This white elephant was completed in 2003/2004 at the expense of $58 million. The county didn't have the resources to run it so it has been kept secured and preserved at an annual expense of $300,000 ever since. It was bought by a private developer for $5 million in 2018. They're considering using it as a homeless shelter if they can get a zoning approval, but if not, it would become a facility that was built and kept maintained just so it can be demolished.
I hear this location was a point of interest for explorer. A tour is better than nothing. Due to limited time and crowd, there was not a whole lot of time to take a ton of pictures.
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[last edit 12/3/2019 12:32 AM by Deuterium - edited 1 times]
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location: Mission Control
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Re: Correctional facility completed in 2003 and sat unused ever since <Reply # 1 on 12/3/2019 12:16 AM >
Thank you Deuterium for discovering this tour! Good write up. Here are my favorite photos I took while there. Only one dude had an actual camera with him and I think was granted permission. We were asked why we were there pre entry like while in the car and we said we were there to take pictures and she said no! So we left our cameras in the car. But later when nearly everybody was taking pictures with their phones we joined.
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PS my vote is that the place does not become a homeless shelter and rather is demolished. Then developed after being zoned appropriately as industrial use zone and the land is used by a company to make goods or something. I do not see this place successfully being passed in the city courts as a homeless shelter. I think It'll sit vacant another year at least and then be demolished. No way in h*ll are homeless people as well as mentally ill people going to like/feel comfortable living here. It's in a industrial area with zero bars convenient shops or public parks close by.
[last edit 12/3/2019 3:44 AM by Thinklikefreak - edited 6 times]
I am so jealous! I've been right up to the gate but never dared go further. Enormous waste of money. Fuck that developer. How did I not hear about this?!
The #1 rule about poking things with sticks is never use your finger.
I am so jealous! I've been right up to the gate but never dared go further. Enormous waste of money. Fuck that developer. How did I not hear about this?!
In this case, it's not the developer that should be taking the heat.It's in a limbo mainly because of all the red tapes. This is in an industrial zoning code and allows it to be used as a jail, but not as a homeless shelter. It's too nice to demolish it. This was a popular tour. Hundreds of people came and cars queued up for 1/4 miles of side road.
"No way in h*ll are homeless people as well as mentally ill people going to like/feel comfortable living here. It's in a industrial area with zero bars convenient shops or public parks close by".
Zero bars? Having been homeless in Pinellas County Florida from 2011~15, homeless shelters breath test for alcohol.
"people going to like/feel comfortable living here". Well it sure beats living in your car, if your lucky enough to have one.
convenient shops? Yeah, no place to buy those $1.00 packs of 20 cigars that look like brown cigarettes. Convenient shops can help the homeless. Flash your homeless shelter entry card and they will sell you stuff tax free. Food Stamps? Some convenient stores will flip it for you.
Public parks? Gee, except for Williams park in central Saint Petersburg Florida nobody homeless goes to them, we have beaches like "Gandy".
For 4 years I was in/out of this homeless shelter:
Full disclosure of my opinion: 1) We need to move away from the prison industrial complex and restructure our so-called justice system, so there never should have been a proposal favoring the system that built a jail in the first place. 2) The environmentalists who were fine with building the jail as long as it kept the trees up, and are now upset that they're proposing to demo the building and cut the trees - they are whiny pacifists. Supporters of this project had poor priorities. 3) It would make a terrible homeless shelter. It's extremely far from all other services. You really expect folks to bus/walk all the way out there just to stay overnight? Shelters already are an unattractive last resort for those who want to stay with their significant other (couples shelters are less common than single gender ones), or who can't bring their pet or all of their belongings (which will either be stolen or thrown away if left unsupervised). 4) Demolish it. Keep the trees. Fuck the S*h*itzers / eat the rich.
*This isn't a politics forum, so sorry for my rant. I do feel pretty strongly about this place though.
The #1 rule about poking things with sticks is never use your finger.
Posted by corvidcache Full disclosure of my opinion: ....
If I become aware of any more tour opportunities, I'll post it here.
I hope it wouldn't be demolished and they at least give it a try without investing too much money into it. Once you see it yourself, you'll immediately see how super nice this place is. The place is clean and built well. Those bars in windows are extremely common in the inner city to prevent break-ins and full height bars in the upper sleeping area aren't containment bar, but to keep people from throwing their mattresses or other large objects down in a riot.
Location wise, did you know there is a major homeless camp village in Sunderland next to a federal prison near the Portland airport? Just because it's a shelter doesn't mean it has be one night deal. This place has a lot of parking spaces, so it would be relatively inexpensive to build a few cheap sheds to store belongings and shuttle buses.
[last edit 12/6/2019 2:44 AM by Deuterium - edited 1 times]
I got one of those from a bank remodel, had a friend put a few .40 slugs into it then set it into a steel table frame with LEDs wrapping the perimeter of the glass, lighting it up.