Tampa Heights Redevelopment

[FloridaFuture]

I didn't see a Tamp Heights thread, so I give it it's own. Too bad it's only two stories, maybe we'll be able to see this in the Skypoint webcam.

Tampa Heights legal community gains momentum with new HQ
Tampa Bay Business Journal - 2:49 PM EST Thursdayby Danielle Randall

Bush Ross P.A. broke ground in Tampa Heights Wednesday, marking its construction project to resurrect a new home office building.

Bush Ross's $10 million building will be the third major construction project among the legal circuit in Tampa Heights, said Jeffrey W. Warren, president and co-founder for Bush Ross. The University of Stetson Law School Campus was the first to make Tampa Heights its home, and the Hillsborough County Bar Association was the second, he said.


The firm's new location will also share area's Mediterranean architecture style, Warren said.

A planned two-story office building is slated to be complete in a year, and it will be situated on 1.12 acres. The 34,000-square-foot office will house 52 attorneys and more than 50 people in supporting staff, a release said. Its new location is one block north of the new Stetson Law School Campus, at the corner of W. Henderson Avenue and Doyle Carlton Drive. Azzarelli Builders Inc. in Tampa was named the general contractor, and RBK Architects in Tampa is designing the building.

Bush Ross P.A. has been a downtown Tampa fixture for the past 26 years. The firm is currently located in a historic brick building in downtown Tampa at 220 South Franklin Street.

The firm's leaders decided to relocate to Tampa Heights for additional office space and because of its relative proximity to downtown Tampa, the Federal and State Courthouses, government offices and major roads, Warren said. Mercantile Bank in Tampa provided contract financing.

In addition, Bush Ross will also help improve and maintain the neighboring Phil Bourquardez public park as part of its construction deal.

http://tampabay.bizjournals.com/tamp...l?surround=lfn

[jonknee]

Thanks! I drive by there all the time and was wondering what they were working on. That area can use some development. It gets sketchy pretty fast. Doyle Carlton is nice because it borders the river, but Henderson around Florida could be a lot nicer. That being said, with the Salvation Army and Metropolitan Ministries right near there, there are always going to be a lot of homeless walking around.

[smiley]

This article fails to point out that after they build this building they can sell their offices across from the TCC and make a large sum

Tampa Heights legal community gains momentum with new HQ
Tampa Bay Business Journal - 2:49 PM EST Thursdayby Danielle Randall
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Bush Ross P.A. broke ground in Tampa Heights Wednesday, marking its construction project to resurrect a new home office building.

Bush Ross's $10 million building will be the third major construction project among the legal circuit in Tampa Heights, said Jeffrey W. Warren, president and co-founder for Bush Ross. The University of Stetson Law School Campus was the first to make Tampa Heights its home, and the Hillsborough County Bar Association was the second, he said.


The firm's new location will also share area's Mediterranean architecture style, Warren said.

A planned two-story office building is slated to be complete in a year, and it will be situated on 1.12 acres. The 34,000-square-foot office will house 52 attorneys and more than 50 people in supporting staff, a release said. Its new location is one block north of the new Stetson Law School Campus, at the corner of W. Henderson Avenue and Doyle Carlton Drive. Azzarelli Builders Inc. in Tampa was named the general contractor, and RBK Architects in Tampa is designing the building.

Bush Ross P.A. has been a downtown Tampa fixture for the past 26 years. The firm is currently located in a historic brick building in downtown Tampa at 220 South Franklin Street.

The firm's leaders decided to relocate to Tampa Heights for additional office space and because of its relative proximity to downtown Tampa, the Federal and State Courthouses, government offices and major roads, Warren said. Mercantile Bank in Tampa provided contract financing.

In addition, Bush Ross will also help improve and maintain the neighboring Phil Bourquardez public park as part of its construction deal.

http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/...=et83&hbx=e_du

[FloridaFuture]

Wasn't that one of the lots that that mysterious hotel project was rendered on that someone dug up from a developer's site a few weeks ago?

