Editorial: Send stimulus for historic properties

Editorial: Send stimulus for historic properties



Publication Date: 02/22/09


High hopes, great expectations and dreams of endless public-private resources have fueled St. Augustine's quest for the past 50 years to become the Spanish version of the popular Virginia historical showcase, Colonial Williamsburg.

We've come close since St. Augustine's 400th anniversary in 1965 with our historic Spanish Quarter living history district on North St. George Street. But we're not there yet.

The future of 33 state historic properties in downtown St. Augustine depends on actions by Gov. Charlie Crist and the Florida Legislature this spring.

Two years ago, the Legislature authorized the University of Florida to be the new custodian of its properties including Government House and the Spanish Quarter. The city, citing lack of funding from the state for maintenance, asked the state to give them to UF instead. The state obliged and paid UF $300,000 to come up with a plan by Feb. 1. It's done. Crist and legislative leaders have it.

Thursday UF celebrates the plan's completion and hosts a symposium on St. Augustine's heritage at the Art Association, 1:30-5:30 p.m. It's free and open to the public. Come hear about the plan first hand and view models of how UF will tell St. Augustine's story.

We've seen the plan. It is an all-encompassing approach to telling St. Augustine's 444 years of history with the state-owned properties the center of the action.

It's reminiscent of the partnership that prevailed among state, federal and city governments and private donors in the 1960s. What we have today attests to that partnership.

If state officials believe in stimulating the state's tourism economy, start here.

Send some of Florida's $12 billion in federal stimulus to help UF's project get under way and ease some of the $22 million in deferred repairs on those state properties.

This is the nation's oldest permanently occupied European settlement in the United States, founded in 1565. Our story can't be told anywhere else.

The plan has drawn controversy from some locals. They suggest that a proposed interpretative visitor center will result in loss of original colonial buildings and/or reconstructed ones. The plan has also caused some to believe that St. Augustine Mayor Joe Boles is against it because he wants the city to have a 99-year lease on the state properties instead.

Both are just rumors.

Ed Poppell, UF vice president for business affairs, says UF is a leader in historic preservation nationally and internationally. We would never ever do something like that," he said.

We wouldn't support any plan that destroys our historic fabric.

We do support an interpretative center to better focus our visitors on our history. The National Park Service has federal funding for half the $10 million cost.

Likewise, Boles says his interest in a long-term lease is to protect the properties until UF has the funds to takeover the lease.

Boles endorses UF's plan. "This (plan) is the best-case scenario."

The Legislature needs to fund UF to help our economic backbone, downtown tourism. Otherwise, UF's master plan is a dream unfilled, a waste of tax dollars.


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© The St. Augustine Record

Reader Comments
Posted by: roger_jolley at Feb. 22, 2009 at 5:39:54 pm
Who owns the leases on those 33 buildings, do they sub-lease for higher rent, and what city boards do these lease holders sit upon?

I believee Mayor Boles wants to protect his campaign supporters possession of these valuable propertys. What do you think?

Posted by: roger_jolley at Feb. 22, 2009 at 5:43:34 pm
Lets see, $22 million in deferred repairs while sub-lease profits made other merchants rent money.

The year the St. George Street Chamber of Commerce said performers, artists and others were ruining their business, commercial rent doubled in 60 days. I surmise none of that higher rent went into repairing or maintaining the building they lease from the state, administered by downtown cronies.

Posted by: roger_jolley at Feb. 25, 2009 at 11:18:27 am
What, when it comes to obvious public corruption, no comments from the haters, hummm...