TAMPA TRIBUNE
Author:  Janice D. Froelich  email: jfroelich@tamptrib.com

DOWNTOWN - CC's Bagels & Deli owner Rob Dmetroshko is concerned about all the closed restaurants in his neck of the urban woods.

He rattles off the most recent: Italian Pavilion, 505 N. Franklin St., Bread & Butter Gourmet Deli, 507 N. Franklin St., and The Office Cafe and Grill, 511 N. Franklin St.

Franklin Street Mall, running between Twiggs and Jackson streets, has seen better days.

"Even McDonald's and Burger King closed here," he said, shaking his head. "Where do they ever close?"

Dmetroshko, who has operated CC's at its present location, 510 N. Franklin St., for one year, hopes this marks the end of slow times and the beginning of busier days.

"If I didn't have my wholesale," he said of selling to local hotels, "I don't know what I'd do."

Dmetroshko used to be housed in Manhattan Bagels, 602 N. Franklin St., which was torn down when the Maas Bros. property was razed.

"I've been here 11 years so I've seen it all," he said. "And I can tell you 10 years ago was better."

"Things can only get better," said neighbor Philip Chan, who operates Grill Station, 508 N. Franklin St. "Sometimes you have to hit bottom before things improve. I just hope it doesn't get worse."

Chan said his wife persuaded him to open his buffet Chinese restaurant nine years ago in downtown Tampa instead of now-bustling St. Petersburg.

"Why is our city not taking off?" he said. "I ask that, and no one has an answer."

There are signs of life on Franklin Street Mall.

At a glitzy evening party last week, the Element, a 35-story condominium project, opened its sales center at 507 N. Franklin St. Its 395 units will be priced from the low $200,000s to about $600,000.

The Element, under construction at 808 N. Franklin St., will offer residents amenities such as the Home Automation Lifestyle Organization. The HALO technology will allow them to order services from restaurants and other businesses.

Dmetroshko doesn't think the addition of downtown residents will help his business too much.

"If they don't work downtown as well," he said, "they'll leave their building in the morning and return at night."

Another of his neighbors thinks otherwise.

Abbey Dohring, vice president of The Dohring Group, is enthusiastic about the opening of her company's renovated Walgreens drugstore building at 514 N. Franklin St. The original Madison Drug Store, built in the art deco style in 1925, will soon house pizza and coffee shops downstairs and offices upstairs in its 20,000 square feet.

Dohring said she was happy to see some of the storefronts in Franklin's 500 block painted recently.

"It's been a real boost," she said. "I believe this area will come alive. It takes a few new businesses to get things going."

Sharon Graham, the city's special events coordinator, has overseen Franklin Street Mall entertainment and street vendors for 21 years. She has seen the mall, which is closed to vehicles from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. weekdays, struggle in recent years.

"Once we get people moving in," she said, "I believe we will see a new era.

"This is only three blocks [plus] Lykes Park, but we manage to hold constant entertainment and offer various promoters," she said.

Graham said the mall's last heyday was in the early 1980s when she, like many, shopped at Maas Bros. and ate at downtown restaurants.

"By the time all this revitalization is finished, I expect a boom time again," she said.

About a dozen vendors operate food and beverage carts, paying about $132 a month plus other charges and taxes for mall space.

Since 2003, Senaf Pickhardt has operated her Sadie's hot dog cart in front of the CVS Pharmacy.

"It's a very personal thing," she said. "People want to know us and talk."

When Walgreens closed in April 2003, Pickhardt said her business dropped 30 percent.

She's happy now with her following of customers buying the plump $2.25 hot dogs, but it's not enough for her to make a living on Franklin Street Mall.

"When I'm not here," she said, "I'm working for a law firm."

ON THE MALL

Franklin Street Mall, running between Twiggs and Jackson streets, and Lykes Park play host to many events, including:

VARIOUS PERFORMERS: from noon to 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 20, 25 and 27, and May 2, 8, 10, 15, 17, 23 and 24.

SPECIAL EVENTS: National Day of Prayer, 9 to 11 a.m. May 3; Tampa Police Memorial Service, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 11; Alive After Five, 5 to 9 p.m. May 11; Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Barbecue, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 16; Elvis Festival, 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 18; and a Homeless Event, 8 to 9 a.m. May 22.

INFORMATION: Call Sharon Graham at (813) 274-8519

LINK TO WEBSITE:  www.tbo.com/southtampa/MGBT7RO3H0F.html

Janice D. Froelich - Tampa Tribune