Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Cities strain to see the future as developers push skyscrapers

Building proposals reach new heights across the Tampa Bay area, and officials wonder if there's such a thing as too tall.

By MICHAEL VAN SICKLER, CARRIE JOHNSON and JANET ZINK
Published July 29, 2005

	[Times photo: John Pendygraft]
	The 28-story Bank of America tower in St. Petersburg is the city's tallest. The Council of Neighborhood Associations wants residents to vote on height restrictions in November.

For years, the Tampa Bay area was like a suburb without a city, a broad metropolitan area that went out more than it went up.

Now that is changing. Tall is joining sprawl as the way the area is growing, and proposals for 300- and 400-foot towers are sprouting like weeds.

Three times this month, the question has come up: When is a tower too tall?

In Tampa, City Council members fretted over a proposal for a condominium complex that included a 44-story building at the north end of downtown, saying it would be too much for the site. They relented Thursday and allowed the development to go forward despite their misgivings.

In St. Petersburg this week, two neighborhood organizations have suggested height limits for downtown buildings. And in Clearwater, the mayor balked at a proposal for a 32-story skyscraper, saying it was taller than he wanted it to be.

Critics worry the towers will turn downtown streets into canyons. Tall buildings could hurt development if the supply of available space exceeds the demand, they say. But others argue taller downtown buildings add vibrancy to a city and counteract suburban sprawl.

As the Tampa Bay area continues to grow, city officials, urban planners and residents will increasingly have to decide how towers measure up.

"What is that threshold of pain?" asked Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard, who expressed reservations this month about the height of the 377-foot Acqua at the Downtown Plaza. "I don't think we've determined that yet."

Michael Halflantf, a professor with University of South Florida's school of architecture, said cities should be embracing the idea of taller downtown buildings.

Tampa is especially in need of more downtown condominium towers, Halflantf said. Because the city's downtown is reserved almost exclusively for business, it can't support amenities such as retail stores and restaurants, which add to a city's quality of life.

"If you're a pedestrian, it doesn't matter if it's a 20-story building or a 10-story building," Halflantf said. "It's about the density you have downtown."

Don Shea, president of the St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership, said height is only one consideration in planning an attractive and pedestrian-friendly downtown.

"How a building behaves at street level is just as important as how high it is," Shea said.

But buildings that are too high can hinder development opportunities for neighboring lots if the economy takes a downturn. Houston's downtown slumped in the late 1970s after a glut of towering office buildings exceeded demand. West Palm Beach built several skyscrapers holding luxury condos and offices in the early 1980s. But that flooded the downtown market with too much supply, and it took nearly 15 years for the next major project to get built.

Tampa's downtown has followed a similar pattern of dormancy, said Terry Cullen, an urban planner with Hillsborough County's planning commission. Many of its downtown buildings from the 1920s were no taller than 10 stories. These buildings were clustered together with nary an empty space between them.

By comparison, he said, vacant lots ring the skyscrapers built in the last 30 years. As a result, almost 60 percent of the downtown land is used for parking, making it a less-than-pleasant environment, Cullen said.

"I question whether tall buildings take the development potential from these surrounding properties," Cullen said.

Cullen said he's excited that 26 condo projects are planned for downtown Tampa and the Channelside area because urban living is necessary for growth.

"But I'm also cautious," he said. "How much can we take? It's taken everybody by surprise, and I think there's so many people who wanted this to happen, nobody is saying, "Well, maybe you shouldn't do that.' If you build some of these too high, it's out of scale and draws your eye away from the integrated whole."

Developers, however, need to make sure their projects make money. That's not possible if they don't sell enough space to recoup high downtown land and construction costs. That means putting up tall buildings, said Michael McGuiness, the managing partner of the Towers of Channelside, a 52-story project expected to open in 2007.

"It's simple economics," McGuiness said. "There's only one way to build, and it's up."

That's the argument developer Doran Jason used when he lobbied the Tampa City Council for permission to build a condominium complex that includes a 420-foot tower.

Tampa council members initially asked Jason to scale back the project, but he refused to budge on the height, saying he needed the density to keep the prices of the units low. Units in the building will start at $130,000 for a 600-square-foot studio, making them the least expensive condos available in downtown Tampa, Jason said.

On Thursday, the Tampa council voted 6-0 to approve it.

Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio was a supporter of the project, saying it was never going to suffer from the tunnel effect of New York City streets. Existing low-rise buildings break up the monotony, she said.

Council member Shawn Harrison said tall buildings belong downtown.

"It gives us a presence. It gives us a skyline," he said. "If someone wants to come and build a 200-story building, more power to them."

Not every Florida locality is so permissive. In Sarasota, downtown buildings can't be taller than 18 stories, or about 180 feet, said Harvey Hoglund, a city senior planner.

Tampa has limited height restrictions for downtown buildings and the Channelside district. But neither Clearwater nor St. Petersburg has height restrictions for downtown buildings.

Citizens' organizations are already mobilizing to change that in St. Petersburg. One group, the Council of Neighborhood Associations, plans to ask City Council members to add a question to the November ballot asking voters to approve a 300-foot height limitation for downtown buildings. And the Downtown Neighborhood Association wants to discuss proposed limitations with city staff.

Clearwater officials say it's increasingly becoming a topic of discussion there, too.

"Some of these buildings we're going to have to allow," Mayor Hibbard said. "But does that mean we have to allow them to build anything? No, it does not."

[Last modified July 29, 2005, 00:52:10]