University of Tampa News and Development

[Del Mayberry]

Originally Posted by jonknee

Coming along, they're several stories vertical.

Thanks for the update.

[TampaMike]

http://216.174.21.143/

I'm pretty sure that the building in the back is the U/C dorm building.

[jonknee]

They're working on the fourth story of the new dorms now.

[Del Mayberry]

About the new dorm, when I saw it the other day it looked huge imo and they still have four more floors to go. Maybe it's because it's on the corner that it looks so big.

[jonknee]

Originally Posted by Del Mayberry

About the new dorm, when I saw it the other day it looked huge imo and they still have four more floors to go. Maybe it's because it's on the corner that it looks so big.

Agreed. It's also quite close to the sidewalk/street which adds to its apparent size. Too bad the bottom floor won't be public, but considering its use I don't think that was ever on the table.

[TampaMike]

The new dorm building was topped off and they had the poles up for what I can only believe is for the netting for the lacrosse field when I drove by yesterday. Which of course, looks great...

I must say, the Oxford Exchange is a huge success and would highly support for being the project of the year.

[Del Mayberry]

Originally Posted by TampaMike

The new dorm building was topped off and they had the poles up for what I can only believe is for the netting for the lacrosse field when I drove by yesterday. Which of course, looks great...

I must say, the Oxford Exchange is a huge success and would highly support for being the project of the year.

And Oxford is doing quite well

http://www2.tbo.com/news/business/20...enj-ar-578614/

[USF802]

Originally Posted by TampaMike

The new dorm building was topped off and they had the poles up for what I can only believe is for the netting for the lacrosse field when I drove by yesterday. Which of course, looks great...

I must say, the Oxford Exchange is a huge success and would highly support for being the project of the year.

Yea, the UT lacrosse netting already looks horrible and the net itself and the typical UT fence isn't even up yet. I don't really know what I was expecting, perhaps something more discrete, but surly wasn't expecting for it to look like this.

Oxford Exchange is amazing already been there a handful of times, certainly a gem for the City of Tampa and architecturally it's stunning. However, I find the food to be a bit pricy for the quantity you actually get, but I guess the prices fit in with the surrounding demographics so I doubt they will change them. Also I really think they need to expand the hours, closing at 5ish just baffles me, especially when you have 7,000 UT students right at your doorstep. And Sunday , why are they closed on Sunday?

But they are already expanding so that is good news!!

[jonknee]

Originally Posted by USF802

Oxford Exchange is amazing already been there a handful of times, certainly a gem for the City of Tampa and architecturally it's stunning. However, I find the food to be a bit pricy for the quantity you actually get, but I guess the prices fit in with the surrounding demographics so I doubt they will change them. Also I really think they need to expand the hours, closing at 5ish just baffles me, especially when you have 7,000 UT students right at your doorstep. And Sunday , why are they closed on Sunday?

They have some problems with the church next door which is why they don't have any alcohol (and thus not open at night, a nice restaurant for dinner without alcohol is doomed) and is also probably why they're not open on Sunday. Nothing that can't be worked out though, they have the hard part done.

[tampaizzy]

yeah those gigantic pole look horrible, nothing like a giant net for the "gateway to downtown"

[USF802]

Originally Posted by jonknee

They have some problems with the church next door which is why they don't have any alcohol (and thus not open at night, a nice restaurant for dinner without alcohol is doomed) and is also probably why they're not open on Sunday. Nothing that can't be worked out though, they have the hard part done.

Is the problem specifically with the alcohol do you know? And perhaps not have the restaurant stay open later, but the coffee and tea bars and lounges I'm sure it would be used regularly by UT students, same for Sunday morning coffee and tea and or brunch.

[Jasonhouse]

Might be a parking sharing issue.

[jonknee]

Originally Posted by Jasonhouse

Might be a parking sharing issue.

The church issues are both parking and alcohol as far as I know.

[Jasonhouse]

Makes sense.

[USF802]

Makes sense, the two kind of go hand in hand. Sound like if they were to have alcohol, the church wouldn't allow parking at their lot.

[jonknee]

Originally Posted by USF802

Makes sense, the two kind of go hand in hand. Sound like if they were to have alcohol, the church wouldn't allow parking at their lot.

I don't think that's the issue. Churches have a weird effect on wet zoning, left over from earlier days. It's counted as a "community use" which has to be listed in the application. They also can stymie the application.

http://fl-hillsboroughcounty.civicpl.../Home/View/445

"This is to certify that a visual inspection has been made of all property for the following existing community uses: church/synagogues, schools, child care centers, public libraries, community recreational facilities and parks within a 500-foot straight-line distance from the property site. An inspection of the proposed special use structure from residentially zoned property have been made and is indicated in a straight-line distance as required for the specific Alcoholic Beverage Permit classification. In the case where an Alcoholic Beverage Permit classification requires that certain types of existing alcoholic beverage uses within a 1,000-foot straight-line distance from the proposed structure be indicated as defined in the Land Development Code, an inspection has been made and the findings indicated on the survey."

[koopalicious]

At this week's council meeting, UT is going to ask to vacate part of the easement along North A, presumably to expand the garage east of N. Boulevard.

So, we can look forward to some more dead space along there...

[TampaGuy]

Does anyone know how big UT is going to get? It seems like they keep growing, but are they increasing enrollment as well?

[USF802]

Enrollment continues to go up every semester and just eclipsed 7,000 students. Although I think eventually everything will begin to plateau, mainly because they are running out of room. UT's natural borders are; the river, Cass, the railroads and Kennedy and they, for they most part have used all of that land, the only thing they will really be able to do is build up rather than out to meet future growth.

One problem they have is they are accepting to much kids, for the infrastructure they currently have. They still use the HoJo and this year used every floor, they lack classroom space, parking spaces, cafeteria/dinning options, etc,.

I think UT will never grow past 10,000 students, just because they lack space...unless they decide to buy up more land to the west of the tracks.

[koopalicious]

Originally Posted by USF802

UT's natural borders are; the river, Cass, the railroads and Kennedy and they, for they most part have used all of that land, the only thing they will really be able to do is build up rather than out to meet future growth.

And they could very easily do that if they chose to. All of the old exhibit space from the fairgrounds could be redeveloped into multi-story over the existing footprint, which would give them more classroom/dorm space than they could possibly fill in the foreseeable future.