Slogan in hand, Tampa sharpens vision for downtown

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© St. Petersburg Times
published April 3, 2002

Downtown Tampa just got a new slogan: Not Just A Place To Work. The Place To Be.

So much for truth in advertising.

On her second day as president of the Tampa Downtown Partnership, city newcomer Christine Burdick revealed the snappy catch phrase on Tuesday while hosting the group's sixth annual forum on downtown development.

If The Place To Be sounds a bit premature, don't blame this devoted band of downtown boosters. Look-way-ahead optimism is what this group is all about. And eventually, they may be right.

Tampa has yet to be confused with cities with vibrant 24/7 downtowns. But the city's cheerleaders are trying. They are starting to fix past blunders that not only made downtown Tampa a near-ghost town after work and on many weekends, but also obscured its wonderful waterfront.

Heck, Tampa development leaders even swallowed their pride last month, boarded a charter bus to tour St. Petersburg, and acknowledged the rival downtown was positively hopping by comparison.

At Tuesday's forum, six development specialists -- in transportation, arts and culture, downtown housing, sports and entertainment, education and land use -- addressed how revitalizing a city's downtown takes money, patience, political support and, most of all, vision.

Combine all of those resources, and there's still no guarantee any downtown will succeed, said city development expert John McIlwain, a senior resident fellow at the Urban Land Institute in Washington, D.C.

"I sense you have great possibilities," McIlwain told an audience of more than 100 attending the forum at the Tampa Convention Center. "But not all cities will thrive. Not all downtowns will thrive."

So what do the experts say it will take to energize downtown Tampa?

Create diverse housing: If you want people downtown, make it worth their while to live there. Tampa's Harbour Island and Hyde Park residences are dandy -- but high-priced and not close enough to downtown to encourage walking from home to theaters, restaurants, shops or work.

New downtown housing must cater not only to the upscale. Some of it must be affordable for those moderately paid workers ($30,000 to $45,000) who help make communities real: police officers, firemen, teachers, artists, nurses and office employees, McIlwain stressed.

Refocus on people, not cars: Downtowns that have been built to maximize traffic flow but ignore people are losers. When Tampa wants to grow, it usually just builds another subdivision on the city's fringe. But when people have to commute more than 30 or 40 minutes to work -- which occurs now during Tampa's rush hours -- many start looking for alternatives. That sprawl threatens downtown companies, which will find it harder (and more expensive) to recruit good workers.

Rethink parking spaces: One of Tampa's big stumbling blocks is its mishmash of downtown parking lots, McIlwain said. That land needs to be put to better use -- without reducing needed parking availability.

One solution: erect buildings with street-level retail space that also allow cars to be parked on upper floors. If most owners of parking lots are just waiting for a high-priced buyout from a developer, then the city needs to discourage such speculation with new zoning rules, tax laws and support of more midsize buildings, rather than blockbuster skyscrapers.

In the Channel District, where the Tampa Port Authority's reach stretches along the city waterfront from the Florida Aquarium to the docks handling five cruise ships, to the still-struggling Channelside shops and almost to the Ice Palace, parking is a growing issue, port director George Williamson said.

The parking whammy typically arises when a cruise ship returns on the weekend with more than 2,000 passengers and 1,000 crew members, at the same time that people are trying to get to or exit the Florida Aquarium or Channelside, and when there is a Tampa Bay Lightning hockey game or some big entertainment event at the nearby Ice Palace.

Support arts and cultural events: City of Philadelphia arts and culture official Carol Lawrence told the forum how concentrating museums, theaters, music venues and art galleries in a downtown district can help spur adjacent housing and retail development.

Tampa has long pitched a downtown cultural arts district along the Hillsborough River, but it's still largely in the talk stage.

What if Tampa had listened to all the naysayers and decided not to build the downtown Ice Palace? Then more than 1.2-million people each year would not have traveled downtown to attend either a Tampa Bay Lightning game or some other entertainment event, Lightning general manager Jay Feaster said.

The good news, he told the forum, is that Lightning fans seem to like a good fight on the ice as much as the game itself. People don't leave their seats, even to use the bathroom, when a fight is on, he observed.

The bad news is the Lightning's play has been so bad for so many years, it would be tough to start a franchise in Tampa today. The Lightning are selling only 7,000 season tickets these days, while a new franchise would need to prove it could sell 12,000.

All in all, maybe the new Tampa Downtown Partnership slogan isn't so far-fetched. If we could just add the slightest tweak for reality's sake:

Not Just A Place To Work. The Place To (Wanna)Be.

-- Robert Trigaux can be reached at trigaux@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8405.

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