Thursday morning, Tampa’s finest gathered to break ground on The Warehouse Lofts, a new development on Florida Avenue in Seminole Heights. The event attracted a small horde of men in suits and women in heels, including City Council members, bankers, realtors, and Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn.
The sky was clear and the air cool and as the crowd gathered, the smell of sausage and french fries wafted from Niko’s Fine Foods next door. A row of gold-bladed shovels stood at attention in a neat mound of dirt, in front of a stage and a lectern. Behind them loomed a decrepit warehouse, rusted and cracked and fading.
They may at first glance have seemed out of their element, these masters of the Bay, so far from Bayshore and City Hall and International Plaza. But they were at ease. They chatted about football and bike commuting. They networked. And rightly enough — they were there to commemorate the expansion of their natural habitat.
“I see the excitement. I see the future,” said developer Wesley Burdette when he took the stage. “This is lifting us out of the mindset of blight. We’re gonna prove everyone wrong. It starts with one step.”
Of course, the idea that converted warehouse condos were the first step in the neighborhood’s transformation would be news to the artists and chefs who have taken a chance on Seminole Heights over the past five years.
Burdette said his lofts aren’t really for people already in the Heights, though. Over several years of flipping single-family homes in the area, he heard from people who liked to hang out in the neighborhood, but couldn’t find a place to live. “Not everybody wants to live in a 1920s bungalow. That’s our key target audience.”
Quincy Connolly, a realtor with Keller Williams, is eager to help the developers find that target audience.
“It seems like this is the place to be,” she said.
Architect Bryan Wolfe explained that the development will include three stories of loft-style apartments, as well as a selection of traditional two-bedrooms, and will house 40 to 50 residents along with a strip of retail.
This is the first major new development in Seminole Heights in recent memory, and though Burdette says the city was a crucial source of logistical help, it happened despite the lack of a broader development strategy from the administration.
“The mayor’s focus is on downtown and South Tampa," said Gururas Khalsa, of Seminole Heights Acupuncture. "Some places get short shrift.”
Three generations of her family grew up in the Heights, but she only returned a year ago to open her clinic.
Ashlee Hamon and Regina Rached are also new business owners. They live downtown, but just opened a wedding photo business in Seminole Heights — Vintage Heights Studio, right next to the also-new Jet City Espresso on North Florida. They had wanted to be in the neighborhood, and "got lucky," they said.
Their studio is just across from the (again, brand-new) high-end restaurant Fodder and Shine. Geoff Crain works there, and he’s excited to see the condos go up.
“I’m very heavily invested in this city,” he says. “In the hospitality industry, it’s important to have people.”
Stephen Lytle, a board member with the South Seminole Heights Civic Association, relocated from Hyde Park just over a year ago. There, he had an 800 square-foot apartment. Now he owns a three-bedroom house with an office and a detached guest house.
But he didn’t just move for the elbow room.
“We’re looking for prices to go up," Lytle said. "We’re looking for the opportunity.”
When Mayor Bob Buckhorn took the stage, he echoed Lytle’s interest in property appreciation.
“Your investment in Seminole Heights is not just a wise decision," Buckhorn said. "It will be a profitable one.”
Then Buckhorn struck the more visionary tone he’s gotten to use a lot in recent years, linking Seminole Heights’ beer, food, and coffee shops to Tampa’s larger destiny.
“This is our chance to take our place on the stage of great American cities,” he said.
Finally, the developers, financiers, architect, and officials were ready to grab shovels and heft some ceremonial clods. Buckhorn got the last word.
“I love moving dirt!”
This article appears in Feb 12-18, 2015.