Tampa developer to convert Seminole Heights warehouse into loft-style apartments
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Nov 14, 2014

A Seminole Heights house flipper is moving into multifamily real estate.

Wesley Burdette, a partner in Access Capital Mortgages, is planning to redevelop an old warehouse at 4375 Florida Ave. into 46 apartments, ranging in size from 475 to 1,224 square feet.

The Warehouse Lofts is slated to cost $5.5 million to $6 million and will begin construction in January. Burdette is the equity investor, putting down $1.5 million, and has secured a construction loan from Sunshine State Federal for the remainder of the costs.

Smaller projects like the Warehouse Lofts can help create the type of urban density that most neighborhoods in Tampa lack. It's typically entrepreneurial developers like Burdette, whose day job is in mortgage banking, who pursue them.

That's because those projects are usually more challenging and less profitable than the large-scale multifamily projects that attract institutional investors.

Burdette said he's seeing more and more residential interest in Seminole Heights, from people who come to the neighborhood for the bars and restaurants that have popped up in recent years.

"What I like about the area is it's got a lot of opportunity, a lot of energy," Burdette said.

Burdette intends to keep the main structure. It will include a Zen garden, a three-story atrium and designated restaurant or retail space on the first floor, and he's planning to use locally salvaged materials in the redevelopment - wood, metal, concrete and other architectural details. The project is about three blocks north of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard on Florida Avenue.

He said he sees an untapped market for Millennials in Seminole Heights, who may not want or be able to buy a home, and would prefer to rent in a multifamily setting. He said he was also inspired by Tampa mayor Bob Buckhorn's relentless push to make the city more attractive to a young, educated workforce.

"Buckhorn keeps talking about live-work-play and wanting the best and brightest," Burdette said, "and they don't want cookie cutter. They've seen that all their lives. They want urban."

The project is scheduled to be complete in September 2015, with preleasing beginning in May.