Deal to redevelop Kress in downtown Tampa falls apart
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Jun 18, 2015

A deal to redevelop the historic Kress department store in downtown Tampa into a 22-story hotel has fallen apart.

Tampa developer Jeannette Jason, who owns the building with her father, Miami-based broker Doran Jason, said Thursday that her group is no longer under contract with a group of Tampa developers and Atlanta-based HRV Ventures.

HRV had formed a partnership with father-and-son construction executives Sam and Casey Ellison; Anthony Italiano, a partner with the Ellisons in EWI Construction; and Tampa developer Alex Walter to pursue the redevelopment and filed rezoning plans with the city in November.

Anthony Italiano, Sam Ellison and Casey Ellison are the three principals at EWI.

Casey Ellison declined comment Thursday.

"I'm talking with them and I'm talking with others," Jason said.

Jason declined to comment on why the deal had fallen out of contract. She said she and her father are considering co-listing the property with a national brokerage firm.

Jeannette did not identify the firm, but she recently joined Cushman & Wakefield of Florida Inc.'s Tampa office as a director in the land brokerage services group.

When the plans were unveiled, Walter said construction could begin in the second or third quarter of 2015.

Mayor Bob Buckhorn was an advocate for the project, and his staff had been working closely with the group that was pursuing the redevelopment, said Bob McDonaugh, economic opportunity administrator for the city.

McDonaugh said the group was amenable to saving as much of the structure as possible.

"It's a very complicated deal," McDonaugh said Thursday. "I'm not surprised somebody ran out of time in their contract, and I wouldn't be surprised if the same group put it back under contract."

The 23-story apartment tower slated for the Grant block, immediately to the north of the Kress, should help attract developers to the Kress, McDonaugh said. He said that project is "still a go."

"I'm pretty comfortable someone, either the folks who had it under contract or someone else, will take another go at it," he said. "It's a very unique structure."