Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

this is the first in a series

When I was in architecture school (at beautiful Clemson University), I learned the Rule of Thirds for estimating how long a project will take.

Consider all the factors that could impact construction time, from permitting to material delivery to labor, and come up with a good estimate of how long construction will take. Once you have that date, construction will take about a third longer than that.

However, if you are clever and try to include that third longer, the Rule of Thirds says that construction will now take a third longer than your new estimate—meaning if you try to get ahead on guessing when a project will be finished, you will in fact never finish it.  This is why nothing is ever done when the developers say it will be.

A case in point is The Residences of Franklin Street.

This eight-story condominium project has 40 units (34 of them sold) and sits on the 1100 block between N Franklin and N Tampa streets south of Royal (blue marker #1).

The developers expected construction to take a year, finishing up in the first quarter of 2006. They missed—and by about a third. They should actually finish up in June or July—still plenty of time to get a jump on the rest of new condo construction.

That nice sweeping roofline contains a much nicer common room than… my place.

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