last libation at leverock’s
michaelDue to the increase in development in the waterview areas of the Tampa area many of the local spots are disappearing. There are two articles in today’s Tribune dealing with this issue.
The first, and most sentimental, is about Leverock’s, a local beach bar/restaurant that has been a mainstay on Boca Ciega Bay since the mid-80’s. The owners are selling out to condo developers. They will serve the last beer on April 24th.
“One side of me is happy because it was a good deal, financially, for us, but on the other side, I’ll be somewhat sentimental for me,” co-owner George Lewis said Wednesday. “It’s just kind of sad to see you’ve worked on something so hard for so many years and know it’s not going to be there.”
The other article discusses the loss of hotel space due to condo conversions. We have already lost 8.5% of the counties’ rooms to conversions. Another 2000 rooms will be converted in 2006-07. That will decrease our rental capacity by nearly 15%.
Combine this decrease in hotel space with an increase in tourism and you have problems on the horizon.
Despite the losses, the county had a record 5.2 million visitors in 2005, up 2.7 percent from the previous year.
And there was a significant tourism loss from all of the hurricanes. The loss of these rooms, particularly affordable hotel space, will affect the area in unknown ways in the years to come.
I’m a big fan of development. My wife owns a Real Estate company. But we need to control our development or we may grow too quickly and find we’ve lost what made Tampa great to begin with.
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February 10th, 2006 at 11:54 am
Too late.
February 10th, 2006 at 4:27 pm
Latest rumor I heard, the Pub in Indian Shores is going condo soon too.
Dave