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Under/Poorly Utilized Sites

5K views 28 replies 14 participants last post by  tampajoe 
#1 ·
As a former South of Kennedy denizen I was always struck by the number of vacant or poorly utilized properties in the area. Number one on my list is the abandoned gas station on South Howard and Azeele. Great location but because no one wants to chump up the bucks for the environmental remediation, it stays an abandoned gas station forever. So any other obvious candidates?
 
#2 ·
hahaha... I could fill a map. I drive around all day looking at different parcels, wondering why someone hasn't come along and built something on it. I figure a whole bunch of other people know better than me, as I'm pretty clueless on such matters.

My vote goes to all of the empty lots, and smash and builds, in the neighborhoods along the river, north of downtown.
 
#3 ·
Its amazing the really obvious ones though. I mean SHoward and Azeele is right in the middle of a major entertainment/dining district. It would be perfect for anything, dog grooming, typewriter repair anything but an abandoned gas station.

I remember that there used to be another abandoned gas station on Davids Island that was renovated into a Palm Bank branch. That worked out well. But you are right Jason, it seems there are so many in-fill parcels that have such potential that its almost a crime so many are around. I won't even get into the Sticks and Stuff on Gandy Blvd.
 
#5 ·
That Azeele and Howard Gas Station is owned by something called the "ROCKER CORPORATION", bought in 1992. I bet it is just a piece of land that someone bought and has decided to sit on until the right bid comes in. Sometimes I see it being used for parking.

The most underutilized lots in my opinion are what I term the Parking Wasteland in downtown tampa. All the lots between Jackson St., the Crosstown, and the City parking garage.
 
#6 ·
There is a parcel at the corner of Neptune and Henderson, across from the Wendy's with an old retail store type of building that has been abandoned for years. It looks like total crap complete with weeds growing in the parking lot. Really wish that someone would come along and redevelop that site
 
#7 ·
If it is the same building that I am thinking of, with a fairly large parking lot out front? That building was just used for the 2007 Gala Corina art show. The building and lot were cleaned up for this and it was donated for the show, mostly because it is up for sale.

I always think about the potential for these underutalized sites, but I don't have the money to purchase them and turn them into what I want. So yet again to the victor goes the spoils, or the vacant lots!
 
#8 ·
Hendersen is dotted with a lot of potential if a) the city could fix the storm water issues and b) someone would step up with the dollars and make an effort. I've always thought that it was a more natural restaurant/bar row than S Howard. Its got better parking generally and less neighborhood issues.
 
#9 ·
I think Henderson is too much of a thoroughfare to facilitate bar/restaurant area on the calabre of Howard. Howard is more conducive to walking and outside seating. Plus you already have a ton of restaurants up and down Dale Mabry.
 
#10 ·
I was thinking of more a Sunset Blvd. or Melrose Ave kind of LA thing. Imagine if you had establishments like Maggiano's, PF Chang, Blue Martini, etc., that are currently at Westshore Plaza and International than dropped them along Henderson with a few Bahasa types and it could work if we had enough diners/patrons around.

When my wife and I went out (due to our son we generally only went out once or twice per financial quarter), it was generally to a place like Maggiano's or that fish place at Westshore. Dinner, then a couple drinks at the bar, followed by a trip to Maddog's for the desert dujour. I like the idea of a big, broad, neon lit boulevard ala "Entourage" opening sequence. It makes going out special and not the routine every friday night kind of thing.
 
#14 ·
For most poorly utilized, I nominate The Presbyterian village and the high school, on the river, just North of 275. I believe the village is basically housing projects. People receiving subsides don't need to live where the working class can't afford(beggars can't be choosers) and why the hell do high schoolers need to get an education on some of the most prime real estate in the city?
 
#16 ·
The High School is new, so that isn't going anywhere. The problem with Presbyterian village and the surrounding area is that there is so much of it. That is a lot of area to gentrify, I remember going to Oceanic Market with my wife thinking that we need to hit the road by sundown because of the neighborhood. It would be a great problem for someone like Sembler to work on. Mel has several very large projects on-going up here in Atlanta. Really big with 100s of units of residential combined with big-name retail. He really seems to have an in with Target because they seem to pop up in at least half his big projects.
 
#17 ·
I always thought that the empty warehouses along Adamo between Channelside and 50th were a shame. That's why I'm excited about the construction of IKEA at the former "Tampa International Center" site, and frustrated with Saul-Sena, who doesn't have the grapes to admit that her only problem is that she hates capitalism. :bash:

That stretch, at the nexus of Ybor, Channelside, and old Downtown, seems the next logical target for urban development. Speaking of which, whatever happened to the vision of bulldozing the projects along Nuccio and building a mixed-income residential village?
 
