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New Tampa
Prospective home buyers have been given refunds of their deposits, as the developer says his priorities have changed.
By MELIA BOWIE, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 21, 2003
TAMPA PALMS -- Developer Warren Kinsler said he may soon be selling the 105-home subdivision he plans to build in Tampa Palms.
The community, named Buckingham, is neighbored by Kinsler's new Emerald Pointe townhomes in Area 3 and the village of Wyndham in Area 1.
"I have not sold yet," Kinsler said Monday. But "it is likely. I am talking to a bunch of people."
The developer said he refunded the deposits of several prospective home buyers last week because "we couldn't guarantee a completion date."
As New Tampa's building boom continues, draining the area of available land, the value of lots such as Kinsler's rise. That is especially true in Area 3, one of the last original parcels of Tampa Palms.
Builders struggling to find lots have approached him from the get-go, said Kinsler, adding "we're negotiating with several high-end custom home builders."
He declined to name them.
Back in February 2001 Kinsler said his company, New Tampa Inc., was evaluating whether it would build Buckingham itself or sell the lots to another builder. The cleared land has been awaiting construction ever since.
Homes there are priced at $250,000 to $350,000.
But Kinsler said his priorities now are commercial development and multifamily housing.
He is busy building townhomes in the gated Emerald Pointe, where 70 out of 131 townhomes have sold.
Also in the works are plans to build a shopping plaza that could include a Borders book store, a Bed, Bath & Beyond linen store and a grocery. Those plans depend on a City Council request for curb cuts along Bruce B. Downs Boulevard to allow right-in, right-out access to the center.
Kinsler is also seeking authority to use the entire 700,000 square feet of commercial space he owns in Area 3. Although it is zoned for such use, development beyond an initial 441,000 square feet requires a traffic study, which he submitted Jan. 3.
The request goes before the council on March 27.
In the meantime, potential Buckingham owners are now searching for a new place to live.
"This is all still a shock to us," said home buyer Steve Rothfarb, who says he had a contract and expected his Buckingham home to be completed by late summer. "I'm not sure what we're going to do. . . . I guess we're real lucky we got our deposit back."
Rothfarb, who owns Frame By Frame at Tampa Palms' City Plaza, and other potential neighbors got the news from Kinsler via a letter late last week.
"He was kind of vague," said Rothfarb, who lives two neighborhoods down from Buckingham with his wife and children. The family liked the area and " we thought we were getting in on the ground floor. We'd picked a nice lot."
Nothing is definite, Kinsler said. Buckingham has a projected two-year build-out and some of the home buyers were at the very beginning of their negotiations. "A lot of these contracts people were still working on, deciding what they wanted," he said.
Any decision to sell to a builder now would be a marketing decision, he continued, one that would enable him to continue "concentrating on townhomes, (smaller) homes and shopping."
Kinsler and three partners in a privately held family trust purchased Area 3's 780 acres at auction in the early 1990s for $3.6-million. Since acquiring the land, New Tampa, Inc. has built Compton Place and Enclave Village apartments, the $6-million New Tampa Family YMCA and Lowe's Home Improvement.
While future residential development is planned, more immediate projects may be smaller in scale.
The future of a 24-lot executive home subdivision has yet to be decided, but Kinsler envisions at least 200 small homes along Tampa Palms Boulevard. These would range from 1,600 to 2,500 square feet. "We're designing right now," he said.
"We'll be building a lot of products up" in Area 3, he said. "There's a lot of land left, (and) we're anticipating building a lot of it ourselves.'