Tampa-based Celestar Corp. plans technology, defense hub development in Tampa Heights
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: May 19, 2015

A Tampa defense contractor is planning a new office development in Tampa Heights that its CEO envisions as a hub for defense and technology companies.

Beyond office space, the project's supporters hope the development can be a catalyst for better connecting the Tampa business community with MacDill Air Force Base. Creating an ecosystem for businesses that support MacDill could create the kind of dynamic seen in Northern Virginia's Dulles Technology Corridor or Research Triangle in North Carolina.

Those places have become magnets for technology companies and young talent - which can drive the rest of the city's economy, spurring residential and commercial development.

Celestar Corp. CEO Gregory Celestan said Tuesday that he is planning a 60,000-square-foot office building on the corner of West Seventh and North Highland avenues in Tampa Heights - across West Seventh Avenue from Ulele, the restaurant and microbrewery that Tampa restaurateur Richard Gonzmart opened last year.

"We knew there was a demand and a requirement [for a defense and military hub]," Celestan said. "We just needed something to get it all together."

Celestar will take about 15,000 square feet, having outgrown its 10,000-square-foot building on U.S. Highway 92, near the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.

Beck Group will be the developer of the project - once Celestan recruits enough other tenants. He said the building will have to be "at least" 75 percent preleased before construction will begin. He plans to be an investor and tenant in the building and would prefer if other tenants were investors, too.

But he's prepared to be the sole backer of the project and put in 70 percent equity. He said he's had preliminary conversations about construction financing with a few different banks.

"I see this as the start - just the starting point of building this cluster of companies coming to this area," Celestan said.

On a micro level, that movement is already under way. SofWorX, an an innovation lab for the U.S. Special Operations Command, recently set up shop in the nearby Armature Works building.

The Armature Works building is part of a long-dormant parcel known as The Heights, where SoHo Capital LLC of Tampa is planning a mixed-use development.

Celestar's building is near The Heights but not part of that development.

"This kind of creative project fits right in with the vision of the neighborhood as a creative space," SoHo Capital said in an emailed statement from a spokesman.

Another project in the works could add to the buzz surrounding Celestan's initiative.

Serial entrepreneur and Tampa Bay Wave Chairman Mark Swanson is working on a business plan for an accelerator program for defense companies. Dubbed "Thunderdome," Swanson said he hopes to finish the business plan by the end of May and start fundraising for the accelerator, though he declined to specify startup costs, saying it was too early in the process.

"If change outside is happening faster than change inside, then you've got a big problem," Swanson said. "The enemy's lab is their garage right down the street from their battlefield."

Thunderdome could become part of Celestan's building or locate somewhere else entirely, Swanson said.