Temple Terrace paves the way for work to resume on Enigma Plaza

TEMPLE TERRACE – Let’s try it one more time.

The Enigma Plaza project appears ready to resume construction.

The Temple Terrace City Council unanimously approved a resolution Oct. 15 that modifies the final site plan, clearing the way for developers to resume work on the 34,000-square-foot building that is expected to one day house several retail stores. and restaurants.

While the outer shell of the project, located on 56th Street just south of Winn-Dixie Plaza, appears to be nearly complete, developers submitted a new final site plan on Sept. 12 to address issues the city had with the current construction.

The original site plan was approved in 2021.

But since that approval, progress at the plaza has fallen far behind expectations.

Enigma Plaza, once expected to revitalize the downtown and community redevelopment area, has recently been under a stop-work order for deviating from the original approved site plan.

Planner Malek Hall said the Development Review Committee supported the approval with “some simple conditions”.

Some of the modifications in the new site plan include widening sidewalks, landscaping, buffer zones, parking signage, drainage, water service lines and minor changes to building elevations.

Councilwoman Alison Fernandez asked if the elevation changes were significant compared to what had already been approved, but Community Development Director Gray Pauley assured her they were not.

“If you put them next to each other on the screen, it would challenge most people to even find the differences,” he said.

However, the project timeline remains uncertain.

During the months it has been on hold, Pauley said all existing building permits have expired.

Now that new final site plans have been approved, developers Bhavandeep and Dolly Singh, who bought the 30-year-old building on 2.44 acres for $1.5 million in May 2019, can get the stay orders of work clarified and re-apply for a new building. permissions.

“It’s certainly in everyone’s best interest for the developer to expedite the completion of the project,” Pauley said.

While the shell of the main building on the plaza is complete, the parking area, around the perimeter of the property and the interior are still far from finished.

Pauley told the council that he has made a commitment to Bhavandeep Singh and his engineer Sam Aref that he “will do everything I can to help them through my community development team to get this project moving forward again.”

That would please Council members Fernandez and Gil Schisler, who said they receive a variety of complaints and concerns from residents about the project.

Schisler was more direct and called him a “monster.”

“We would really like to do this,” Schisler said. “I know it’s custom built, but that’s on the inside. That’s your problem. I don’t want to be rude about it, but we need the parking lot done. We need to lower the fence. “We need the lighting structures up and the landscaping finished.”

Schisler said he would vote for the project in hopes that developers are ready to get serious about completing it.

“I get a call two or three times a week about this, even during the storm, I got a call about it,” Schisler said. “Anyway, I’m going to vote for it, so you guys can have a chance to make it happen. But this is important. “This is important for the area.”