The hopes for a livable downtown are as high as the condo tower starting this spring. There are signs it’s starting.
By JANET ZINK, Times Staff Writer
Published January 14, 2005
Kelly Ennix and friend Duane Davis of Tampa chat at Spain restaurant Saturday night. Ennix just moved from San Francisco and said the nightlife, of course, can’t compare. But “I’m giving it a chance. I’m quite impressed with the weather.”
Chris Borzell and friend Tara Ruddell of Tampa mill around outside the Hub on N Franklin Street around midnight Saturday. You can always get a stiff drink in the dark at the Hub, but Christine Burdick, head of the Downtown Tampa Partnership, wants to be able to have a beer in an outdoor cafe on Franklin Street within 18 months.
At the Hub, the gritty grande dame of a bar downtown, Brandi Hughes scans the offerings of the semifamous jukebox Saturday night.
Sombras Flamencas performs at Spain late Saturday. The restaurant gambled on a move to Tampa Street last year. One sign of success: Co-owner Fred Castro is trying to develop six apartments above the restaurant and has received nearly 100 calls.
DOWNTOWN – The sound of the old TECO parking garage being demolished comes as a relief to city leaders and downtown business owners eager to revive the city’s urban core.
From the rubble will rise a 380-unit condominium tower built by Atlanta’s Novare group and Tampa’s Intown group, signaling the arrival of living, breathing, eating, shopping people who will turn downtown into a bustling, around-the-clock neighborhood.
Construction on the 32-story tower will begin this spring and last until late 2006. Demolition began recently and Novare plans to open a sales center in the Colonial Bank building on Tampa Street in early March. Units will range from $175,000 to $350,000.
Already, developers have fielded calls from downtown office workers and people who want to move to Tampa, said Greg Minder, one of the project’s leaders.
That’s good news to the city and business leaders banking on downtown’s wakeup call.
“I have a bet with someone that we’re going to be able to drink a beer in an outdoor cafe on Franklin Street in the next 18 months. So I have a deadline,” said Christine Burdick, president of the Downtown Tampa Partnership.
In the past 18 months, a handful of restaurants and businesses have opened on the north end of downtown. Owners and government officials say they want to duplicate what has happened farther south in the Channel District, where several condominiums are planned and the clubs and restaurants at Channelside pop on weekend nights.
The Novare project is a major first step, they say.
“Here you have this residential tower that would just breathe 24/7 life into all that is being planned there,” said Mark Huey, the city’s director of economic development. “There’s a lot of interest by the development community, and it’s really being fueled because there’s a lot of interest by residents who want to live in our downtown.”
Farther north, all 21 units at the Arlington, under construction, have been sold, and nearly half of the 40 units at the Residences on Franklin Street, now in the permitting stage, have been presold.
Fred Castro and his sisters own Spain restaurant, which moved from its longtime location on Twiggs Street to Tampa Street last year. Castro’s trying to develop six apartments above the restaurant and has received nearly 100 calls. His only form of advertisement: a small sign posted along the street.
Nearly 4,000 residential units are planned for downtown between the Channel District and the north part of downtown.
Until they materialize, restaurant owners say they rely on events at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center and Tampa Theatre to draw customers. The Jerk Hut on Twiggs Street fills up on Friday nights for live reggae music and a free buffet. Last week, after being open for only four days, Franklin Street Sushi served nearly 60 people on Friday night.
Tom McCrimmon, co-owner of the sushi restaurant, said he chose the spot because it’s between the Tampa Theatre and the Hub bar, not because of the planned residences. Once he heard about the proposed developments, he figured he’d made a good move.
“We thought, wow, we picked a good time. We got in on the ground floor,” McCrimmon said.
For now, though, downtown streets go quiet once the workday ends.
“It’s like Salem’s Lot. The whole town clears out at dusk,” said Fritz Scheller, a lawyer in Tampa who lives in St. Petersburg and eats dinner about once a week at Spain. “It’s really sad.”
On a recent Thursday night, he was one of a handful of diners at Spain, which added dinner hours after the move.
The restaurant does better business on weekend nights, but Castro said he’s counting on downtown residents to take it to the next level.
While Scheller ate tapas at Spain, three parties dined at Got Pizza, which opened on Franklin Street about six months ago.
Scott Barnett, a Tampa lawyer, regularly grabs dinner there before putting in a late night at the office. He has high hopes for downtown’s future.
“They’re building residential. Things are happening. It’ll get better,” he said. “It’s not like downtown St. Pete, which to me is the hidden jewel of Florida downtowns.”
Around the corner at Sumo’s Thai restaurant on Twiggs, Lawrence Storer closes at 7 p.m. In the nearly four years he has been in business, he’s relied on the lunch crowd to keep the restaurant going. But he’s closely watching the residential development.
“It’s what I’ve been waiting for,” Storer said. “When the boom starts, I’ll be ready.”
Five years from now, downtown Tampa will look vastly different, Burdick said.
“There will be a number of residential buildings, some high-rise, some low-rise, so it will be an eclectic neighborhood architecturally,” she said.
She envisions restaurants, bookstores, hair salons and art galleries – “things that a residential neighborhood needs.”
The tower slated for the TECO parking garage site includes 12,000 square feet of retail space. Lou Prida, developer of the Arlington, plans to include commercial space on the first floor of a three-story office building proposed next door to the residential units.
Mike Elliott, a stockbroker and regular at Got Pizza, sees the northern stretch of downtown as the next logical progression in the area’s development. He often spends weekend nights at Channelside, which he calls beautiful and fun.
“If all the development really comes to fruition, it’s going to draw a lot of businesses down here,” he said. “There’s a lot of young people in Tampa who would love to live downtown. There’s some real things going on. This is the heart of a little mid sized city we call Tampa, Fla.”
Janet Zink can be reached at 226-3401 or jzink@sptimes.com
