PROTEST: At a recent Historic Ybor Neighborhood Civic Association meeting, Blake Emory (Satan) stabs James Courtney (Jesus representing the arts) with the “spear of development” during a protest of the new proposal for the Oliva Cigar Factory.

CREDIT: Courtesy of Blake Emory

After more than a year inside the one-of-a-kind Oliva Cigar Factory in Ybor City, Blake Emory and his artist collective may be getting the boot to make room for a hotel.

Last May, the 24-year-old artist and his brother James made a deal with owner Angel “Trey” Oliva III to renovate portions of the 117-year-old building — one of only two wooden cigar factories in Florida — and pay reduced rent in exchange for a 30,000-foot space to throw art shows (see our first story on the Emorys here). They named it the Ybor Cigar Theater and for the last 10 months, the Emorys have thrown two large shows and several smaller ones in an attempt to revive Ybor City’s underground art movement.

But in May, an out-of-town developer signed a contract with Oliva that gives them exclusive purchasing rights to the building for the next six months. If the undisclosed developer decides their project is feasible, they will turn the former factory into a 60-room hotel.

“It was going to be a world-renowned, respected venue for arts,” Emory says. “It really would’ve if I had time to build it … This building has so much old character and they’re going to turn it into a fucking hotel.”

If approved by the Ybor City Development Corporation and the Barrio Latino Commission, the developers envision a 60-room hotel and a three-story parking garage on the property (some parking would also be available off-site). The factory’s windows, currently covered by asbestos siding, would be opened up and the outside façade updated and repainted. The inside, containing the original open rolling rooms and conveyer belts, would most likely be gutted and divided into smaller units.

“Our goal is to restore the building, but change it obviously to a hotel use,” says William Dobson of RBK Architects, which is acting as architects for the developer. “We’re going for the tax credits so obviously we’re doing everything to restore it to its former glory.”

Dobson estimates the project wouldn’t get underway for a year and a half. He wouldn’t say if the hotel would be a chain or independent.

“I’m afraid if it wasn’t for a hotel use there wouldn’t be anything done with it,” Dobson says of the cigar factory.

But not everyone agrees. Besides the Emorys, the Ybor City Museum Society (which shares the same block as the Oliva Cigar Factory) had been trying to acquire the building for four years. Their idea: recreate a working cigar factory and join the building with others on the block for a historical state park. In 2005, the Society received a $10,000 grant to pay for design work. The renderings were finished late last year.

Oliva says he gave both parties a chance at purchasing the building, but they didn’t come through with the money fast enough.

“I tried to make it a go with this arts venue,” he says, “but it hasn’t come to fruition.”

Emory says the whole situation exposes Ybor City’s dwindling place in the arts world.

“It’s no longer about the building,” he says. “It’s about needing a program for artists before we get swept out of Tampa. The developers are kicking us out.”

“This city needs some underground artistic community,” Emory continues. “If you drive all the artists out, there isn’t going to be a culture here.”

UPDATE (8/2): RBK Architects has informed me the developer is Tampa's own Ybor Realty.

This article appears in Aug 1-7, 2007.