By Reggie Connell, Managing Editor
In this past year, I have traveled the country.
Denise and I have been to big cities, emerging suburbs, tiny little towns and villages in every corner of this great nation. It's been the adventure of a lifetime. There have been many experiences and glimpses into how different municipalities handle issues.
But one takeaway I can state without hesitation is that if a town or city or a village has the will to create a city center and/or a thriving downtown, they will make it happen.
With a strong economic development department that works well with both its council and private businesses on a day-to-day basis, it is a very achievable goal. Mount Dora, Sanford and Winter Garden are far from the only cities to build a thriving downtown presence.
Way back in 2016, the Apopka City Council signed an agreement to sell Taurus Southern Investments LLC city-owned lands periodically to build the Apopka City Center.
At the time, it was an exciting accomplishment with Apopka's future a little more in focus. The plans Taurus presented were outstanding. It looked as though Apopka would be transformed into a modern city with amenities, restaurants, and a flourishing downtown to rival any city its size in the region.
A few years later, that plan seemed to be off to a slow start, as a hotel was the only tangible piece of the Apopka City Center completed. Groundbreaking ceremonies were more prominent than actual developers breaking ground. Signs touting future businesses outnumbered actual businesses opening their doors.
You can make a case for the previous administration not doing enough to move Taurus into a more aggressive posture to advance the City Center further along in 2016-2018. You can also blame the pandemic for a lost year in 2020. But at some point, you have to question the motivation of the current administration, now in its fifth year, for not pushing Taurus beyond where we are today. But pushed or not, you also have to question Taurus' motivation, now in its eighth year of a ten-year contract to build the Apopka City Center. How many calls have they made to businesses about Apopka? How hard are they trying to build the City Center that their artist's renderings promised?
By 2023, Taurus seems more likely to host a show on HGTV called "Flip that Commercial Property" than be the architect of a city center they pitched so masterfully in 2016. Never was that case better made than in November 2021 when Taurus bought land from Apopka for $1.92 million and a week later sold it to Wendover Housing Partners, the developer of the affordable housing project Southwick Commons, for $3.25 million.
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By February 2022, less than a month before the mayoral election, Mayor Bryan Nelson and Taurus had another groundbreaking ceremony, this time for "breaking ground on the restaurant and retail phase of construction". Also in that report was "6-7 tenants, a new high-end Italian restaurant, a 195-unit apartment complex, and a Winn-Dixie as future residents of the City Center".
So far, 16 months later, there are no tenants, the new high-end Italian restaurant is off the table, and the 195-unit apartment complex had to sue the City of Apopka to continue its development.
But Winn Dixie seems to be on schedule.
You have to question an administration that accidentally signs off on an affordable housing development inside the City Center and then fights tooth and nail against it, even after losing in court and having to pay attorney's fees. Now, the debate over balconies has (hopefully temporarily) taken center stage.
It's time for an emerging city, at least in population, like Apopka to focus its energy on things that will enhance its community more than a lost fight with an affordable housing development, left turn lanes, and balconies. What is the motivation to allow countless housing developments to be built in Apopka while at the same time keeping economic development stagnant?
And speaking of economic development.
In January 2023, the Apopka City Council passed a measure to start an economic development department. It's almost July, and still, there is no director.
I hate to make this case again, but doesn't it make sense that an economic development director, a city council and a mayor working together will ALWAYS be more effective than just a mayor switching hats and working on economic development (and theoretically other city business as well)? It's an odd position to take, unless your motivation is to grow a bedroom community and to slow amenities and businesses coming to Apopka.
But even if Nelson is unmoved by that logic, the measure was already passed.
The City Council voted 3-2 to start an economic development department, with $200,000 in funds given to Apopka by the American Rescue Plan Act – State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds.
Nelson fought against the measure, citing process, issues with pensions, and a fire tower out of commission at the Apopka Fire Department that needed to be replaced, but that argument fell short. It seemed like a desperate plea to shift the debate at the time, but whatever the case, a 3-2 Council vote wins the day.
And given the City will have to pay $250,000 in court costs for a losing effort against Wendover, maybe it's time to agree that the ship has sailed on stopping this development.
It's time for the Apopka City Council to hire the economic development director, stop using its time to debate things like left turn lanes and balconies, and get the City Center built.
Point the new director with fresh eyes at Taurus and the City Center project, and let their expertise shepherd Apopka's crown jewel into a reality. Let the next groundbreaking event be a construction crew with bulldozers and tractors rather than elected officials and business owners with funny white hats and golden shovels.
