, a different developer started and completed an 80-unit affordable apartment community on county-owned land in Clearwater.

Contemporary Housing Alternatives has 14 communities in Pinellas. One of the lead people on the newest projects is Jacob Stowers, 36. His father was the company's chairman from 2008 - two years after he retired as assistant county administrator -to 2014, when he returned to the $185,000-a-year job overseeing community planning and development for unincorporated areas of Pinellas.

Emails about Greenway Lofts circulated among county officials, including the elder Stowers. He said he "just forwarded those along'' and never discussed the project with others or with his son.

"It would be completely inappropriate'' he said.

Next month, Stowers, 77, is officially retiring - again. He and county officials say his departure has nothing to do with the land deals. However, the county is reviewing its procedures involving property purchases and potential conflict-of-interest situations.

"This was an opportunity to step back and say, ‘How can we improve our processes not only for the community but also our stakeholders,' '' said Tom Almonte, a new assistant county administrator who said he already has assumed Stowers' decision-making duties. "We want everybody to know work is being done in a way that is transparent.''

Lealman is named for a former North Florida sheriff who moved to the area after the Civil War and began farming strawberries near Joe's Creek. Annexations by surrounding cities whittled Lealman down to about four square miles, bounded by 34th and 49th Streets N and 40th and 62nd Avenues. Renters make up much of the population, and the median income is substantially less than for the county as a whole.