Edit- Yea on page 51 of the tampa Development thread.

[Jasonhouse]

oh snap... I didn't realize this is the law firm across the street from the TCC... good call smiley!

[FloridaFuture]

This is what I love to hear.

Rustic Steel's deal for firehouse done, restoration in process
Tampa Bay Business Journal - 8:03 AM EST Thursdayby Danielle Randall

Rustic Steel Creations Inc. has closed on its purchase for the historic Tampa Heights fire station.

The Tampa company purchased the historic building, formerly known as fire station number five, for $365,000, said Dominique Martinez, Rustic's owner.


The deal was finalized Jan. 30. Further deal details were not available. The property had been appraised for the same amount as the sale price.

On Jan. 15, 2006, the city issued a request for proposals for an office, retail, housing and/or or mixed-use development for the property. On Nov. 30, the city awarded Rustic Steel project, according to the city's growth Management & Development Services department.

The city has given Rustic Steel a two-year deadline to renovate the early-20th century property, Martinez said.

The firm has already begun securing the perimeters with fencing, and next week it will remove debris, he said.

In the meantime, Rustic Steel is looking for subcontractors to help the company in the restoration of the two-story building located at 1910 N. Florida Ave. in the Tampa Heights Historic District, Martinez said.

http://tampabay.bizjournals.com/tamp...l?surround=lfn

[FloridaFuture]

The Past Echoes In Decaying Auditorium

By JOSE PATINO GIRONA The Tampa Tribune

Published: Feb 24, 2007


TAMPA HEIGHTS - Last summer, Marilyn Figueredo took a tour of the former Jefferson High School, now the D.W. Waters Career Center, as part of her 40-year class reunion.

When she walked in the auditorium, she was horrified. The wooden chairs, which had been bolted to the floor, were uprooted and piled to the side. There was dust everywhere, said Figueredo, who graduated from the school in 1966.

"It looks like a bomb has been detonated in the auditorium," she said.

Figueredo, who lives in Oakford Park near West Tampa, and other alumnus and the current school staff, are campaigning to restore the auditorium. They have raised about $2,300, far from the $2.5 million needed for the project, Principal Veronica Knight said.

The school on North Highland Avenue was built in 1910 and has had several incarnations. It was first Hillsborough County High School, then Jefferson High from 1939-67. It became a junior high in 1968 and later was turned into school district offices.

The district was planning to board up the building or sell the property, but Jefferson alumnus demanded the district restore the building.

It was renovated in 2002 at a cost of $9 million, but the auditorium was not included in the project.

When it was Jefferson High, the auditorium was the setting for physical education classes, basketball games, plays and dances, said Wynelle Gilbert, a 1944 graduate. She is curator of the Jefferson Alumni Museum, which recently donated $2,000 to the restoration of the auditorium.

Those who use the facility also are in favor of the auditorium project. Knight said it is difficult to have events at the school without an auditorium. D.W. Waters Career Center serves 350 students, most of whom are at-risk high school students.

Career center graduations are held at Blake High. Programs are held in the cafeteria, but they have to be presented twice because there isn't room for all the students, Knight said.

"In order to build school spirit, you have to assemble the students," Knight said.

The auditorium won't be returned to the condition of its heyday, which makes it difficult to apply for grant money, Knight said. The balcony was turned into office space during the 2002 restoration.

The school is accepting donations and selling the auditorium's wooden chairs for $50 to raise money for the restoration.

HOW TO HELP
To donate to the restoration effort or to learn more about the project, call Windell Roberson, the school's student intervention specialist, at (813) 233-2655, Ext. 244. The auditorium's wooden chairs also are being sold for $50 each to raise money for renovations. To donate, send a check payable to D.W Waters Career Center and address it to D.W. Waters Career Center, 2704 N. Highland Ave., Tampa FL 33602.

