In a perfect municipal world, downtown Tampa would have St. Petersburg’s waterfront. Vistas, bistros and galleries to die for.
Instead it was bequeathed a stevedore-friendly, warehouse-dotted, industrial waterway. Such that parking garages were considered an upgrade. To induce NCNB to put its regional headquarters in Tampa, a piece of riverfront real estate, less than 100 feet from the water, was made available. We know the resultant structure as the “Beer Can” building. That’s how Tampa, a blue-collar city without a history of downtown residents, functioned back in the day.
But over the past three decades, we’ve been seeing the reclamation of a resource and the dawning of enlightenment: the actual envisioning of the Hillsborough River as a synergistic amenity. Water taxis and a dinner boat roam where barges used to ply. The completion of the Tampa Bay History Center-to-Tampa Heights Riverwalk is now within sight. The product of multi-mayoral visions, the Riverwalk is increasingly a complement to the arts and a downtown draw.
And yet.
For all the new apartments, restaurants, museums and residents, downtown still falls notably–and noticeably–shy of the sort of density expected of a Megatrendy, major city. Mayor Bob Buckhorn, Tampa’s pitchman-in-chief, wants downtown to function 18 hours a day. For that to happen, the city must have–modern mass transit is a given here–more high-profile residential at its core, not just in Channelside. More people beget more retail. More retail pushes a city past de facto 9-to-5 curfews.
“Our goal is that 10 years from now, that waterfront is the center of our downtown, not the western edge,” recently underscored Buckhorn. The clock is ticking.
Now cue that highly anticipated, well-chronicled Tampa City Council vote for the controversial, 36-story, 500-resident tower planned for an acre next to the Straz Center for the Performing Arts. The $85-million Residences at the Riverwalk also includes 10,000 square feet of shops and restaurants.
In effect, the tower vote pitted those with a vision across the years and across a pedestrian-dense landscape vs. those with a view looking up at 36 stories and around at smaller-scale arts neighbors. Perspective has rarely been such a loaded–or literal–issue.
As it turned out, a five-member Council majority agreed with the mayor, the Straz board, the Friends of the Riverwalk, the Tampa Museum of Art, the American Institute of Architects, the Tampa Downtown Partnership and others who had already endorsed the residential tower’s role as an energizing density-magnet for downtown.
In the end, it was a 5-2 vote for a downtown future that places a premium on livable places, connectivity and diversity. It was also a vote for embracing the river and the waterfront.
But while the favorable vote was a net-plus for downtown Tampa, the process had its less-than-positive moments. Sure, Mary Mulhern and Yolie Capín were the dissenting duo. That was no surprise. This was no forum for rubber-stampers. But what was shocking was Capín’s lack of preparation. Asking the right questions and knowing what’s properly on–and not on–the agenda is basic. The voters, this project, and prospects for a transformative future for downtown deserved better.
Frankly, the juxtaposition of Capín with the well-prepared, eloquent Harry Cohen was incongruous and, well, cringe-inducing. They are members of the same elected body?