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Developer gets another year for port project

Zoning problems force a third delay on the hotel and entertainment complex, until at least March 2007.

By STEVE HUETTEL
Published January 18, 2006

TAMPA - How much more time should a developer get to start a long-delayed, $400-million conference center, hotel and condo project on public land at Tampa's port?

At least another year, port commissioners decided Tuesday over the objections of a group representing traditional shipping-related businesses.

International Technology Center LLC has held a lease option on 11 acres owned by the Tampa Port Authority since 2001 and was supposed to break ground by March 30.

On Tuesday, the developer asked commissioners for a third deadline extension until March 2007 to work out a problem rezoning the land in Tampa's Channel District.

Headed by Murray Klauber, founder of the Colony Beach & Tennis Resort at Longboat Key, the development group plans to build one or more towers with 400 luxury hotel rooms and more than 200 condos.

The hotel would be connected to a conference center that could beam corporate meetings and training sessions worldwide via satellite, fiber-optic cable and wireless systems.

The project fits the port authority's plan, dating to the late 1980s, of developing land in the Channel District with cruise terminals and entertainment venues, said Stephen Mitchell, attorney for the developer.

"When the port embraced this new vision, the seeds for what we're seeing now were sown . . . moving to an urban port, a soft side of the port to (financially) support other maritime activities," he said.

The project will generate nearly $2.8-million in annual rent for the port after opening in 2009 and about $2.5-million a year in taxes for the city, Mitchell said.

Industrial businesses at the port, however, see it as an encroachment on public land long dedicated to maritime uses.

The site on Channelside Drive includes a vessel slip called Metroport, where the port authority leases dock space to International Ship Repair & Marine Services.

Plans call for filling in Metroport. But Arthur Savage, president of the Port of Tampa Maritime Industries Association, urged the port to study the effect of losing so much industrial waterfront before giving the Klauber group an extension.

"It would cost tens of millions of dollars . . . to duplicate that elsewhere," he said.

Port director Richard Wainio called the agreement a better deal for the port authority, with the developer committing to pay for filling Metroport and sharing the cost of regulatory approvals.

Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio urged other port commissioners to stick with the project.

"It's a very important tone we set . . . of how we treat people, give them consistency," she said.

"If the day comes that this project does not happen, at least we can say we dealt consistently with a business partner."

Hillsborough County Commissioner Ronda Storms countered that giving developers a third chance was leaving International Ship in the lurch.

"I'd ask to whom we're being consistent and for whom the bell tolls," she said. Commissioners approved the amended lease option 4-1, with Storms casting the vote against.

In other business Tuesday, commissioners agreed to end a contract with the port's terminal operator, SSA Marine, and negotiate a new deal with P&O Ports.

Proposed terms of the P&O contract would initially generate about $1.9-million a year for the agency, compared to about $1-million from SSA, Wainio said.

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

[Last modified January 18, 2006, 01:10:21]