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Neighborhood Report

Renewal plan excites, concerns

A five-block plan would bring retail and housing. Some worry about traffic and the need for affordable living.

By ALDO NAHED
Published August 18, 2006

Two years ago, Chris Lutz and his parents took a gamble and opened the New Hyde Park Deli in an industrial, depressed area of West Tampa.

They close at 2 p.m. and on weekends after all the warehouse workers have left.

But Lutz is hopeful a developer's vision for renewing about 13 acres of adjacent land into mixed-use residential and retail will pay off for the Cass Street restaurant.

"We can't see anything more blooming," Lutz said. "They're trying to make this area a nice area.

"We'll have the possibility to open late and on the weekends."

Ken Morin, president of Morin Development Group, is behind the $100-million West End project, which includes 286 apartments, 240 condominiums, 46 townhouses and 20,000 square feet of retail space in five city blocks between Rome and Oregon avenues.

"We're turning a blighted area that doesn't belong there to something that does belong," Morin said. "We're setting the standard of what is going to happen in that neighborhood."

Morin's request to rezone the site is set to go to the City Council on Sept. 14.

Not everyone supports the idea. Some fear the units, priced in the upper $200,000s to $300,000s, will be too expensive for West Tampa residents.

"One of the things we are concerned about is that at least some of the units are affordable," said Michael Randolph of the West Tampa Community Development Corp.

Tampa council member Kevin White, whose district includes the development, said he has a "mixed bag of emotions" about it.

"I grew up in that area," White said. "I've had several calls from residents worried about an increase in traffic."

He also can see the benefits.

Morin said the area is ripe for revival. It's close to downtown, the University of Tampa, Hyde Park and West Shore. The housing units will be more "attainable" than "affordable," he said.

"Our market is the young professional, hovering in the high five-figure income," Morin said.

Morin said he has worked out a small loan assistance program with Fifth Third Bank to help potential buyers.

Randolph said that's not enough. He wants affordable units included in the project, citing InTown Homes, a project by Ed Turanchik to build more than 70 affordable homes from $164,000 to $239,000.

"They need to compromise so that this is a good deal for the developer and the neighborhood," Randolph said.

Morin developed Walter's Crossing shopping center at Interstate 275 and Dale Mabry Highway, the AMC Veterans 24 movie theater off Veterans Expressway and the Suncoast Crossings mixed-used project in southern Pasco County.

He hopes to start selling West End units early next year.

Oscar French, 64, a retired educator who has lived in West Tampa for 33 years, hopes the project will help raise property values.

"The warehouses that are there now look terrible," he said.

But he's concerned that the money generated by the expanded tax base will leave the neighborhood.

"Anything that can be done in West Tampa to revitalize this area is a good thing," he said. "But we want some of those dollars to stay here in West Tampa."

[Last modified August 17, 2006, 11:03:10]