Will Temple Terrace’s Redevelopment Plan Work?

It’s a bleak image: the blighted corner of Temple Terrace on 56th Street between Bullard Parkway and the Hillsborough River doesn’t get redeveloped; it only gets worse.

That’s the picture that Al Lewis, a columnist for Dow Jones Newswires, paints for eyesores across the nation in a MarketWatch story published June 22.

In the commentary, Lewis paraphrases Don Wood, chief executive officer of Federal Realty Investment Trust, by saying redeveloping blighted areas within a community doesn’t work without a high density of upper-income households. In places where it will work, the process takes years.

Just this week, City Manager Kim Leinbach told the Temple Terrace City Council that the city and developer Vlass Temple Terrace were at a .

Do you agree with Wood’s take? How do you see his opinions relating to Temple Terrace’s redevelopment plan?

Thanks to Patch reader JW for finding the MarketWatch story.