Like an unkempt sentry with torn clothes and rotting teeth, the shut-down Belleview Biltmore Hotel stands guard at the entrance to the exclusive Belleview Island.
The ghosts of baseball legends Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio, railroad tycoon Henry Plant and the other former bigwigs who are said to roam the halls of the 118-year-old wooden hotel are the phantasmal neighbors of the residents that must pass by to get to their 31 multimillion-dollar waterfront homes on the 21-acre island on the Intracoastal Waterway.
It's posh and spooky in equal measure, the perfect setting for an Alfred Hitchcock movie. In fact, one of its residents, Charley Grose, could tool around Old Clearwater Bay in one of his vintage Porsches the way Tippi Hedren drove around San Francisco's Bodega Bay in an Aston Martin in The Birds.
Grose, owner of Tampa Bay Sports Cars in Largo, moved to Belleview Island four years ago after spending 35 years in the wealth management business, a job that took him — to work and live — to beautiful places all over the world. And yet, at a friend's invitation, he came to visit from his vacation home in Park City, Utah, and fell in love with Belleview Island.
"I had an opportunity to live on a private island," said the affable man in the remnants of the West Virginia accent of his childhood. "Tell me what's wrong with living in paradise.
"I haven't been many places more spectacular," Grose said of Belleview Island, which was the skeet shooting range on the grounds of the Biltmore before real estate developer Bobby Byrd turned it into one of the most exclusive streets in the Tampa Bay area in 1986.
There is only one road — St. Andrews Drive — on Belleview Island, which is one of two gated communities in Belleair. The road loops around the island like a lariat, and in the center is a freshwater lake, giving all the homes front and back water views. Grose's home is located on the southern end of the loop.
The houses, ranging from about 4,000 to more than 10,000 square feet, all have their own distinct personalities. Blending together but uniquely different, they never sell for less than a million dollars — homes most people only dream of owning.
Since buying his house in 2010, Grose said, he has spent about a year redoing parts of it. Although most of the work was cosmetic, he did make some substantial changes. He put in a pool and tore off the back of the house to push it out. He turned a kitchen closet into a wine cellar and replaced the flooring with a dark hardwood. The house, built in 1991, doesn't take up much of his time, and that's fine with him. It gives him more time to spend on his work/passion: selling vintage Porsches.
And what about the "White Queen of the Gulf," the haunted hotel at the top of his street that has once again been slated for demolition after being given a stay of execution in 2007?
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Explore all your optionsGrose said, unfortunately, it has to go.
It's just not viable to save it, he said. "They would have to spend $190 million to rebuild something that's going to be worth $50 or $60 million when it's done."
Grose thinks the current plan to preserve the west wing of the sprawling four-story hotel and turn it into a boutique hotel that would anchor future development is the best solution. It's slated for demolition in 2015.
Contact Patti Ewald at pewald@hotmail.com.