Nice scoop by the Tampa Tribune, but it appears that Without Walls International Church's deal to buy the Centro Espanol de West Tampa building is dead. Or maybe not.

I got my hands on the letter from City Attorney David Smith to the Centro's owners, the now-defunct Urban League chapter in Hillsborough, dated Nov. 29. It says:

I appreciate your call to advise me that the contract for the sale of the Building to the Institute for Community Development, Inc. (the "Institute"), and Without Walls Church has been terminated. As we discussed, the City appreciates all your efforts to salvage this very difficult situation, but time is running out. We must preserve the Building and advance the prospects for commencement of the services contemplated for the community. The Building is vacant and now work is being done. An abandoned building quickly falls into disrepair and becomes a hazard to the neighborhood.

Smith then tells Urban League Chairwoman Lois Davis that the city is declaring the Urban League in default of its Centro_espanol_building

agreements made with Tampa when it was given the property for $1. The city wants the Urban League to begin providing educational and cultural services at the local landmark, once a bustling social and civic headquarters for West Tampa's Latino cigarmakers, or deed the property back to the city.

The letter was dated the same day that Davis told a Creative Loafing reporter that the deal was moving forward this week for city and county approvals. And further complicating matters, Without Walls' Pastor Randy White told the Tribune that the deal is not dead and that he has a legally binding contract.

The city and Hillsborough County are on the hook for more than $1 million worth of federal historic renovation grants that they channeled to the Urban League to revive the Centro. If the building isn't fully renovated, the feds could demand their money back.

UPDATE: Without Walls threw in the towel on Wednesday. And here is a link to the CL story that was published before that.

This article appears in Nov 29 – Dec 5, 2006.