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Sylvia's evicted, but operator says he'll fight on

 
Sylvia’s Queen of Soul Food occupies the ground floor of the city-owned Manhattan Casino.
Sylvia’s Queen of Soul Food occupies the ground floor of the city-owned Manhattan Casino.
Published July 7, 2016

ST. PETERSBURG — With its doors locked and chained since late June, the last meal has been served at Sylvia's — at least for now.

Meanwhile the soul food restaurant's operator vowed to continue to fight on in the courts.

"I'm disappointed on so many levels. The city looked for years for someone. Everybody said no until I came along," said Larry Newsome. "They did all they could do to close us."

The city's real estate director, Bruce Grimes, said the city reluctantly proceeded with the eviction and will soon seek new tenants, probably to operate another restaurant.

Last week, a Pinellas Circuit judge awarded the city of St. Petersburg possession of the restaurant, which occupies the ground floor of the city-owned Manhattan Casino, a historically significant landmark for the city's black community.

Sylvia's opened to great fanfare in November 2013. Newsome offered soul food classics and a promise of a Southern outpost for the famed Harlem restaurant. But that partnership never fully materialized and the crowds dwindled.

By July 2015, Newsome had stopped paying rent. By the end of the year, the city started to move to evict his business.

The city is still seeking damages from Newsome. He has paid about $42,000 to the court, but the city wants at least $74,000 in unpaid property taxes, said assistant city attorney Heather K. Judd.

Right now, city officials are conducting an inventory of the restaurant's contents, she said.

The city poured about $3 million into the building and land in hopes of igniting economic activity in the poor Midtown neighborhood. Newsome said he put in millions of his own money, too.

Sylvia's didn't deliver on the investment, but signs of a turnaround for Midtown are visible — right across the street.

Earlier this year, Mayor Rick Kriseman awarded leases to a high-end motorcycle dealership and service center and a marina parts company on a 14-acre tract across the street from Sylvia's, 642 22nd St. S. That development will also have retail and housing components.

If that development had been up and running earlier, Sylvia's would have been okay, said Watson Haynes, president of the Pinellas County Urban League.

"Larry was the first guy in," said Haynes, who led an effort to save the restaurant.

Haynes, a frequent diner at Sylvia's, said it faced a difficult challenge trying to attract enough customers in a poor neighborhood. And cost overruns in construction reduced Newsome's ability to retain chefs and other key staff, he said.

The city could have forgiven some of the rent to help create some breathing space for Sylvia's, Haynes said.

"There has to be some give and take on both sides," Haynes said. "Errors were made on both sides."

Whoever comes next to the site should not only have more restaurant experience than Newsome, a developer, but local ties to Midtown and enough cash to weather the notoriously tough restaurant business, Haynes said.

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At stake is a historic structure at the heart of the city's black community, he said.

"My main concern is that building not fade away," Haynes said.

One of Newsome's attorneys, Tamara Felton-Howard, said that the city didn't list all of Newsome's business entities in its suit, including the actual operating entity. That will be the basis of their appeal, she said.

Unless they can reach an agreement with the city, she said.

"We remain hopeful that we can work something out," Felton-Howard said.

The city tried to make things work, said City Council member Lisa Wheeler-Brown, but eventually, the restaurant has to survive on its own.

"This is a business transaction," she said. "We have to go on with business."

Contact Charlie Frago at cfrago@tampabay.com or (727)893-8459. Follow@CharlieFrago.