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Office land to get homes instead

Hidden River Corporate Park gives up enough space to build 200 townhomes and 400 apartments.

By MICHAEL VAN SICKLER
Published February 13, 2005

NEW TAMPA - Since 1985, 476 acres south of Tampa Palms along Interstate 75 has been earmarked for offices and retail stores, one of the few large chunks of land in New Tampa not devoted to homes.

But in those 20 years since the Hidden River Corporate Park was approved, only about half of the project has been built. On Thursday, the project became the second New Tampa office project in two years to convert some of its space into homes, adding even more bedrooms to an area flooded with them already.

Without discussion, the Tampa City Council unanimously approved trading 575,000 square feet of planned office space for 200 townhomes and 400 apartments on land north of Fletcher Avenue. In August 2003, the council approved swapping land set aside for 326,000 square feet of high-tech office space near Richmond Place for 160 homes.

These projects were allowed to add homes despite the fact that much of New Tampa's traffic congestion is blamed on the abundance of homes and lack of offices. Without land reserved for offices, people have to drive greater distances to get to their jobs.

But Hidden River's developer, Crescent Resources of Charlotte, N.C., convinced city and state officials that many who work at the corporate park will decide to live in the new homes, eliminating commutes on surrounding roads overloaded with traffic, such as Fletcher Avenue.

"We figured that many of the people who already work there will decide to live in these homes," said Allen Murphy, a planning consultant for the project. "Many will commute within the project."

Hidden River Corporate Park includes a Courtyard Marriott, a Wendy's, Starbucks, a Shell gas station and more than 1.2-million square feet of offices. With the new homes, the project still can add more than a million square feet of offices, retail businesses and hotel rooms.

"The key was not to let them change it all to residential," said Susan Johnson, a land development coordinator with the city. "The idea is for the people who live on site to also work there, so much of that traffic will be reduced."

Aside from I-75, no road connects the park to New Tampa, even though it's next to Tampa Palms. An interior road between it and Tampa Palms was never built. Much of Fletcher Avenue is offices, so adding homes would help diversify the area, said Mahdi Mansour, a city traffic engineer.

Still, the developer is required to pay $200,000 so the city can improve the intersection of Morris Bridge Road and Cross Creek Boulevard or widen Cross Creek. It also must pay $49,000 to the state for a signal at the I-75 ramp.

And Crescent is required to add a left-turn lane at Fletcher Avenue and Hidden River Parkway, a sidewalk along Fletcher, and $159,000 for parkland. It is also required to set aside 1.5 acres for a new fire station.

Although the new homes will use less water than the offices would have used, they will produce about 150,000 gallons of wastewater a day, a 65 percent increase over offices; and 6,000 pounds of solid waste a day, which is 4 percent more than what the offices would have produced. The new development will add about 265 students to area schools.

Michael Van Sickler can be reached at 813 269-5312 or mvansickler@sptimes.com

[Last modified February 12, 2005, 09:06:05]