Movin’ On Up, to the East Side
tommyWhile I was away, a couple more high-rise residential buildings were announced for downtown Tampa. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it’s been a dozen years since a high-rise/skyscraper (either 100 North Tampa, or SunTust Financial Centre) was completed here. There have been others that reached the planning stages. Remember the 45 story “Hillsborough River Tower?” Announced in 1997, construction has not yet begun. How about the huge three-building complex “Heritage Park” to be built just south of SunTrust? That one was proposed in 2000. For sure, the economic downturn in the early 00’s probably had something to do with keeping the shovels out of the dirt. But now, for the last 2 years, residential high-rises (and medium-rises) are popping up all around downtown. Channelside has seen the most activity, with announcements of Channelside 212, Meridian Lofts, Victory Lofts (each 5 stories or less), 12 story Grand Central at Kennedy, double 37 story Pinnacle Place (with it’s ridiculous “space needle”), and twin 30-story Towers at Channelside. A couple residential projects are slated for other parts of downtown, including Bank of America’s three 10-story condos just north of downtown, a couple of small ones on N. Franklin St. Parkside of One Bayshore just west of the river, and the Arts Center Lofts just east of the river. Now to all of that (and I think I may have missed some) add the new 50 story tower on the river, and the new 51 story high-rise in central downtown. Is anyone keeping track of all of this? This and this are the closest I could find of a current comprehensive listing on the ‘net. Should all of these come to fruition, the number of tall buildings downtown would at least double, and the skyline would be significantly altered.
By the way, in the 3rd quarter of 2003, the median price for homes in Tampa/St. Pete/Clearwater was $138,600. I don’t recall seeing any of these downtown condos/lofts/residences available for less than $155,000. While getting people to live downtown certainly should keep the area alive after 6pm, it would be nice to see some residences offered for $120K or even less…
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