Another day, another ground-breaking. Another day, another developer plan announced.
Here a Skyhouse Channelside or Martin at Meridian, there a Residences at Riverwalk or The Plaza at Harbour Island. Certainly seems that way these days. What real estate bubble?
As Mayor Bob Buckhorn has unsubtly noted: “This will be a radically different skyline over the next five years.”
Believe it.
Moreover, amid the Vinikville scenarios–including Channelside Live and a de facto USF Medical District–the Bill Gates involvement and Megatrendy signs of realized potential, there is this. Tampa plans are now afoot for something even more meaningful. Something that wouldn’t be built on surface parking lots.
The significance of what is being planned for the long-vacant S. H. Kress & Co. building on Franklin Street, a block north of Tampa Theatre, can’t be overstated. This is more than lofty apartments and condo towers to accommodate millennial recruitment. This is more than PowerPoint score-keeping to counter Charlotte and Austin.
This is literally building on Tampa’s past–the former “five and dime” department store dates to 1929 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Its location is also Exhibit A for urban renewal failure and plywood ambience. It’s been a stark, gnawing reminder since closing in 1981.
It speaks volumes about the viability of downtown and the market confidence of bottom liners that a team of Tampa and Atlanta developers, Walson Ventures and HRV Hotel Partners, respectively, wants in on the action. They certainly envision much more than an ad hoc (Republican National Convention) jazz club or an intriguing venue for a mayoral (2013) state-of-the-city address.
Their plan is to put up a 22-story, 190-room hotel and 58-apartment tower on the Kress block. As proposed, the ground floor of the Kress would morph into the hotel’s lobby. The facades of the nearby F.W. Woolworth and J. J. Newbury buildings, whose preservation was once a deal-breaker with the Doran Jason Group, would be the fronts of street-level restaurants.
This isn’t by-the-numbers urban infill. This is Tampa’s roots repurposed as part of its future. Urban renewal, in effect, that works.
In fact, it all harkens back to Kress’ original role in helping transform Tampa from a modest frontier village to a major Florida city. Now this Renaissance Revival icon, one of the last major commercial structures erected in Tampa before the onset of the Great Depression, symbolizes the re-emergence of downtown urban spaces.
Timing is, of course, everything. It’s hardly coincidental that Kress plans follow two recently debuted, historic revitalizations downtown. Le Meridien Hotel is the well-appointed reincarnation of the historic federal courthouse and Ulele Restaurant is the impressively repurposed Water Works Building. They been well received.
Now there’s talk of cultural tourism–not just architectural integrity and millennial magnet.