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PO Box 1212 Tampa, FL 33601 Pinellas Updated January 2006
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Kennedy Boulevard's Rebirth As Go-To Place Is Taking Root
TAMPA - Three years ago, Alberto Morillo opened a Mexican restaurant on a stretch of Kennedy Boulevard sometimes frequented by vagrants and drug dealers.
Despite the drawbacks, Morillo said he was convinced his restaurant, Algusto, could be a place where downtown Tampa professionals would come for lunch and dinner after dark.
His persistence has paid off. Now Morillo and his patrons have front-row seats to a long-awaited urban transformation.
"It's starting to happen, definitely," Morillo said, referring to a wave of new commercial and residential projects that are under way or planned for Kennedy, a downtown western gateway used every day by commuters traveling from Tampa International Airport and other points outside the city.
Developers and elected officials say an estimated 10 new residential and commercial projects are expected to rise on a roughly 20-block stretch of Kennedy between Howard Avenue and the Hillsborough River during the next 18 months.
The latest sign that Kennedy could emerge as a vibrant gateway into Tampa's downtown: a 346-unit condominium project that Wood Partners, an Atlanta-based developer, said this week it wants to build west of the University of Tampa.
"This says that Kennedy is not a place you drive through," said city Councilwoman Linda Saul-Sena, a longtime proponent of redevelopment along the thoroughfare traveled by 30,000 to 45,000 motorists a day. "It finally becomes a destination. This place is reinventing itself as an attractive destination."
Erasing The Past
Twenty years ago, the stretch of Kennedy Boulevard leading into and out of the downtown area was peppered with plasma centers, where vagrants and others sold their blood, and run-down bars patronized by seedy characters, said Tampa police Lt. Mark Scott. He has worked the Kennedy beat since 1984.
These days, fast food restaurants, vacant used car lots, offices and industrial warehouse space dot the landscape - as do construction crews and bulldozers.
Business owners and city leaders said they can't cite a single turning point, but that a police crackdown on street prostitution and drug dealing helped, as did new small businesses, such as Algusto, taking a chance and moving into the area.
Now, developers planning new projects along Kennedy say they are targeting a distinct demographic: people who want to live and work in an urban area.
For example, Wood Partners said Wednesday it plans to market its eight-story condo project at 722 W. Kennedy to young professionals looking to buy a first home. The 1,000 square-foot units will be built above 5,000 square feet of street-level commercial space.
Another company with its eyes on Kennedy is LIST Group Developers, based in south Tampa. LIST is clearing or building on five different properties it owns along Kennedy, said John Lum, a co-owner of the company.
Most of the LIST sites are being developed as office space, though some may include first-floor retail shops. One project may involve redeveloping a used car lot into a Starbucks coffee shop featuring a drive-through window, Lum said.
Lum and business partner Aram Guluzian have developed nearby residential property south of Kennedy since 1989. They felt for years that enough urban dwellers one day would support new business. The new Kennedy projects are the culmination of that plan.
"My dream is someday to see chairs and tables out there where the people will want to come," Lum said.
As investors buy up land along Kennedy, property values are rising. In 2005, commercial land along Kennedy had an average sales price of $186.27 per median square-foot, compared to $74.35 in 2001, said Tim Wilmath, the county's property value director.
The Solomon Tropp building, at Fremont Avenue and Kennedy, is one of the most recent examples of the road's changing landscape. The law firm's new shimmering modern two-story, 30,000-square-foot office building replaced an abandoned nightclub, which was razed.
Realtor Frank Ryon is leasing out office space in the building. Ryon said the law firm's new office is part of a wider trend: downtown businesses buying land and building their own offices.
"The whole flavor of Kennedy Boulevard is changing," Ryon said.
Suzanne Chen, a commercial real estate agent, says there's strong interest in Kennedy properties from investors. Chen, who is listing the former Save-Rite grocery site near Rome Avenue, said most inquiries she gets are from people wanting to buy, not lease.
Kennedy - renamed in 1963 after the late U.S. president - has always been a key entry to downtown Tampa. Originally called Lafayette Street, it stretched west of the Hillsborough River in 1888 so Henry Plant could build the historic Tampa Bay Hotel - now part of the University of Tampa and known as Plant Hall.
Praise For City
One constant along Kennedy for the past 78 years has been the Valencia Garden restaurant, 811 W. Kennedy. Owner David Agliano said he's seen a drop in criminal activity the past several years.
"It's incredible what the city has done," Agliano said. He said he thinks that the real urban renewal won't happen until Kennedy becomes a nighttime retail destination.
Warren Weathers, the county's deputy property appraiser, agrees. He said people need more than a place to live and work downtown. They need markets and other commercial business to give them a reason to stay.
"Kennedy is an important link, and you already have a beautiful part of an [urban] gateway there with the University of Tampa and the bridge," he said.
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