Report: Attempt To Buy Family Dollar Location Fails

A partnership between the owners of and to make an offer on the property at 5100 North Florida Avenue failed last week after real estate developers for Family Dollar rebuffed the offer.

News of the rejection surfaced over the weekend in the Tampa Bay Times. According to owner of The Refinery, Greg Baker, the offer was in the range of $100 per square foot on the 8,000 square foot property, well over the value Family Dollar has offered to pay for the building.

Family Dollar only recently purchased the building which is yet to be vacated by its current residents, . The developers for the Family Dollar store turned the offer from Baker and company down because, Baker says, the company believes the proposed location to be a viable money making venture. But, he says, the efforts to stop Family Dollar won't end there.

Let Patch save you time. Get great local stories like this delivered right to your inbox or smartphone everyday with our free newsletter. Simple, fast sign-up here.

"We've got our ducks in a row," Baker said. "We've kept quiet because we were trying to buy the building and solve the issue that way, but we can fight them directly through City Council. We just want to see something go in there that supports a viable business district that isn't corporatized. This is the only area in the city like this."

A post on the No Family Dollar Facebook page, which now boasts more than 800 likes, outlined some of the ideas that the movement feels they can use against the store. They plan to watch each development with the property closely, and alert the city to anything they feel may be a violation.

Meanwhile, Susan Long, President of the Business Guild of Seminole Heights and a former City Council candidate as well as Randy Baron, former president of the Old Seminole Heights Neighborhood Association met with representitives from Family Dollar for two hours last week to address their concerns over the new location.

"We expressed our concern about the appearance of Family Dollar in a historic neighborhood," Susan Long said. "They were willing to work with us to come up with a more neighborhood friendly design, given their design and dollar restrictions. We discussed the problem of exterior maintenance and they seemed to think they could resolve that issue at least in this location. We also discussed the issue of shared parking and they said they would seriously consider it."

While Long understands the No Family Dollar movement, she says she is resigned to the reality that there is little that can be done to stop the retail store.

"I appreciate the sentiment of the No Family Dollar movement but I am a pragmatist," Long said. "They cannot stop this. My objective is to make the building they utilize fit in as best as possible with the surrounding neighborhood."

Long and Baron say they plan to meet with Family Dollar again in the near future and will include others in those meetings.