Big apartment development in the works off of Gandy Boulevard
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Oct 20, 2015

An apartment developer is targeting an industrial site in the South of Gandy area for its next big play in Tampa.

Camden Property Trust (NYSE: CPT) has filed plans with the city to build a 297-unit apartment complex on a 12.3-acre site between Lois and Manhattan avenues - just south of the Walmart Supercenter on Gandy Boulevard.

A Camden representative was not immediately available for comment Tuesday morning.

Camden South Tampa, as the project is named in city filings, would have a gated entrance, five three-story multifamily buildings, and multiple parking garages and covered parking areas. It will also include a pool, clubhouse and on-site dog park.

The community will include 183 one-bedroom units, ranging from 568 to 812 square feet; 102 two-bedroom units, ranging from 1,100 to 1,240 square feet; and 12 three-bedroom units at 1,424 square feet.

As swaths of land become increasingly scarce and more expensive in South Tampa, developers and investors are pursuing sites just outside its unofficial borders - north of Kennedy Boulevard and south of Gandy Boulevard.

The redevelopment is already underway to the north, with Pollack Shores Real Estate Group under construction on its second phase of multifamily in North Hyde Park, and several small infill projects springing up around that development.

"Whether it's considered South Tampa or not, it still enjoys the benefit of South Tampa," said Darron Kattan, managing director with Franklin Street in Tampa, "meaning you can get downtown in five minutes and to everything else very quickly without having to get on the highway."

Camden already has a large presence in Tampa, with eight communities and thousands of units here. Two are within two miles of the site - Camden Westshore and Camden Preserve. It had another in the area, Camden Bayside, that it sold off earlier this year.

Ashley Gurbal Kritzer is a reporter for the Tampa Bay Business Journal.