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Developer sees city's potential

A Miami man wants to build a Tampa condo tower for people who want to live downtown.

By MICHAEL VAN SICKLER
Published March 24, 2006

TAMPA - A Miami developer convinced that Tampa will embrace urban living at a reasonable price says he wants to build one of downtown's tallest buildings beginning next summer.

Haim Einhorn filed plans this week to build a 479-foot-tall condo tower holding 250 units that young people with $40,000 salaries could afford.

"Tampa is where Miami was three years ago," Einhorn said. "Young professionals are moving to downtowns because they want that lifestyle. Tampa's downtown is picking up, and more and more it will be the place to be."

Einhorn proposes to build on a half-acre at 925 N Florida Ave., north of the Floridan Hotel, which is being renovated into a boutique hotel. He plans 8,500 square feet of retail, a parking garage with 380 spaces for residents and 50 spaces for retail customers and visitors.

The price of the units would range between $200,000 and $400,000. The sizes would be between 700 and 1,100 square feet.

A post office on the land now has a lease that expires in July 2007.

A developer of more than a dozen condo projects in Miami, including a 320-unit development, Einhorn said his Tampa project would be his biggest yet.

He's convinced it will work in a town long dominated by suburban housing because of the early success of the Novare-Intown Tampa Development Co.

The Atlanta company is building the 380-unit SkyPoint condo tower at Ashley Drive and Zack Street. In February, it announced plans to build two more condo towers next to SkyPoint.

"They're the pioneers, they're the doers," Einhorn said. "I watch what they're doing, and I know it's going to happen in Tampa."

John LaRocca, an urban planner representing the project, said the City Council will be asked in August to approve raising the height limits to 479 feet. Right now, the land is zoned only for 120 feet.

Einhorn's project is the latest to be announced for downtown, which now has 6,560 units completed, under construction or proposed, according to a downtown survey by a Jacksonville firm.

While that sounds like a lot, the study showed Tampa lags behind four of the other five cities in the study. Cincinnati, Jacksonville, Memphis, Tenn., and Orlando had more units. Only Columbia, S.C., had fewer, the Downtown Vision Inc. study showed.

But times are changing, LaRocca said.

"Urban living is a lifestyle that Florida hasn't traditionally offered," LaRocca said. "Now Tampa is growing in population and we're finally getting an interest in a diversity of housing types."

Michael Van Sickler can be reached at 813-226-3402 or mvansickler@sptimes.com

[Last modified March 24, 2006, 02:15:43]