Comments on: thanks, dick

By: Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog » Blog Archive » centro ybor is still ours

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 17:04:11 +0000

[...] agreement with M&J Wilkow who bought the struggling Complex last year. I posted on it back in November 2006 when Wilkow first bought the property and more recently we talked about the positive attitude some [...]

By: crack ho

crack ho — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 16:14:02 +0000

ybor was greatest 1994-96. Speedy Brown’s.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 08:07:51 +0000

I would have to agree with the above poster. I preferred the original courtyard. Centro Ybor was a sign of the end. Ybor has been getting progressively worse since about 1994. The city is killing it with nasty ordinances, and the property owners have been killing it with greedy rents for years. Centro Ybor was a horrible idea to begin with, and I would be perfectly happy if it was abandoned and demolished.

By: crack ho

crack ho — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 22:42:23 +0000

ybor was great before they built centro ybor. before that it was cool with the courtyard, Ybor Pizza, and Angelica’s. i bet everybody wishes Centro Ybor had never been built, nobody has benefitted from it.

By: Jason

Jason — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 01:53:14 +0000

“i dont see one or the other has to fail.”

I want to note that this is the closest D has ever come to saying something positive about anything on SoF!

By: dreaming

dreaming — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 01:20:45 +0000

i dont see one or the other has to fail. dont westshore and international plaza thrive 1 mile apart? theres a walgreens an cvs in competition on every corner. the problem is the customers for ybor and channelside are the same right now: kids 14-29. thats the way its going to stay until theres a retail base at either center. then adults will come to shop and eat. but the old folks just dont go to bars and movies and hooters/adobe gilas. the kids who flock to channelside on fri ands sat once roamed 7th ave until the city made ybor less than appealing by hurting the entertainment establishments there. the trolley is an irrelevent red herring. for tourists only who stay at the marriot waterside or the ybor hilton. now that was a bondoggle, bt nor centro and channelside. thers ample room for both in an area with 3m people.

By: Karen

Karen — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 20:19:59 +0000

Let’s not forget that there is another, almost identical project just about a mile away … Channelside … also finanically backed by the city and linked to Centro Ybor by a taxpayer-supported trolley car. Did planners honestly think that these two carbon copies would succeed? One or the other was doomed from the start, and my money would be on the one nearest our best resource … the waterfront.

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 14:34:59 +0000

Good points all, incidentally regarding crime. I did see a shooting in Ybor a few weeks ago. A group of kids following some cars down 7th got into a big fight and one of them fired a shot off. Nobody got hit but in all the years I have been to Ybor that was a first for me.

By: dreaming

dreaming — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 14:20:27 +0000

yr right that its up to no one but business itself to make itself attractve to customers. when they fail, everyone likes to blame the customers instead of the real culprit: the business’ failure to offer what customrs want. some businesses in centro have seemingly done well: adobe gilas, the big bite restaurant, the comedy club and sushi bar and maybe big city tavern. the retail isnt concentrated enough to be a draw. if not the deep pockets of chains like urban outfitters and victorias secret, those places would be empty now. parking and air conditioning are not factors because its much harder to park in coconut grove than ybor. i can testify that cocowalk may not be like the 90s, but its jammed to the rafters even on weeknights still. if theres a draw, then people will follow. the owners just havrnt found the right draw yet. but tampa isnt any help with its silly opening of 7th to traffic. the only safe place for foot traffic in tampa has been turned into a drag strip. bone headed. and for what? no one gets out of their cars. they just cruise up and down. yes crime is down. thats because theres no people there now.

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 12:46:27 +0000

You may very well be correct. This
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15412260.htm
suggests the cocowalk has not been doing very well even though it has a great location. It thrived in the 90’s when Miami residents had wads of disposable income to blow but struggles now. For all the condos going in Ybor sure isn’t the Grove either. Regardless it isn’t the city’s job to make businesses profitable, it is their job to provide a suitable environment for business to thrive. The culling of inefficient businesses is to everybody’s long term benefit.