Reporter Jose Patino Girona can be reached at (813) 835-2110 or jpatino@tampatrib.com.

http://centraltampa.tbo.com/centralt...BIVHL7JYE.html

[jonknee]

The wooden chairs, which had been bolted to the floor, were uprooted and piled to the side. There was dust everywhere, said Figueredo, who graduated from the school in 1966.

I wish they would have been more descriptive. That doesn't really sound like a big deal. Clean the chairs, buy some bolts, finish project. No way installing a few hundred seats could cost close to $2.5 million. You could give give kid a designer Herman Miller chair for less than that.

[Jasonhouse]

That article confused me, as I mistakenly thought they were talking about the current Jefferson High in Westshore.

[Chum]

Same here, and they have a fine auditorium, one of the best in town

[Quegiebo]

The Heights: Liftoff Begins

Friday, June 29th, 2007

By Gary Sheperd, Tampa Downtown Partnership

Just north of downtown Tampa, a sleeping giant is stirring. The Heights, perhaps a $1 billion project by the end of its 10-year build out, is being launched. Among activities:

To make way for the massive development, nearly 200 trees are being transplanted from the 48-acre Heights site, westward across the Hillsborough River, to Blake High School. A Better Place Group-Tampa Heights LLC also bought and is moving more than 200 additional trees to Blake.

The trees are being planted on the magnet school’s eastern river frontage, along North Boulevard, and elsewhere on school property. Heights project manager Darren Booth says transplanting the palms, oaks, maples, cypress and other trees should be complete in a few weeks.



Heights developers and Hardeman Kempton & Associates Landscape Architects are cleaning up the historic Ulele Spring at Water Works Park along the Hillsborough River. The spring, which provided drinking water for Tampa residents a century ago, has suffered from neglect. With the help of volunteers such as Boy Scout troops, tons of debris has been removed from around the cool spring’s grounds.

Environmental testing is ongoing in the defunct Tampa Armature Works building. That 70,000-square-foot building once housed streetcar trolleys and was known as the “Trolley Barn.” Its façade will be preserved, and Booth says “adaptive reuse” plans call for a high-rise hotel, retail shopping and office space.

Nearby the project, Tampa law firm Bush Ross P.A is building its new home north of the beautiful Stetson Law School Campus. Bush Ross’s new Spanish-style, two-story building should open early in 2008. On 1.12 acres, Bush Ross’s 34,000 new square feet will house about 100 people, both attorneys and support staff. Jeffrey Warren, president of the 26-year-old firm now headquartered on South Franklin Street, says proximity to downtown and the unique chance to be involved in emerging Heights neighborhood were motivating factors.

The new home of the Hillsborough County Bar Association and Foundation, the Chester H. Ferguson Law Center, has been under construction for about a year adjacent to the Stetson campus near the Heights. It will soon open.

At The Heights itself, 1,900 town homes and condos for more than 3,000 people are planned. The average home will sell for $500,000, says Booth: “Our development is focused on a large range of product and lifestyle. There truly will be something for everyone, with prices ranging from $300,000 to $3 million.”

Also planned are 100,000 square feet of commercial space, 160,000 square feet of office space, public and private boat slips, and redevelopment of the Tampa Water Works Park, a large, lovely riverfront park that today primarily attracts the homeless.

In March, the city’s Architectural Review Committee approved an adaptive reuse design for the Water Works Pumping Station. The landmark building north of Ulele Spring will at first be a sales office for The Heights. One day, says Booth, it will become a high-end restaurant, “a Tavern-on-the-Green type of place.”

A Better Place Group will build new streets and infrastructure for The Heights, which is bounded by North Boulevard, Ross Avenue, Tampa Street, and the river. Booth says developers are working with the city on final approval of the site plan, which determines location of sidewalks and streets; that, in turn, determines exactly where buildings will be located. One goal: Aligning streets for a great view of downtown.

Next will come engineering and design for roads, sidewalks, sewage, storm water, potable water, irrigation, underground electric, gas lines and other infrastructure. Then, says Booth, comes permitting, and construction could begin late in 2008’s first quarter.

