Mons Venus may get many new neighbors

A 700-unit condo-retail project is proposed for N Dale Mabry Highway near the strip club.

By JANET ZINK
Published May 4, 2006

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TAMPA - Condos up the street from the Mons Venus?

It could happen.

Developers have asked the city to rezone 8.3 acres on busy N Dale Mabry Highway to allow five 15-story buildings with 700 total units. The City Council is scheduled to consider the request Sept. 28.

The parcel, between the Mons Venus strip club and Boy Scout Boulevard, now holds a Days Inn and a Bennigan's.

"The concept is to come in with a mixed-use project that would have a retail component and possibly reincorporate the Bennigan's back into the property," said David Smith, an attorney for the developers, whom he identified as managed health care executive Pradip C. Patel and Larry Drew, an officer in Diversified Equities Inc.

Naidip Hospitality LLC, a company headed by Patel, bought the hotel property in January 2005 for $8.1-million, according to Hillsborough County records. The developers have a contract to buy the Bennigan's, Smith said.

The project would include 150,000 square feet of retail on the bottom floors of the buildings, which would be clustered around a community courtyard.

Patel at one point planned to build a condominium tower in place of the dilapidated Maas Brothers building downtown, but he sold that building to another developer. He also was tapped by the city to redevelop the Old Federal Courthouse downtown.

Patel planned to invest more than $6-million in that project, but he and the city abandoned those plans.