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

TEMPLE TERRACE — Let’s try again.

The Enigma Plaza project appears ready to resume construction.

The Temple Terrace City Council unanimously approved a resolution Oct. 15 amending the final site plan, clearing the way for builders to resume work on the 31,000-square-foot building, which is expected to one day have several will house shops and restaurants.

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

The original site plan was approved in 2021.

But since that approval, progress on the square has fallen far short of expectations.

Once expected to enhance the city’s downtown and community redevelopment area, Enigma Plaza recently received a stop-work order for deviating from the original approved site plan.

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

Some of the changes in the new site plan include widening sidewalks, landscaping, buffering, parking signage, drainage, water mains and minor changes to building heights.

Councilmember Alison Fernandez asked if the height differences were significant compared to what had already been approved, but community development director Gray Pauley assured her they were not.

“If I put them side by side on the screen, I would challenge most people to even spot the differences,” he said.

However, the timeline for the project remains uncertain.

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

Now that the new final site plans have been approved, the developers, Bhavandeep and Dolly Singh, who purchased the 30-year-old building on 2.44 hectares of land for $1.5 million in May 2019, can have the stop work orders lifted and reapply for a new building. permits.

“It is 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 square is complete, the parking lot, around the perimeter of the building and the interior are far from finished.

Pauley told the council that he has promised 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 back on track.”

That would please council members Fernandez and Gil Schisler, both of whom said they are receiving a variety of complaints and concerns from residents about the project.

Schisler was more pointed, calling it an “eyesore.”

“We really want to get this thing done,” Schisler said. ‘I know you build to measure, but that comes from within. That’s your problem. I don’t want to be rude about it, but we have to finish the parking lot. We need the fence. We need the light structures and the landscape to be ready.”

Schisler said he voted for the project in the hope that developers are willing to get it done in earnest.

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