The Heights is crucial to the Tampa Riverwalk project. The $40 million, 2.4-mile walkway along the east bank of the Hillsborough River will link The Heights with southern downtown’s Channel District. Florida’s 2007-2008 state budget includes $2 million for the public-private Riverwalk, and Tampa officials are determined to have most of the Riverwalk complete when Tampa hosts the Super Bowl in 2009.

Heights developers are responsible for one mile of the Riverwalk, from the Performing Arts Center to the North Boulevard Bridge over the Hillsborough River. Hardeman Kempton has completed Riverwalk Phase I design work, including the Water Works Park section. About $3 million dollars will be spent on this area, including pedestrian walkways with lighting, an interactive water feature, public art, a playground, benches, picnic tables, ornamental landscaping and lawns.

The result will be about five acres of public space … and spectacular views of the river and southward to the downtown skyline.

In short, the area north of downtown Tampa is about to be reborn.

Principals behind The Heights are Bill Bishop, responsible for Westchase and Fishhawk Ranch developments, and Don Wallace, former boss of the giant Lazy Days RV Supercenter in east Hillsborough County.

http://www.tampasdowntown.com/newsletter.aspx?newid=69

[jonknee]

Town homes starting at $300,000 aren't exactly "for everyone". It sounds great and all, but that's more than a lot of units at Skypoint (a high rise).

[FloridaFuture]

At The Heights itself, 1,900 town homes and condos for more than 3,000 people are planned. The average home will sell for $500,000, says Booth: “Our development is focused on a large range of product and lifestyle. There truly will be something for everyone, with prices ranging from $300,000 to $3 million.”

I find those prices quite high for a project with 1900 units and in a district that will be mostly U/C for 10+ years.

Also planned are 100,000 square feet of commercial space, 160,000 square feet of office space, public and private boat slips, and redevelopment of the Tampa Water Works Park, a large, lovely riverfront park that today primarily attracts the homeless.

With the residential units high priced, I'm thinking we'll see this project increase its amout of office space from the 160,000 it has like what Central Park is doing. If the project is done correctly it could be an attractive walking/urban district for offices.

Now I do like the public boat slips. I would be a regular user of those. Using them I could take a stroll down the riverwalk, take some pictures and eat at Malios or somewhere, sounds nice.

Lastly here is a link to the rendering of the Waterworks park I had posted in the Riverwalk thread, Water Works rendering is on page 2 of the PDF:
http://www.tampagov.net/dept_riverwa...iew-June07.pdf

[TamBay]

Just curious...how close will this development get to the Central Park development? I am just wondering if one day, we will see one continuous development from the river to Ybor, which I think would be nice. You could almost define "Downtown" as the Hillsborough River to the Ybor Channlel, Harbour Island to these developments.

[TamBay]

Nevermind my idiot post above. I just realized this is north of 275. My bad

[JBrisco]

Originally Posted by TamBay

Just curious...how close will this development get to the Central Park development? I am just wondering if one day, we will see one continuous development from the river to Ybor, which I think would be nice. You could almost define "Downtown" as the Hillsborough River to the Ybor Channlel, Harbour Island to these developments.

I was just thinking about how much of a real city Tampa is becomming again.

[jonknee]

It should connect Tampa Heights (N of 275) to downtown (S of 275). Blake is right there at the 275 bridge and the waterworks is across the river. Central park is really close, about a half mile from the river. But 275 definitely breaks things up around Central Park, so it's hard to have a continuous feel with a giant interstate going through.

With the two law offices being built on opposing sides of Stetson, the area is already shaping up.

[randommichael]

Good to see some affordable housing in the area.

[imtiredofbeingtired]

Question for the group. If you are on Palm Ave and heading west from Ybor about a mile down the road on both sides all the houses/buildings have been removed. Is this where the "Heights Project" is? If not what is going there? Whatever project is going to happen there it's VERY close to Ybor/Channelside.

[jonknee]

You mean across the river from Blake? That will be part of the project IIRC. It has been clear for quite some time.