Likely residents of downtown Tampa include young, old

TAMPA - Who would want to live downtown? Young professionals and empty nesters. New residents who miss the fast life of big cities such as New York, Chicago and Boston. People more interested in living close to theaters and clubs than their office.

So says a survey released Wednesday by the Tampa Downtown Partnership. The group that represents downtown businesses commissioned the study to learn about prospective downtown residents and their preferences.

New apartments and condos sprang up in recent years near downtown on Harbour Island and Bayshore Boulevard. Some 1,500 units are in the works for various projects in the Channel District.

The central business district remains a residential wasteland. But a handful of developers are looking at condos or apartments projects there, a first step toward making downtown a vibrant attraction after dark, said Christine Burdick, president of the downtown partnership.

"The downtown-type neighborhood doesn't exist in Tampa now," she said. "It's a different lifestyle. People are interested in having it, and it will give downtown a new use and longer hours of life."

The study wasn't a random, scientific survey. Researchers interviewed 296 people who responded to advertisements requesting information about possible downtown residents.

They tended to be wealthier, less likely to have families and more likely to be recent transplants than people in typical Tampa Bay area households, the survey said.

About four in 10 reported having annual household incomes above $75,000. Three-quarters lived by themselves or with one other person. Nearly 40 percent reported that their last home was outside Florida, most relocating from large metropolitan areas with busy urban centers.

A number of big cities are seeing an exodus from the suburbs to downtown as people get fed up with long commutes to work.

But the local survey says the biggest lure of Tampa's downtown is the chance to live near "social and entertainment opportunities" such as the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, the St. Pete Times Forum and the Channelside entertainment complex.

Few respondents considered living near an office their top consideration. One reason: one in four worked at home or some other non-traditional setting.

Also, most wanted to buy rather than rent (67 percent) and most considered downtown a good investment opportunity. Two-thirds of those surveyed said a downtown home would be of equal or greater value compared to one in Channelside or Ybor City.

There are still plenty of obstacles to building downtown, Burdick said. Developers say land prices are prohibitively high. There's precious little room for parking, they say, and the cost of renovating vacant buildings can be sky-high.

But the survey results encouraged Gary Welch of the Wilson Co., a Tampa developer.

Wilson is looking into remodeling part of the Franklin Exchange buildings on Franklin Street as condos selling for $125,000 to $150,000 - a price that seems to fit the pocketbook of people who took part in the survey, he said.

"It reinforces our thinking on what is needed downtown," said Welch, senior vice president at Wilson. "They're interested in ownership, and their income suggests they'd target something more affordable. There are a lot of encouraging themes."

- Steve Huettel can be reached at huettel@sptimes.com or 813 226-3384.