#19 ·
we just had a project on this last semester.

we analyzed the entire downtown (mainly the water front) and came up with a vision for the city.

the project was presented to a couple of city officals

below is my groups proposal, along with a couple of renderings i did for Kennedy Place and Four Points (North Bayshore)

Key-the redder shaded building is for new development while the tanner building are building to be keep as is..



kenndy place


four points (north bayshore)
 
#20 ·
For most poorly utilized, I nominate The Presbyterian village and the high school, on the river, just North of 275. I believe the village is basically housing projects. People receiving subsides don't need to live where the working class can't afford(beggars can't be choosers) and why the hell do high schoolers need to get an education on some of the most prime real estate in the city?
PRetty much because it has always been public - in fact, if you look at the old maps and pictures, you will find that it was the sight of the "negro" hospital when there was segregation. Blake was a "negro"/black high school during segregation that was later closed - so you can pretty much figure out how that works. In any even - it is the arts school, so let it be near downtown. IF they area rebounds it will fit in nicely.
 
#22 ·
I'm talking about how because she opposes the IKEA, that makes her anti-capitalist.

My guess is that she's looking for retail development in the city to be more like the kind found in other projects which have come along during her tenure, like Walter's Crossing, the Hyde Park Greenwise, Avion Park, the Metlife redevelopment, Grand Central. These projects are all over the city, yet they all share a common element; vertical parking as a means of preserving land, and making development more compact and efficient. She was way off base with the tactics, but she's right that smarter land-use and development can make a big difference.
 
#23 ·
Perhaps. I made a few assumptions in there. As a background note, I am a city/local government specialist lawyer, and the kind of attitude she has shown is reflected in a lot of cases that have played out in Florida recently in resistance to Wal-Mart and national drugstore companies (and the fact that she makes the comparison to Wal-Mart in her rants is a further clue). The cities of course can't make "No Wal-mart" ordinances, so they write ordinances that are so arbitrary that it is obvious they aren't designed to protect the character of neighborhoods or of development, but to keep Wal-Mart from competing with local businesses.

Unless IKEA's use of the land doesn't fit in with the zoning, and they're asking for a big variance, she can't just make any pronouncements she wants about special requirements for the retailer.

Walter's Crossing (the Target at Dale Mabry/275), Greenwise, and other projects you mention are all in pretty densely developed areas. The developers chose those designs because they are the most profitable way to make use of denser lots in the city.

The IKEA site, while in the city, is in a burnt-out grid of festering industrial parks. You're not going to get developers to voluntarily build densely when the land there is basically going to waste. Could IKEA have built a location in Channelside with a parking structure on a smaller footprint? Yes. They did something like this in Atlanta. But Tampa has cheap, available land close to the interstates, and IKEA, like any business, is supposed to do its development as cheaply as it can.

I'm not saying that Saul-Sena is a communist, or anything like that. But she has shown herself to be anti-development. And the populist appeal tactics that she has shown in the IKEA flap remind me that I've seen this played out many times before.

Parking garages and "green" innovations and other such demands made on companies raise their costs and make it less likely that they will be able to carry on successful business at all. It's only when innovative use of space will allow developers to save a lot of money on expensive land in high-demand neighborhoods that you'll see multi-level shopping complexes with attached parking garages. IKEA's "neighborhood" is the city dump and where industries go to die, along with some drydocking and the Orient Road Jail. That IKEA is willing to build something there at all is a blessing, and may increase land values and development in the surrounding area. You can't magically expect developers to build dense real estate projects in dead zones, unless you zone for those requirements. And if you zone for those requirements, it's less likely that anyone will build.

If Saul-Sena wants IKEA to build greener, engineer a tax break for them.
 
#24 ·
Suprised that none of us added the Historic Courthouse Building to the list. Wonder what plans are currently in the works, if any.

Blazertke, what computer programs did you use to create your graphics/renderings, they are excellent!
 
#25 ·
The courthouse is probably just going to sit until Element, Skypoint and maybe a few more mid-rise residential projects are up. Great location, excellent architecture, really crappy parking. It'll take a greater mass of residents around to turn into something that most likely they'll use. A couple deep pocked restaurateurs could in theory subdivide it in two. Two different concept dining rooms, shared kitchen. If you have enough residents around and add in an afterwork crowd, it might work.

It would make a wicked reference library. If they converted the main library to regular stacks and computers, but moved all the reference material there, maybe increase the legal catalogue, it could be something that gets used. Its still fairly close to the new courthouse. Add a little coffee shop, who knows.
 
#26 ·
I remember awhile back the city and I believe the local AIA chapter floating around an idea to move the AIA offices into the building and then lease out office spaces/small studio spaces to local architects/designers and creating a bigger gallery space as well.
But I must agree w/ ATL Dan's thoughts about moving archives/reference and the law library to that site. Especially if the library ends up running out of space downtown. Plus they would probably still have enough space to lease out retail or office spaces.
 
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