Will Largo ever see a finished Castel Bantuit? Helene Urbin and Bert Beigel hope so, but events in the past few weeks are diminishing their dream of opening a year-round haunted house, gift shop and performance space. Since February, the building at 1751 Missouri Ave. has been beset by Largo city officials. Code enforcement has cited them for numerous signage violations; two weeks ago, Largo police arrested Urbin for selling theatrical contact lenses without a prescription, a felony; and a fire marshal recently deemed the building unsafe and locked them out. City staffers say they are just following the law, but Urbin and Beigel can't help but feel targeted.
"I've always loved Halloween," says Urbin, 51, who opened her first haunted house out of her Jacksonville home in the early '90s.
Beigel, 80, is a former real estate developer and Holocaust survivor. Urbin is Beigel's girlfriend of four years.
Beigel and Urbin bought their building last March for just over $1 million. Urbin says the sign, murals and hearses parked out front have been in place since last June. Urbin says she was still completing construction on the inside of the building when she was cited for more violations. "My lawyer calls this bureaucratic harassment," she says.
Urbin served time in the 1990s for trafficking cocaine and intimidating a witness, but insists she is a "new woman."
Castel Bantuit is scattered with ghoulish props, from killer clowns to a naked and headless horseman. Some Urbin made herself; others she collected from haunted houses around the state.
"[City staff] say they can't wait until I open up, but they sure aren't helping out," Urbin says. "I'm going to bring hundreds of people to Largo. It would be an attraction."
This article appears in Apr 4-10, 2007.