Palm Harbor deli suffers from parking lot blues

PALM HARBOR — As John Hilton sat in a golf cart Tuesday, three women in a car circled the Lucky Dill Deli in an unsuccessful search for parking.

Confused, they put their window down and asked for help.

"If you park over there," Hilton said, pointing to the far end of the parking lot, "I'll come pick you up and give you a ride back here."

Hilton typically buses tables for the deli.

But these days, he also serves as a customer chauffeur for the Lucky Dill because of a construction project that has created a parking crunch for the widely known deli.

Dozens of parking spaces previously used by Lucky Dill customers no longer are available. And many of those that are require a considerable walk.

"It can be a hike," said Carl Harriman, 75, of Tarpon Springs.

About 20 yards to the north of the Lucky Dill, a fence blocks off a large construction area. It was erected two weeks ago by White Development, which plans to build a Publix supermarket on the approximately 7-acre plot adjacent to the Lucky Dill, at the corner of Alternate 19 and Alderman Road.

Now occupied by a handful of businesses and one large empty building, the center once housed Nielsen, and before that a Winn-Dixie.

The fence is costing the deli business, Lucky Dill owner Kimberly Mitow and her son Jason contend.

"I'm really nervous," Kimberly Mitow said last week. "In three days, we're down close to $5,000 in sales" from the previous week.

Developer Jim White has a different take.

"I'm not trying to put them out of business," White said. "I've gone above and beyond what I have to do. I've left the Lucky Dill a bunch of parking."

Who's right?

At the center of the debate is a two-decade-old reciprocal easement agreement.

The Mitows think the fence may violate the agreement, which allows for cross-parking access from all businesses on the land.

But White said a clause in the same document gives him the right "to change the parking lot from time to time" for construction purposes. "If they wanted to build, they would have the same right," White said.

The Lucky Dill has been in its current spot for 10 years. White bought the center about three years ago.

Crystal Beach Plaza Investors LLC, of which White is the managing partner, filed suit last year to have a judge re-examine the 1984 easement agreement. The sides couldn't settle the matter in mediation.

As of Tuesday, construction had yet to begin. Once it does, the project should take "12 or 13 months," White said.

"What I'm doing is redeveloping the center," White said. "It has nothing to do with parking."

To the Lucky Dill, it's all about parking.

The deli has only 18 spots on its parcel, meaning it relies heavily on cross parking. Before the fence was put up, it wasn't uncommon for patrons to occupy 100 spots during peak hours, Jason Mitow said. Now, roughly 60 are available.

"We probably need about 30 more or three rows," he said. "That's it."

To White, that's excessive.

The shared parking "is supposed to be for overflow," he argued. "But it's more than overflow. They're relying on it to run their business. That's not my fault."

The deli spent $8,300 for three golf carts last week to shuttle customers. "About 75 percent of them take the ride," Hilton said.

Tuesday at 11:30 a.m., several spots near the deli were open. But within 30 minutes, Lucky Dill customers, most of whom were elderly, were parking 100 or more yards away.

The scramble for spaces perplexed many, including Harriman.

"Okay, where am I going to park?" he said.

Keith Niebuhr can be reached at kniebuhr@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4156.