Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Neighborhood report

Amenities add appeal to request for rezoning

In its effort to get land at Howard and Swann rezoned, Post Properties offers additional landscaping and other extras.

By RICK GERSHMAN
Published October 14, 2005

Post Properties offered several amenities to bolster its request to rezone land at Howard and Swann avenues where Whiskey Park Soho now sits.

Those amenities include additional landscaping, improvements to the nearby Hyde Park arts studio and playground, and money to extend the service of and provide a covered stop for HARTline's yellow trolley bus to downtown.

That did the job, prompting City Council members last week to initially approve the zoning change. A second hearing is set for Thursday.

Final approval would allow the developer to move forward with plans to build SoHo Square, a four-story, 248-unit condominium complex with some retail on the ground level.

Some residents remain opposed, saying the project will create too much traffic.

"It doesn't appear that there is any way to add lanes to Howard, and the lights get so backed up as it is. How can we handle even more traffic?" Gamin Zacharias of Parkland Estates told the council.

"I don't even want to think about how many cars we're going to get after they complete this," said Walter Crumley, who also lives nearby.

Council member Rose Ferlita said building nothing near the intersection would be the best thing for traffic; however, "that is not going to be the reality of growth."

The development at 2212 W Swann Ave. would include 19,000 square feet of retail, with condominiums priced from $275,000 to $750,000.

Attorney David Mechanik, representing the developers, said they will pay HARTline $10,000 annually toward the trolley. Post also will work with HARTline to establish a trolley stop, shelter and bench at the complex. The trolley now ends at Old Hyde Park Village.

Once the condos are finished, Post will contribute $75,000 toward improvements at the Hyde Park arts studio and playground at Swann and Albany avenues. It also will install a brick crosswalk on the southeast side of Swann and Albany and add landscaping that Mechanik said was "almost double" what city ordinances require.

Post, known for high-end apartment communities in Hyde Park and Harbour Island, purchased the 4.1-acre site in June. The 60,000-square-foot building has housed the engineering firm Heidt & Associates, Whiskey Park, a doctor's office, a design studio and a Pilates gym.

Anthony Everett, lead designer on the project, said the development will have an integrated parking garage, mostly wrapped by the residential building.

Henry and Art Andrews, owners of Heidt & Associates, owned the property for 20 years. No construction date for the Post project has been set.

Before starting, Post must give tenants a one-year notice that their leases are up, Everett said. Those notices can't go out until the City Council completes the plans.

"If we get confirmed, we'll probably begin within 13 to 14 months," Everett said.

Steven Davis, a SoHo resident for more than 30 years, said in a letter to the city that the neighborhood and much of South Tampa is being developed "with a reckless fury."

"Now is the time to put on the brakes before more damage can be done and it is too late for our neighborhoods," he wrote.

- Staff writer Janet Zink contributed to this report. Rick Gershman can be reached at rgershman@sptimes.com or 226-3431.

[Last modified October 13, 2005, 08:20:12]