Five years after archaeologists found nearly 300 graves from the destroyed Zion Cemetery under apartments and two local businesses, restoration plans for the site remain uncertain after records show two Tampa businessmen who own land top the site along N. Florida Avenue have resigned from the board working to restore the desecrated site. Richard Gonzmart, who runs the famed Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City, and Dennis Creech, owner of Sunstate Wrecker, own two-thirds of the land comprising Zion Cemetery. The rest of the cemetery sits under Tampa Housing Authority’s Robles Park Village apartments. 10 Investigates obtained records from 2022 that show Gonzmart and Creech told the Zion Cemetery Preservation and Maintenance Society they would no longer be part of the board. “The private businesses’ lack of participation is hindering the preservation society's efforts at restoring Zion Cemetery,” Tampa Housing Authority Chief Operating Officer Leroy Moore said. Moore represents THA as secretary for the Zion Cemetery Preservation and Maintenance Society board, a nonprofit dedicated to re-establishing the land as a cemetery. The group also wants to erect a memorial and genealogical research center on the site which was erased nearly a century ago and later destroyed and re-parceled for redevelopment. The Tampa Bay Times first reported the possibility of graves in 2019. MORE: https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/special-reports/erased/destroyed-zion-cemetery-future/67-03d194a6-e5fc-43b0-b528-62e4788a4ae9