John F
October 6th, 2006, 09:25 PM
OK, we're a development forum so I thought this article would get people's interests:
Developer wants to put city hall on top of grocery store (http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/stories/2006/10/02/daily47.html?f=et83&hbx=e_du)
Tampa Bay Business Journal - 12:13 PM EDT Friday
by Michael Hinman
When Temple Terrace officials said they wanted to make sure their downtown redevelopment project was mixed-use, they likely weren't thinking about building city hall on top of a Sweetbay Supermarket.
That idea was presented Wednesday night by the partnership of Chicago-based Transwestern Commercial Services and Chesapeake Atlantic Holdings Inc. of Tampa, one of four development groups interested in transforming 35 acres of strip malls and outparcels into the city's new downtown.
"We're not going to build a power center. We're not going to build a retail center filled with boxes for people that go to Target or Kmart," said Greg Hughes, president and chief executive officer of Chesapeake. "This is going to be a downtown. This is going to be a town square. We'd like to build a city hall on the property and build it on top of Sweetbay. We want to integrate the two and have a real downtown."
The suggestion drew some surprised chuckles from the audience filled with more than 50 residents and city officials, but Transwestern's Midwest region president, Robert Bagguley, said after the presentation that such an idea is quite serious. However, Bagguley has not yet presented such an idea to Sweetbay officials, who hold a long-term lease on the property.
Nicole LaBeau, a spokeswoman for Sweetbay, said officials there hadn't heard this idea but it's not something they would dismiss outright.
"As we always said, we're open to many different concepts," LaBeau said. "We do have some criteria that has to work for us, but because this is the first time I'm hearing about it, there's not much more I can say. It's a unique idea, but I'm really not sure if it would work for us."
Project could support higher leases
City officials allotted Wednesday and Thursday nights for the four potential developers to make a presentation on their ideas for the land where condominiums, retail and office space, and civic structures such as city hall and a cultural center are planned.
Also presenting on the first night were officials from Temple Terrace Investments LLC, a joint venture between Atlanta-based The Vlass Group, MJ Lant Developments of Suwanee, Ga., and Maitland's Marketplace Advisors Inc. That group spent most of its presentation talking about regional demographics and decided to take a turn from what other developers were proposing. It said the downtown region needs more density than currently planned not less.
Many of the developers were referring to a plan developed a few years ago by Maryland-based Torti Gallas & Partners, which called for New Urban buildings lining North 56th Street south of Bullard Parkway and creating a more pedestrian-friendly environment. Chesapeake and Transwestern had invited officials from Torti Gallas to take part in their team, and some representatives on the company were on hand to support the Chesapeake concept.
Bringing in tenants to a new commercial/retail/residential project could be difficult on all fronts, said city community services director Ralph Bosek, with the combination of a softening residential market as well as the fact that commercial rents in the new town center likely would be above $30 per square foot, higher than surrounding properties where rent sits at no more than $25 per square foot.
"The (proposed) tenants are very specific. They know their demographics, and they know their numbers," Chesapeake's Hughes said. "What is even more important is to have them buy into the enthusiasm to what we want them to build, to pay something that is 10 to 50 to 100 percent more."
For what Chesapeake and Transwestern wants to build, there are simply no comparisons in the immediate surrounding area, Hughes said.
Temple Terrace Investments' Michael Vlass of The Vlass Group said the condominium market is not as weak as many people believe, citing a project he's involved with in Altamonte Springs where he is about to break ground on a $120 million condo project.
"We will do it with more equity than less equity if we don't have enough presales," Vlass said. "That's a gut call, but you have to reach deep in your pocket. Instead of doing $10 million of equity, we'll do $40 million."
Experience, issues come to table
Two other developers, DeBartolo Development LLC and a group teaming up Pinnacle Realty Advisors, Ram Development Co. and Cooper Carry are scheduled to make presentations Thursday night at Temple Terrace's Omar K. Lightfoot Center on 56th Street.
Whatever developer is chosen by Oct. 17 will take over a project that has been on the drawing board since 2000 that had other developers previously attached, most recently Orlando-based Unicorp National Developments, which left last July after failing to come to terms with a long-term lease held by Sweetbay. Voters also rejected a measure in August 2005 that would've increased property taxes to pay for more than $20 million in infrastructure improvements on the property, forcing city officials to scramble to find alternative funding sources.
Transwestern most recently completed a project in Glenview, Ill., a Chicago suburb, that turned an old U.S. Navy base into a town center surrounded by residential units.
Chesapeake has had a more local history, renovating a then 78-year-old building in 1998 and remodeled it so that it could become the 12-story, 60,000-square-foot regional headquarters for Huntington Bancshares Inc., now occupied by M&I Bank. That building, however, later became involved in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy case by Chesapeake in May 2004 that cited $7.6 million in debt. Original tenant Huntington Bank had merged with SunTrust Bank, forcing them to vacate 20,000 square feet there in 2002, allowing Gold Bank -- now M&I -- to take over the space.
A month before, Hughes had told the Tampa Bay Business Journal that his company had fallen on "difficult times" while in a dispute with Tampa city officials on what to do with the former Maas Bros. building he owned downtown. Hughes sold the building, located on North Franklin Street, to 610 Franklin LLC in March 2005 for $3.8 million to help settle outstanding debt. 610 Franklin is currently developing the site into a condominium project.
