Ed Turanchik's ambitious InTown Homes development downsizes in West Tampa

TAMPA — The tough economy just went medieval on Ed Turanchik's West Tampa residential Renaissance.

After investing millions of dollars in an urban renewal project that raised 50 new homes amongst the neighborhood's antique shotgun houses, the president of InTown Homes has handed the deeds to most of his remaining lots back to his lenders.

The "debt swap" allowed InTown to avoid foreclosure and continue operating through the worst housing slump in decades. But Turanchik, a former Hillsborough County commissioner and rumored mayoral candidate, admits the project has stalled.

"A lot of builders would have just pulled out. But we want to make it work," Turanchik said. "It's very hard to do urban in-fill development. No one's tried it in 50 years in Tampa."

The focus of Turanchik's project is a section of an old Cuban-American cigar neighborhood north of Interstate 275. It's where streets like Spruce, Walnut and Palmetto cross Howard and Armenia avenues.

Poverty remains rife and neglected rental homes plentiful, but Turanchik proudly points to the dozens of professionals, most in their 20s and 30s, who have scooped up his traditionally appointed models since 2006.

One of them is Mike Vannetta, who sold his home on Davis Islands for the allure of living in an up-and-coming historical district speckled with former brick cigar factories.

Community has been king: When he lived on Davis Islands, Vannetta knew less than a handful of neighbors. In West Tampa he knows 50.

"It's hard. It's not like Ed doesn't want to sell homes. Who knows if I could even get a home loan these days?" Vannetta said.

That's the crux of Turanchik's troubles: Fewer people qualify for mortgages on homes the banks consider to be depreciating assets. InTown has slashed prices by about a third, roughly mirroring the decline in real estate prices throughout Tampa Bay. A $262,000 model now sells for $185,000, a $239,000 model for $165,000.

No longer able to make monthly payments on its unsold real estate, InTown recently returned about 35 lots to its two lenders, the GTE and Suncoast Schools federal credit unions. It laid off its six employees.

Turanchik cut a deal allowing him to build on the repossessed lots. But if the credit unions find other buyers, InTown's out of luck. Turanchik and partner Terese Caddick painstakingly assembled the building sites over the years from public and private owners.

"It's a combination of a lot of forces: people's poor credit histories, debt and unemployment, and stricter lender underwriting standards," Turanchik said. "It's a struggle to make this project work."