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Tampa wants to reclaim its center

The Downtown Tampa Partnership lays out its plan to draw people back in from the sprawling suburbs.

By JEFF HARRINGTON
Published March 12, 2005

TAMPA - For three years, backers of downtown Tampa have dreamed, planned and prioritized about what it would take to bring the city's urban core back to its glory days.

An extended riverwalk. A new entertainment district on N Franklin Street. A development organization that could link landlords to prospective retail and office tenants. River taxis scuttling across the Hillsborough River between the University of Tampa and downtown. And plenty of affordable housing.

On Friday, during the Downtown Tampa Partnership's annual development forum, it was time to take those disparate pieces of the much-discussed vision and put them in play.

Leaders of the partnership kicked off a 10-year action plan by trying to rally nearly 300 attendees behind key parts of the plan. First, they set a few priorities:

Over the next three years, extend downtown's riverwalk and work with owners of dilapidated properties along Franklin Street to create a string of cafes and specialty shops. On the table: a plan to build two towers flanking a renovated, historic Kress Building and a $20-million renovation of the long-neglected Floridian Hotel.

Within three to five years, create a downtown development corporation to work with property owners to bring in retail and office users.

Long-term, decide on an image of what downtown Tampa represents to the rest of the country.

One of the more intriguing parts of the plan is Phase 2, the new development corporation. Don Hunter, a Maryland urban economist who headed the vision plan, described a "first-of-its-kind" entity that would be empowered to take out a long-term lease from owners of dilapidated buildings, then refurbish the space "on its own dime" and bring in tenants.

After five or 10 years, the downtown group would have an option to buy the leased property, betting that the building's value will have increased significantly.

Planners have applied for a $5-million grant to get the program started.

Downtown Tampa has historically been the business and civic focal point of the Tampa Bay region. But like other central business districts, downtown Tampa has lost its luster and allure to the suburbs, the West Shore business district and even across the bay to St. Petersburg.

Recapturing its heritage in an age of sprawl will be difficult. Tampa's office space, about 6-million square feet, is not expected to grow. Owners of some dilapidated buildings have rebuffed offers to sell, betting they can get more from the market by waiting. And a linchpin for downtown's cultural development, a $75-million art museum project, has struggled to move forward.

Some observers on Friday, including the principal of the Rampello Downtown Partnership School, wondered what else can be done to nurture downtown schools and encourage Tampa residents who live and work downtown to send their children there.

Ray Sandelli, senior managing director of CB Richard Ellis' Florida operation and chairman of the Downtown Tampa Partnership, urged attendees to focus on their personal areas of expertise in leading a renaissance.

The most immediate path to a comeback? "Ride the wave" of the recent condo boom to spur other development, Hunter suggested.

Six downtown condo projects are slated to come on line this year and 16 more by late 2007, including the $100-million Towers at Channelside and the $220-million Trump Tower Tampa.

"The reality of a downtown residential component now taking place changes the fabric of downtown to really a community," Sandelli said.

The problem, some participants said, is that the new community won't be inclusive unless more is done to build apartments and condos in the price range of young working adults. Nearly all pending condo projects are high-end.

Hunter conceded affordable housing will be a challenge, calling for creative financing and public-private partnerships to bring land costs down.

Don Shea, president of the St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership, offered one lure to get young professionals and other workers to consider living downtown.

By getting rid of an unnecessary second car and related expenses, he said, buyers could add $80,000 onto the size mortgage they can afford.

As part of the housing vision, planners want to redevelop Central Park Village into a mixed-use/mixed-income center, increase housing options in the Channelside district and add two or three levels of residential space above ground-level retail in Ybor City.

An extension of the downtown trolley to all those areas, along with the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center and museum, is envisioned as one way to bring downtown together.

Jeff Harrington can be reached at harrington@sptimes.com or 813 226-3407.

[Last modified March 12, 2005, 00:48:09]