plenty of retail space available
tommySome of the condos built in and around downtown Tampa are finished. But the occupancy rate on these expensive homes are much less than first speculated. As we noted some time ago, many that bought those homes are investors (flippers). They have no intention of living there, and only want to sell for a profit.
On the bottom floor of many of these condo buildings is a bunch of retail space. Since there is no one living in the building, it makes little sense for any business to lease these spaces. It could take a decade or more to fill any one of the handful of high rise condo buildings, and who wants to pay rent for ten years in the hopes of finding a few customers in year eleven?
Because they can’t lease the space, builders are now offering to SELL those retail spaces. So if you want to get in on the ground floor (ha!) of a great opportunity, you may want to think about buying one of these building bottoms.
Don’t you wish the insurance industry had to just deal with it in bad years, as some of these developers do?
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January 26th, 2007 at 9:52 am
i never bought the fantasy that condos would mean downtown comes alive. bayshore has had condos for decades, but its a ghost town along there and behind it. the riverwalk wont work either. a nice park for bums. until somebody builds an urban mall a la city place in west palm beach, you’ll be looking at empty storefronts and homeless people downtown for the foreseeable future
January 26th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
The notion of urban blight and urban renewal has always peaked my interest. Why do you think it is that the condo boom downtown won’t really get off the ground? Is it over-priced? Or is the reality of it all that the general public would rather drive 40-60 minutes through harrowing traffic to get to work/play rather than sacrafice a few hundred square feet of St. Augustine grass?
January 26th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
way over priced
January 26th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Really depends on how you define “condo boom,” JCyr. Since 2003, Victory Lofts, the Meridian, Channelside 212, the Arlington, One Bayshore and Residences at Franklin have become recent additions to downtown/Channelside. This year alone we’ll see the completion of Skypoint, the Place, Grand Central, Ventana, Towers of Channelside, and Franklin Street Lofts. Sure, many of those were bought by flippers and it will be a while before these buidings are completely filled with owners and/or renters. But if you consider the fact that none of these were here just 5 years ago, that’s at least a “mini-boom.”
And no urban mall is going to drive the homeless out of Tampa’s downtown. They’ll still be hanging out next to the river and sleeping on the steps of Sacred Heart.
January 26th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Dreaming, yoru nay-saying goes hand in hand with your namesake (Dreaming) that Aria Green will mean anything good for the city.,..
Fact is, Tommy’s post is ambiguous and does not touch on the fact the article which inspired the post was aiming at the Grand Central At Kennedy (which has not opened) project. The article mentions One Bayshore and the failings to bring in retail there…
While Tommy does a good job nailing the flippers, what he doesn’t do is talking about those who have bought into Grand Central, and the Ventana, and Towers at Channelside, and Skypoint, The Slade, Franklin Lofts or other projects downtown who haven’t moved in yet (GCK will not start seeing people move in for weeks yet, Skypoint for another 3 months, etc). Business owners do not want to make an investment in buildings when there is no solid occupancy numbers and that is the case. Yet all Channelside district shops differentiate from Bayshore Boulevard (and who said those towers have retail to begin with?) because they are in the middle of what IS a tourist destination with the Port. With the convention center and the cruise ships. there is still a need for shopping in the area regardless of residents int he area or not.
January 27th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
my point is that condos do not equal a market for retail anywhere, let alone downtown tampa. there is almost no retail in channelside and ybor city, places where people actually do go. no one goes to downtown tampa. the residents of the new towers there will not be enough to support retail which needs large numbers and convenient parking to make profits. i live pt in downtown miami and see about 100x times more condo construction than tampa, but downtown miami is not a retail center and wont be any time soon, despite about 68k condo units coming on line. none of the new condo buildings have retail in them, except maybe small convenience stores for the residents.
January 27th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
Halleluejah! The sons and daughters of South American and Carribean dictators who attend the University of Tampa will have to slum, and live next door to upper-middle-class yankees in luxuriously safe condominiums. I guess they built all those brand new dormitories on campus for the hoi polloi. I miss Delo hall. I do not miss sneaking across the river to get high with the homeless and walk through the urine soaked hallway by the amphitheater. The real estate industry deserves some serious regulation, considering how much trouble Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may be in, maybe we’ll get it in a few decades…
January 27th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
I really get aggro when people say no one goes Downtown and that there’s nothing Downtown. That’s a huge overstatement, really. Look at TBPAC today alone - 7 shows with a total attendance nearing 7,000. While Gasparilla was going on a stone’s throw away from the building.
Granted, no one wants to walk from TBPAC to Franklin or Tampa Streets (or vice-versa) to eat (yes, I realize there aren’t a ton of options - but they are there). The Hub, Fly, Tampa Theater all do decent business as well.
I really do try to keep my business Downtown when I can, because I want to see more Downtown. Too bad I couldn’t afford to live Downtown - several years ago when we were looking to buy the cheapest price we saw was $175,000, and that was just for a small loft. I spent well, well below that for an entire house just 3 minutes north.
I agree though that I really, really hate the figures they use to prove how well all those condos are doing when despite the sales, no one’s living there.
I’m going to go listen to some Petula Clark now …
March 24th, 2007 at 8:57 pm
Well, personally, I would LOVE to rent / lease a place at the Meridian or Victory Lofts or The Place– not interested in buying SO if anyone knows who to talk to about this, let me know! leyoung02@aol.com