Developer wants to put city hall on top of grocery store (http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/stories/2006/10/02/daily47.html?f=et83&hbx=e_du)
Tampa Bay Business Journal - 12:13 PM EDT Friday
by Michael Hinman
When Temple Terrace officials said they wanted to make sure their downtown redevelopment project was mixed-use, they likely weren't thinking about building city hall on top of a Sweetbay Supermarket.
That idea was presented Wednesday night by the partnership of Chicago-based Transwestern Commercial Services and Chesapeake Atlantic Holdings Inc. of Tampa, one of four development groups interested in transforming 35 acres of strip malls and outparcels into the city's new downtown.
"We're not going to build a power center. We're not going to build a retail center filled with boxes for people that go to Target or Kmart," said Greg Hughes, president and chief executive officer of Chesapeake. "This is going to be a downtown. This is going to be a town square. We'd like to build a city hall on the property and build it on top of Sweetbay. We want to integrate the two and have a real downtown."
The suggestion drew some surprised chuckles from the audience filled with more than 50 residents and city officials, but Transwestern's Midwest region president, Robert Bagguley, said after the presentation that such an idea is quite serious. However, Bagguley has not yet presented such an idea to Sweetbay officials, who hold a long-term lease on the property.
Nicole LaBeau, a spokeswoman for Sweetbay, said officials there hadn't heard this idea but it's not something they would dismiss outright.
"As we always said, we're open to many different concepts," LaBeau said. "We do have some criteria that has to work for us, but because this is the first time I'm hearing about it, there's not much more I can say. It's a unique idea, but I'm really not sure if it would work for us."
Project could support higher leases
City officials allotted Wednesday and Thursday nights for the four potential developers to make a presentation on their ideas for the land where condominiums, retail and office space, and civic structures such as city hall and a cultural center are planned.
Also presenting on the first night were officials from Temple Terrace Investments LLC, a joint venture between Atlanta-based The Vlass Group, MJ Lant Developments of Suwanee, Ga., and Maitland's Marketplace Advisors Inc. That group spent most of its presentation talking about regional demographics and decided to take a turn from what other developers were proposing. It said the downtown region needs more density than currently planned not less.
Many of the developers were referring to a plan developed a few years ago by Maryland-based Torti Gallas & Partners, which called for New Urban buildings lining North 56th Street south of Bullard Parkway and creating a more pedestrian-friendly environment. Chesapeake and Transwestern had invited officials from Torti Gallas to take part in their team, and some representatives on the company were on hand to support the Chesapeake concept.
Bringing in tenants to a new commercial/retail/residential project could be difficult on all fronts, said city community services director Ralph Bosek, with the combination of a softening residential market as well as the fact that commercial rents in the new town center likely would be above $30 per square foot, higher than surrounding properties where rent sits at no more than $25 per square foot.
"The (proposed) tenants are very specific. They know their demographics, and they know their numbers," Chesapeake's Hughes said. "What is even more important is to have them buy into the enthusiasm to what we want them to build, to pay something that is 10 to 50 to 100 percent more."
For what Chesapeake and Transwestern wants to build, there are simply no comparisons in the immediate surrounding area, Hughes said.
Temple Terrace Investments' Michael Vlass of The Vlass Group said the condominium market is not as weak as many people believe, citing a project he's involved with in Altamonte Springs where he is about to break ground on a $120 million condo project.
"We will do it with more equity than less equity if we don't have enough presales," Vlass said. "That's a gut call, but you have to reach deep in your pocket. Instead of doing $10 million of equity, we'll do $40 million."
Experience, issues come to table
Two other developers, DeBartolo Development LLC and a group teaming up Pinnacle Realty Advisors, Ram Development Co. and Cooper Carry are scheduled to make presentations Thursday night at Temple Terrace's Omar K. Lightfoot Center on 56th Street.
Whatever developer is chosen by Oct. 17 will take over a project that has been on the drawing board since 2000 that had other developers previously attached, most recently Orlando-based Unicorp National Developments, which left last July after failing to come to terms with a long-term lease held by Sweetbay. Voters also rejected a measure in August 2005 that would've increased property taxes to pay for more than $20 million in infrastructure improvements on the property, forcing city officials to scramble to find alternative funding sources.
Transwestern most recently completed a project in Glenview, Ill., a Chicago suburb, that turned an old U.S. Navy base into a town center surrounded by residential units.
Chesapeake has had a more local history, renovating a then 78-year-old building in 1998 and remodeled it so that it could become the 12-story, 60,000-square-foot regional headquarters for Huntington Bancshares Inc., now occupied by M&I Bank. That building, however, later became involved in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy case by Chesapeake in May 2004 that cited $7.6 million in debt. Original tenant Huntington Bank had merged with SunTrust Bank, forcing them to vacate 20,000 square feet there in 2002, allowing Gold Bank -- now M&I -- to take over the space.
A month before, Hughes had told the Tampa Bay Business Journal that his company had fallen on "difficult times" while in a dispute with Tampa city officials on what to do with the former Maas Bros. building he owned downtown. Hughes sold the building, located on North Franklin Street, to 610 Franklin LLC in March 2005 for $3.8 million to help settle outstanding debt. 610 Franklin is currently developing the site into a condominium project.