VFW Post May Have Found Home

By KENNETH KNIGHT The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 7, 2008

TEMPLE CREST - A veterans group forced to leave its home base after 34 years to make way for the 40th Street widening project appears to have found a new, permanent spot.

Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10140 has received initial approval from the city of Tampa to expand its temporary headquarters at 8414 N. 40th St. and sell alcohol on site.

Quartermaster Bruce Richards said the post leadership needed that permission before it would consider making a long-term investment in the location.

The post petitioned for wet zoning to sell beer and liquor to members and guests and was seeking a rezoning of an adjacent lot for expansion.

Richards said the 230-member chapter plans to proceed cautiously until after the city council's final vote May 15.

"We can definitely put in plans to buy the facility" at that time, he said.

The VFW members hope to buy the building by July.

The post's old headquarters, at 40th Street and River Hills Drive, stood in the path of the four-lane widening project on 40th Street. The city bought the property last year for $440,000, which was $200,000 more than the assessed value, with plans to demolish it.

The VFW members found a temporary site, a former plumbing business, a few blocks away. They entered a lease-to-own agreement with the landlord and waited for the city council to consider their petition.

It was important to find a building near the old post headquarters because most of the members live less than three miles away.

The zoning changes will allow the post to build 1,500 square feet of space on the adjacent lot, expanding the existing 2,300-square-foot building to a 3,800-square-foot complex. The project will include 12 parking spaces.

Don Miller of the Tampa Police Department told the city council there were no objections to granting a permit to sell alcohol at the post.

Reporter Kenneth Knight can be reached at (813) 865-4842 or kknight@tampatrib.com.