West Tampa on move thanks to private push
By A TIMES EDITORIAL
Published June 4, 2007
West Tampa is turning around, and private - not public - money is behind it. Developers and businesses have committed millions to bring residents back to one of the city's oldest and most storied neighborhoods, resurrecting the front-porch feel of a community where people can live, shop and socialize within a short walk from home.
That's not the typical pattern. Cities and counties normally use a well-worn Florida law to steer tax money within a blighted area to major infrastructure projects, loans and grants. The idea is that new roads, sidewalks and other public works projects will act as seed money to attract the sort of private investment flowing now into West Tampa. Make no mistake - these schemes work, or Florida would not have more than 140 Community Redevelopment Areas. But West Tampa is coming back without a CRA, and that says something about the area's potential to become a good place to live and do business again.
West Tampa was incorporated in the 1890s as a factory town for the cigar industry, and it has, to a considerable degree, retained a unique identity, despite the Interstate and decades of social and economic change that laid waste to small-town main streets. It has the essentials a developer needs - a clean plat, proximity to downtown, decent roads and enough housing potential to support two commercial corridors - which explains why the private sector is not waiting around for the government. Dozens of new homes, in traditional style, are open or under construction, with scores more planned. Investors are renovating historic buildings and business people have opened a general store and expanded a gourmet restaurant. Civic and business leaders are writing a marketing plan to further raise their profile.
The city can do several things to help. It is negotiating to turn the historic Armory, one of Tampa's few Art Deco structures, into a hotel and retail market south of the Interstate on Howard Avenue. To the north on Howard, the city is considering how to use a 95-year-old landmark, Centro Espanol, a former Spanish social club, as a catalyst for the neighborhood. These two properties are incredible assets that could transform West Tampa's commercial and cultural draw. They also underscore how badly the area needs parking - not a garage, but small lots near the main corridor. The city should provide them. Without parking, vacant lots stay vacant and retail cannot develop. It makes more sense for shared lots to serve an entire area than for investors to waste their money on surface parking. That money should be spent growing the business.
West Tampa also is getting its political act together. Business leaders have gotten better at putting their interests on the mayor's radar screen. The civic community is energetic and united. Many serious issues remain; the growth has brought poverty and racial tensions that are likely to exacerbate as development moves east toward the river. But up to now, at least, the business community has been careful not to bigfoot existing residents. Indeed it has tried to integrate growth with the area's character. That, too, is a departure from the urban renewal model, and another good one.